Google said it has acquired mobile office-suit software maker Quickoffice for an undisclosed sum. Quickoffice makes programs that allow users to open documents such as spreadsheets on any platform, such as Android, iOS and Symbian. Google seems to be planning to integrate Quickoffice features into its own offering built around Google Docs. “Today, consumers, businesses […]
Smartphones will make up about 25% of the total Indian mobile phone market by 2015, ‘Research and Markets’ has predicted. The research firm said sales of smartphones in India will grow at 60% every year on average till 2015, while overall mobile handset sales will grow at about 13% per year. It estimated smartphone volumes […]
Bharti Airtel, which has operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, said it will offer a customized and co-branded version of Opera Mini internet browser for Airtel across its operations. “With this, over 253 million Airtel customers across countries including India, South Asia and Africa will now be able to leverage Opera Mini’s unique […]
Nokia has launched three new good-looking, mid-range ‘almost smart’ phones priced in the Rs 4,200-6,300 range. The phones — Asha 305, 306 and 311 — are, unfortunately, no great leap forward, either for Nokia or for consumers who are in the market for an affordable, mid-range smartphone. The new phones are essentially an upgrade to […]
Google will introduce offline Google Maps for Android phones in the “next few weeks”, convert entire towns and cities into 3D using software, and start capturing ‘street views’ using cameras mounted on a person. The biggest announcement is the introduction of offline Google Maps, which will take direct aim at navigation software makers. So far, […]
Opera, currently the subject of much speculation as a target for acquisition by Facebook Inc, has released version 7 of its popular Opera Mini browser for phones. Opera Mini is estimated to be the world’s most widely used mobile browser, primarily due to its ability to provide a comfortable browsing experience on even modest phones. […]
The depreciation of the rupee is hitting Indian customers hard. A day after Samsung priced its new Galaxy S3 model phone at 30% more than the price of its predecessor, due primarily to a 20% depreciation in the value of the rupee, Ricoh announced a 5% increase in its printers and other office products. These […]
The GSM Association, a worldwide body of GSM equipment makers and mobile operators, welcomed the government’s decision to release double the amount of 2G spectrum than was recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The telecom commission, a top body in the department of telecommunications (DoT) had, on Thursday, decided to provide at […]
Japanese camera and imaging company Ricoh Company has expanded its India operations again, this time with a bar-code paper manufacturing operation based in Mumbai. Three months earlier, the company established a development center in India’s software hub Bangalore. Known as Ricoh Innovations Private Limited (RIPL) is to create IT solutions adapted to India’s needs, incorporating […]
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has abolished roaming charges, starting with one of its prepaid plans. The move is the first such step by any telecom operator — removing roaming charges without charging any particular rent or payment for doing so. To avail of the feature, customers have to switch their plan to ‘Roam […]
Government of India has blocked a proposal by G’Five Telecom to invest in its Chennai-based subsidiary, even as it let in investment from Japanese logistics company Kintetsu World Express and UK-based publisher Bloomsbury. In February, local logistic comany Gati had formed a joint venture with Kintetsu and said it would transfer its Express Distribution and […]
Snapdeal, one of India’s most aggressive online retailers known for cut-throat prices, has launched pre-booking on the new Samsung Galaxy S3 in India. The phone is being launched in India at 1:30 pm on Thursday, you can watch the launch live The website has not declared the final price of Samsung Galaxy S III, but […]
Samsung will launch its latest smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S3, in New Delhi on Thursday at 1:30 pm. The expected price, as predicted by RTN yesterday, is Rs 42,000. PRICE UPDATE from press conference – It’s Rs 43,000 (yes, that’s for 1 phone!) You can watch the launch, which will give further details of the […]
Samsung has launched its cheapest tab yet in India, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7 inch), priced at Rs 19,900 — or about Rs 5,000 less than the outgoing Galaxy 620. The big news here is not that it is a better model than the outgoing Galaxy 620, which it resembles in nearly every way, […]
Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users reached 419.1 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 2 per cent decline from the first quarter of 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. This is the first time since the second quarter of 2009 that the market exhibited a decline. “Global sales of mobile devices […]
State-run mobile operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has slashed its 3G data plan charges to a fraction of what others are charging. The company slashed its 3G data charges to just Rs 22.50 per GB for heavy users in Delhi, much much lower than what its competitors are charging. For example, Tata DoCoMo charges […]
State-owned mobile operators MTNL and BSNL are estimated to have increased their losses by 50% to more Rs 13,000 crore last year, according to numbers from DoT. The bigger company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd or BSNL had a loss of about Rs 6,300 crore in 2010-11 and is likely to see it zoom to about […]
Indian government has extended by five months the deadline for cutting radiation from cellphone towers by 90%, the government informed the Lok Sabha today. The directive cutting radiation limits for cellphone towers was issued after a multi-year consultation between the government, the industry, scientific bodies and consumer associations. The directive was supposed to come into […]
Airtel has entered the online phone retailing business, entering a market already boiling over with competition. The shop primarily sells handsets. Going by the rates, however, only some handsets are priced below the rates offered by competitors like Flipkart and Letsbuy. For example, the Nokia Lumia 800 is available for 23,338 on Airtel’s shop, compared […]
You would be forgiven for thinking phone companies have just forgotten about people who enjoy typing on real buttons, not just on the ‘virtual keypads’ on phone displays. Over the last one year, smartphone buyers have spoilt for choice, with company after company launching bigger, faster and smarter phones almost on a weekly basis. Since […]
