That is how much Indians will be paying for the world's FASTEST smartphone!
In the late 1990s, Japanese electronics brand Aiwa tied up with a maverick entrepreneur, Kabir Mulchandani, to sell its consumer electronic products. Founder of Baron International, Mulchandani, all of 26 at that time, had already disrupted the television market through a tie-up with another Japanese player, Akai. With a strategy that relied on heavy discounts, exchange offers and freebies, Akai was selling in huge volumes.
The 10.1-inch tablet has quad core 1.4 Ghz processor, 2 GB RAM, Android ICS, dual cameras and some exclusive features.
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Samsung Electronics and Motorola are gearing up to launch handsets based on Google's Android operating system in India.
China's Vivo said on Thursday it will export more than one million 'Made in India' smartphones in 2023 to achieve a target announced last year when it sent out its first indigenous shipment to Thailand and Saudi Arabia. Vivo India, known for its economical phones, has proposed investing Rs 7,500 crore in the country and it is set to spend Rs 3,500 crore of that amount by end of this year. According to the firm's India Impact Report 2022, it will start production at a new 'state of the art' manufacturing facility by early 2024 after regulatory clearance.
E-learning and work from home have forced a section of feature phones users to shift to smartphones.
Shipment of 5G smartphones in the country continues to gain traction and such devices accounted for 22 per cent market share in the third quarter of 2021, according to CMR. As per CMR's India Mobile Handset Market Review Report for Q3 2021, more than 20 5G-capable smartphones were launched over the course of the quarter.
Indeed, where other industries complained of poor demand, festival season sales for consumer electronics grew 30-35 per cent year on year, boosting average growth for the year from 7-8 per cent to 10 per cent. In fact, it was the durable sector which drove industrial growth of 4.8 per cent in September.
The Rs 30,000-crore consumer durables market is expected to rake in more money this summer on the back of rising mercury levels.
Despite flooding the market with energy efficient and innovative products to lure consumers, the unprecedented increase in steel prices have forced the companies to pass on the burden to customer, who is already shelling out more for essential commodities. Samsung India Deputy MD R Zutshi told PTI that based on the input cost pressure linked with the hike in steel prices the company has already increased the prices of refrigerators by 2-3 per cent in March.
Two major consumer durables and home appliances makers Sony and Samsung have ruled out any immediate hike in prices of products even as a steep fall in rupee against dollar has squeezed margins.
In the run-up to Apple CEO Tim Cook's visit to India, government officials are finalising the talk points with the Cupertino-headquartered tech major. Officials said that the government would like Apple to "deepen" the company's engagement in the manufacturing and assembly of iPhones in the country and not limit itself only to the minimum commitments made under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for mobile devices. The conversations between the two sides are likely to focus on that.
Reliance Jio is close to finalising its contract with telecom gear maker Ericsson to roll out its 5G network in Mumbai and Maharashtra and Kolkata and West Bengal in the first phase of its launch in October. And it is going with Nokia for the lucrative Delhi circle, and Chennai, which includes Tamil Nadu, say sources aware of the development. This is the first time that Jio is opting for multiple vendors.
This year will be the one when GenAI becomes a part of the daily lives of people around the world.
Get Ahead reader Vinayak Gupta has contributed this review of Samsung Wave S8500 in response to our reader invite.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday said its 5G services have gone live in eight cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi. The customer availing 5G services will have to pay as per their existing 4G plan, it said. "Airtel has been at the forefront of India's telecom revolution for the last 27 years.
Google is followed by Sony India who won the runner-up position.
Google's premium smartphone series Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro will be around 15-21 per cent costlier in India compared to other countries, according to the prices revealed by the company. The company has started pre-booking the Pixel 7 at Rs 59,999 ($729.36) and Pixel 7 Pro at Rs 84,999 ($1033.27) on the e-commerce portal Flipkart. The devices would be available from October 13.
The stock of Dixon Technologies (India), the country's largest listed electronic manufacturing services (EMS) player, was up 6 per cent in 10 trading sessions, boosting the gains over the last three months to 21 per cent. The gains came following reports that Dixon will produce laptops in India in partnership with US and Chinese firms under the production-linked investment (PLI) scheme. It recently signed an agreement to make smartphones for Xiaomi India.
The government on Thursday imposed import restrictions on laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers, ultra small form factor computers, and servers with immediate effect. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in a notification said exemption from import licensing is provided up to 20 items per consignment for R&D, testing, benchmarking and evaluation, repair and return and product development purposes.
Microsoft has become the first global Big Tech company to join the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), an Indian government initiative for developing a first-of-its-kind open network for digital commerce. The world's second-largest technology firm intends to introduce social e-commerce via its app in the Indian market later this year. ONDC is expected to open to the public in Bengaluru over the next fortnight as it enters into the next phase of the pilot for further fine-tuning before rollouts in other cities, according to a source in the know.
Young consumers said that Oppo's constant focus on camera prowess and its long-lasting batteries remained at the top of their mind
Xiaomi topped the chart as the most sold smartphone brand by its users with 26 per cent share, followed by Apple (20 per cent), Samsung (16 per cent), Vivo, and Motorola (6 per cent each) among others, it said. Most smartphones sold by users were in the sub-Rs 10,000 brackets, it added. Among models, the iPhone 7 was the hottest selling model along with some other models as well as Redmi Note 4 and OnePlus 6 during the year. The number of smartphone repairs was the highest in Delhi in 2020.
The Apple iPhone comprises 44 per cent of the global smartphone market's revenues and it is the second most-such device to be shipped after Samsung. More than half of smartphones used in the US are iPhones. More than 7 million iPhones are expected to be sold in India in 2022, extending the user base to 20 million, according to market research and analyst firm Techarc. Hence, the news about Apple scaling down its production target for iPhone 14 in India has made news.
India has become world's 2nd largest mobile phone: Modi
The festive season, which usually starts from September, is when 35 per cent annual sales get transacted for most durables firms.
With consumers staying indoors and e-commerce firms extending their reach to a larger number of pin codes, these giants have snatched a larger share from the offline traders this season.
E-commerce major Amazon will host Prime Day - its annual sale event - in India on July 15-16. The company will launch over 45,000 products from over 400 Indian and global brands. The announcement of the Prime Day event in India comes at a time when 900 workers at Amazon UK plan to strike for three days (July 11-13).
The finance ministry is looking at a reworked proposal from mobile device makers on how to fight the rampant and growing smuggling of very high end phones. The proposal suggests reducing the basic customs duty (BCD) on phones which have a CIF (cost, insurance and freight or price at landing in the port) value of over Rs 35,000-Rs 40,000. The retail value of these phones is upwards of Rs 70,000.
This festive season is expected to be a happy one for consumer durables companies, with most expecting to clock a sales growth of 40 per cent - double the amount achieved last year.
Four leading IT companies - Zenith Computers, Microsoft Corporation India, Intel Corporation and Samsung India Electronics - have jointly launched 'Multiply', a solution for the Small and Medium Enterprise market.
'Had they agreed to our demands that we raised two years ago, we would have never started our agitation again.'
After 2014, our growth has been average of around 5%. If this continues, we will remain here like Egypt, Brazil, South Africa and Bangladesh, points out Aakar Patel.
The battle for subscribers in the direct-to-home (DTH) market is hotting up with Reliance Communications (RCom) close to finalising a bulk deal with the country's leading TV manufacturers -- LG Electronics, Samsung India and Sanyo -- which will be offered to customers at a hefty discount bundled with a DTH package.
From auto, refrigerator, and mobile handset makers to real estate firms, companies are tying up with banks to dole out attractive finance schemes and discounts to make buying more affordable.
Chinese mobile brands are deeply entrenched in the Indian market. A move to bar them may send a bold diplomatic message. But its cost for the local industry is anybody's guess. In the event that Chinese brands face curbs, two handset makers - Samsung and Apple - squarely stand to gain.
'You have to be a total anti-national bozo to shut down the Nokia plant in Sriperumbudur, which was the first large manufacturing plant for mobile phones in India.' 'Why was the unit shut down? Because of somebody's ego.'
What is driving the digital-first approach of traditional, legacy brands? Apart from the growing adoption of the internet in the country, brands are drawn to the agility of the medium.
