Mobility Monthly Magazine
October 2016
Issue 10
Volume 13
Pages 36
20
www.mobilityindia.com
BEYOND TECHNOLOGY, BEYOND LIFESTYLE
AI to Start the Next CHAT Revolution
HyperX Cloud Stinger
Hot gadgets and deals for this festive season
Honor 8
Mr. Deepak Kabu CEO, Ziox Mobiles
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CONTENTS
Hot gadgets and 32 deals for this festive season
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SMART CHATBOTS EMERGING AS NEW DISRUPTIVE INTERACTION MEDIA
EDITORIAL
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Editor Chief Editor Associate Editor (Tech,) Asst. Editor Art Director Creative Head Acct. & Finance Marketing Manager Marketing Executives
NEWS
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Circulation Manager
:
P. Biswas
Production
:
Ashish Ghosh Ashok Kumar Paul
System Manager
:
Ajay Biswas
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REPORT
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68% Indian Business Leaders ready with data-driven strategy for Digital Transformation
SPECIAL STORY
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: : : : : : : : :
Swapan Roy Manoj Jha Jayanta Ghosh E.J. Jawahardatham Anit Kumar Karmendra Singh Negi Sandip Sarkar Tridip Dey Sujit Goswami, Pratap Biswas S. Dutt Raj Kumar
H.O.: Delhi / Editorial Office Roy Mediative A-23, 1st Floor, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi-110020 (INDIA) Mob: 09810380882, 09811346846 Ph: 91-11-41602841, 65683896, 40536384-87 Redg.Off.: 38-B / 56 Block, C. R. Park, New Delhi-110019 (India).
Smart Chatbots Emerging as New Disruptive Interaction Media
INTERVIEW
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Kolkata: 105/12B, Dum Dum Road, Sil Colony, Kolkata-74 Contact: 09330922965; 09903392620 E-mail : roy@ mobilityindia.com
Mr. Deepak Kabu, CEO, Ziox Mobiles
FACE-TO-FACE
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Md. Giyazuddin, MD, HITECH Mobiles
PRODUCT REVIEW
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HyperX Cloud Stinger Honor 8
FESTIVAL SPECIAL
“Ganpati maintains low TAT and offers best repair service for Mobile Phones”
MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
Orissa: Saraswati Behera Building, Kharavella Nagar, 2nd Lane, Near Jyoti Nagar, Berhampur-760001 (Orissa) (India) Contact : Raj Kumar-09338410809, 09439263711 Email : info@mobilityindia.com ncn_reporter@yahoo.com Mobility Monthly News Paper, Printed, Published & Owned by Swapan Roy at 38-B / 56 Block, C. R. Park, New Delhi-110019 (India).
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Hot gadgets and deals for this festive season
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EDITORIAL
Mobility wishes you Happy and Bright Diwali Dear Readers, With Dassera and Diwali round the corner, we see all the brands coming up with new models, discounts, freebies etc to attract customers. This Diwali season you can find the many new smartphones coming at much lower prices whereas similar devices with similar features were selling at much higher prices this time last year. We wish you will get the best deals for your money while make purchases this festive season.
Swapan Roy roymobility@gmail.com
This month’s cover story is on how smart chatbots aided by Artificial Intelligence are emerging as new media of interaction between consumers and the providers. In the coming years, these chatbots can substantially reduce the size and usage of call centers by the providers for dealing with customer quries and thus save them money and time. Mobility magazine wishes you all that this Diwali will bring new glow and brightness into your lives and herald in new success in all your ventures
Editor’s Choice
Google has finally released “Made by Google” Smartphones, Pixel and Pixel XL Both handsets have an un-bloated version of Android 7.1 Nougat, equipping them with features including a new split-screen mode, tougher security measures like file-based encryption, support for the Vulkan API, enhanced notifications and Data Saver and Night modes. The Google Pixel and Pixel XL have 5in Full HD and 5.5in QHD displays respectively, and both are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 processor. This is paired with a decent 4GB of RAM and a choice of 32GB or 128GB of storage. Google claims, with its DxOMark rating of 89, the 12.3MP camera on the rear of the smartphone is the “best ever.” It comes with HDR+ switched on by default, offers a shorter capture time than any smartphone camera it’s tested, and comes with builtin video stabilisation. There’s also an 8MP camera on the front.
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MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
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NEWS
ITEL MOBILE HOLD 6TH RANK IN FEATURE PHONE INDUSTRY; CAPTURES 2% MARKETS SHARE: CMR
Itel marked its first grand milestone in India by selling over 1.4 million handsets operating in only 11 states. According to the latest CMR (Cyber Media Research) report, Itel garners close to 2% market share in feature phones category in its first quarter of operations in India, holding 6th position in the overall feature phone segment. Itel achieved the milestone within a couple of months of its operational launch in India. Itel has announced 15 products till now with eight feature phones and seven smartphones which include feature phones priced as less than INR 2000 and value-added smartphones for less than INR 10,000.
M-TECH TIES UP WITH RAJNIESH-SONARIKA’S SAANSEIN
M-Tech is gradually making its space in Bollywood arena. Last time M-tech Mobile Group joined hands with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan & Irrfan Khan starrer JAZBAA and even introduced new smart phone ‘Jazbaa’ in the market. After creating a sizeable market share in the feature phone market and projecting to cross 5 lac pieces a month in this sector, M-Tech Mobile has now tied up with the much awaited ‘horrance’ (horror romance) SAANSEIN – The Last Breath. Starring Rajniesh Duggall, Sonarika Bharodia, Hiten Tejwani, Amir Dalvi and Neetha Shetty SAANSEIN -THE LAST BREATH is directed by Rajiv S Ruia under GPA Productions banner and it is ready to release on November 11, 2016.
LAVA WON THE ‘BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE IN MOBILE HANDSET COMPANY’ AWARD LAVA International won the ‘Best Customer Service in Mobile Handset Company’ Award at Golden Star Six Sigma Awards 2016-17. The Golden Six Sigma Awards 2016-17 were organized in association with World Quality Congress. The Awards focus on the contribution of individuals, projects, organizations and technologies that have excelled in the use and development of quality initiatives and are presented to companies that have demonstrated leadership in using quality for business transformation, optimizing costs, developing synergies across businesses and enhancing customer satisfaction. In the Award ceremony held in Bangalore, LAVA was evaluated and conferred upon this award towards its unmatched customer experience. The parameters of evaluation included company’s strategic perspective and future orientation on customer services, customer satisfaction, customer service reach and process management, track record w.r.t. customer services,
INTEX PARTNERS WITH RELIANCE JIO, SHARPENS FOCUS ON SERVICES
Intex Technologies has announced its partnership with Reliance Jio to make 4G accessible to the ever growing base of digital consumers. With this collaboration, Intex consumers will be able to access an exclusive preview of the Reliance Jio 4G services for a period of 90 days, absolutely free. Under the terms of the Jio Preview Offer, consumers who purchase Intex 4G smartphones will get a Reliance Jio 4G SIM with complementary access to unlimited HD Voice & Video calling, unlimited SMS, unlimited HighSpeed Data services, and access to Jio Apps. The Jio Preview Offer can be availed by Intex consumers on purchase of select models by downloading the MyJio application available on Google Play. Following this, the consumers will find a ‘Generate Coupon’ option. On clicking the option, a barcode coupon will be generated.
MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
integrity & ethics followed by the company, company’s ability to sustain customer satisfaction as well as time and cost of customer services implementation.
VICE CHAIRMAN JAY Y. LEE OF SAMSUNG MEETS PM SHRI NARENDRA MODI
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. Vice Chairman Mr Jay Y. Lee met India’s Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in New Delhi and reiterated Samsung’s long-term commitment to the people of India as a strategic partner. Vice Chairman Lee apprized the Hon’ble Prime Minister of Samsung’s business operations and citizenship activities in the country. He explained how Samsung is actively partnering Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives, with a commitment to growing India as an important production base and central R&D hub, as Samsung continues to view India as an important strategic partner. In India, ‘Samsung Smart Class’ program is helping over 200,000 students from low income families to experience e-learning at 376 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya schools. In addition, 18 Samsung Technical Schools are imparting skills to youth to enable their employability.
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NEWS
INTEX WINS BRAND EXCELLENCY AWARDS 2016 BY SHOP CJ
Brand Intex was honored with two awards viz ‘Top Performing Brand’ and ‘Brand of the Year’ at a glittering event that saw participation from leading luminaries from the online industry. Awards were given to a number of other entries from across business categories. The awards were presented to Nishant Choudhary & Ashutosh Shukla, Manager, Online Mobile Business, Intex by Dhruva Chandra, COO, Shop CJ in the presence of industry bigwigs from across the country.“Intex is honored to have received these prestigious awards. The awards are a recognition of the growing clout of brand Intex in the online space and our connect with the tech savvy youth. At Intex Technologies, it is our constant endeavor to give the best to consumers and we have grown significantly over the last few years owing to our innovative products, excellent services and understanding of consumer needs,” stated Keshav Bansal, Director, Intex Technologies.
ZIOX MOBILES CONDUCTS ‘GUJARAT RETAILER BONANZA’ WITH MEGA LUCKY DRAW
Ziox, the Mobile division of Sun Airvoice Pvt. Ltd., one of the growing brands in the mobiles category, conducted ‘Gujarat Retailer Bonanza Meet’ with Mega Lucky Draw at Hotel Caspia, Ahmedabad. The event was joined by over 300 partners from all over the state from the organization’s retailer network. The draw of the event being the amazing prizes won by over 20 partners ranging from Induction cook top, LED TV, Refrigerator, Scooty, Motorbike, Alto Car amidst the enthusiasm among the network. With an overwhelming response from the ‘Manchester of India’, the ‘Gujarat Retailer Bonanza’ at Ziox aimed at celebrating the success of Ziox and establishing the next steps for its stronger foothold.
HUAWEI TO MANUFACTURE SMARTPHONES IN INDIA UNDER ‘MAKE IN INDIA’ COMMITMENT Reaffirming its commitment to India, Huawei announced it will start to manufacture smartphones in India in collaboration with leading Sketch-to-Scale solutions provider, Flex. Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Union Minister, Information & Technology, Law and Justice made the announcement at Huawei’s ‘Make in India’ inauguration ceremony in the Indian capital, New Delhi. Starting from first week of October 2016, the Flex manufacturing plant in Chennai will manufacture one of the Honor smartphones models. The plant will have the capacity to make three million units by the end of 2017. In addition, Huawei will be strengthening its after sales services in India with over 200 service centers, including more than 30 exclusive Huawei service centers in India.
ZTE INDIA APPOINTS SACHIN BATRA AS CMO
ZTE has appointed Sachin Batra as their new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of India in 2016. As Batra comes with a rich and varied experience of over 25 years in the area of Sales and Marketing, Business Development, Relationship Management and Team Management, he will be heading both, Sales and Marketing for its Smartphone B2C business. Batra holds work experience from major corporations such as Ingram and HT Media at lead roles. When it comes to the telecom industry, Batra has been evolved as a respected leader because of his admirable track record for successfully building core competencies in people, business transformation and efficiency in operations.
MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
TAIWAN INVITES INDIAN COMPANIES TO SHOWCASE AT COMPUTEX 2017
The Taiwan government has invited technology companies in India to be a part of COMPUTEX 2017 which is scheduled to be held in Taipei between May 30 and June 3 next year. COMPUTEX is one of the leading ICT trade shows in the world held by the Taiwan government annually. Speaking at a press conference on September 29, officials from the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said that COMPUTEX 2017 will be a great platform for Indian companies, especially startups, to showcase their latest innovations and technology. “We take this opportunity to encourage Indian companies to come to Taiwan and participate in COMPUTEX 2017. This will be a great opportunity for the companies, especially start-ups, to display their innovations and also to connect with big names from the global ICT arena,” Yih-Jyh, Kang, the executive director of Exhibition Department of TAITRA, said.
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ZIOX USHERS IN FEATURE PHONE REVOLUTION WITH DELIGHTVID
Ziox announced the launch of the category game-changer device, the DelightVid. The DelightVid comes with an in-built 8 GB memory, with an additional expandable memory of up to 16 GB. With the launch of the DelightVid, Ziox will continue to leave u s e r s spellbound with its features at the best prices. Now talk, chat and converse in the language closer to your heart; the DelightVid supports regional languages that let you explore the world of entertainment in your own language.
LENOVO LAUNCHES THREE NEW VOLTE-ENABLED SMARTPHONES THIS FESTIVE SEASON
Lenovo announced new additions in the A series: A6600, A6600 Plus and A7700, three feature-packed budget smartphones for consumers looking for an uncompromising experience and robust connectivity. With festive season just around the corner, it is the perfect time for gifting and shopping a perfect multimedia companion that easily fits into your budget. The new smartphones are 4G ready & VoLTE-enabled multimedia powerhouses for entertainment on the go. The new A series is compatible with Reliance JIO and users can avail the Reliance JIO preview offer with a validity of 90 days.
MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
JOSH MOBILES LAUNCHES TWO NEW FEATURE PHONES – CRUZE AND BULLET IN BUDGET RANGE
Josh Mobiles introduces new age mobile phones in the entry level segment, brings the best Media experience on the go with the launch of two new pocket power house ‘Cruze and Bullet’ priced at Rs. 1495/- and 1999/- respectively. With the launch of its latest Josh aims to find great footing amongst the ambitious Indian Mobile users, who want affordable yet reliable products. With exceptional build quality and suite of actually useful features, Josh Cruze and Bullet, features a sleek, simple and generous design which looks smart and savvy in the hand. Both sport 2.4-inch bright screen to capture vivid images, further enriching the viewing experience. The handset is equipped with 1.3MP camera supported with flash that enables clear photography and perfect video recording to capture all your special moments.
ZEN MOBILE INTRODUCES AFFORDABLE SMARTPHONE - ADMIRE STAR
Zen Mobile, an Indian mobile manufacturer, announced the launch of its latest smartphone, Admire Star, for the masses to help govt realize it’s Digital India vision. Admire Star offers a rich experience with a slew of intelligent and stylish features. The Android 6.0 Marshmallow offers a seamless OS provides better features and ease of use, while powerful 1.3 GHZ Quad core processor enables a fast response
ZOPO MOBILE INTRODUCES ZOPO COLOR F1 WITH BEST IN BREED – MULTI-FUNCTION FINGERPRINT SCANNER
Adding yet another feather to its cap, ZOPO announces the launch of ZOPO Color F1. The product is an extension of its widely held Color Series. Combining innovation with accessibility, the company has introduced Multi-function Fingerprint scanner in its latest smartphone, enabling customers to control a number of functionalities of their smartphones with this feature. ZOPO Mobiles, a hi-tech enterprise which is engaged in designing, manufacturing and marketing of mobile intelligent terminal products, has earned a reputation amidst its young, fast-paced and multitasking audiences for its innovative products. With its Luxurious Metal Frame, the Color F1 has a superior texture and its metallic finish gives users the perfect in-hand feel. However, the biggest USP of this product lies in its Fingerprint scanner, which allows users to control the device’s camera, gallery and other significant features.
ASTRUM ELECTRONICS INTRODUCES BUDGET-FRIENDLY WATERPROOF SPORTS ACTION CAMERA SC170 & SC120
Astrum Holdings announced its launch of Sports Action Camera ‘SC120’ and ‘SC170’. Both models come with waterproof housing and give sports enthusiasts the ability to capture adventures in real-time 1080 pixels HD resolution. SC170 has a power to shoot stunning high-quality full HD footage at 1080P @30fps and HD video at 720p/60fps and is complimented by its ability to capture crisp still photos using 12MP 170 degree wide angle glass lens. Rugged, waterproof and all-in-one design of this action camera is able to withstand various challenges thrown at it in everyday life.
time with smooth multitasking. The large and wide 4.5” FWVGA screen offers a crystal clear view. The 5 mega pixel rear and 1.3 mega pixel camera, with panorama feature, enables instant capturing and sharing of pictures and videos.
MOTO E POWER SMARTPHONE LAUNCHED
Meet the new Moto E Power. A device that can give you more – be it battery, display size or camera. Moto E Power is an affordable 4G smartphone designed to keep up with your nonstop life. You can watch videos and make conversations to your heart’s
content with a long-lasting battery. Surf the web, update your social status, and stream videos on a 5Đ HD display at 4G speed. Feel the power of a quad-core processor for smooth performance and enjoy Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
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MICROMAX LAUNCHES CANVAS 5 LITE
Micromax Informatics has introduced the successor of its most successful Canvas 5 Smartphone – Canvas 5 lite. The new phone by Micromax comes at an affordable price
of Rs. 6499 and also provides aesthetically appealing bestin-class features, making it the ‘Complete Smartphone’ for the evolved users. The new Canvas 5 lite comes with 8 GB ROM, which ensures your precious memories are safe and enjoy on-the-go access to your files, music and pictures.
QUANTUM HITECH ENHANCES GAMING EXPERIENCE WITH LATEST HEADPHONES
Latest headphones, QHM855, under the brand ‘Quantum Hi-Tech’ has been launched at its most affordable price. These new headphones are equipped with advanced sound functionality and also cutting edge design. It is engineered in such a way, which will enhance playback performance. QHM855 comes with a soft and ultra-flexible headband for comfortable long w e a r ing, coveted with sportsperform a n c e cloth for a soft and comfortable fit even after hours of use. Special features like noise isolating cushions that blocks out all exterior sounds elevated with advanced vibration functionality that is powered by USB 2.0 and added bass to enhance audio performance, delivering an unprecedented, immersive gaming experience.
MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
TCL LAUNCHES 49-INCH FULL HD SMART TV THIS DIWALI!
TCL with its exclusive partnership with Amazon.in, has announced its spectacular new line-up of 4K Ultra HD and Full HD TV series which are available in the Indian market. The TCL FHD television reproduces stunning details in all shades of light for a truly immersive viewing experience, via 1920x1080 pixels, specially designed to fit the big Indian family within the slim frame, and finished with an alloy metal back cover, the design is beautiful both inside and out. TCL Smart TV offers unparalleled picture quality with spectacular display with slick design which makes it beautiful from every angle and the smartest user experience that makes it easy for consumers to access all their entertainment content in one place.
HARMAN LAUNCHES TWO ICONIC BULETOOTH SPEAKERS
Premier connected technologies company for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets, Harman International Industries, Inc has announced its festive offering with the launch of two new premium Bluetooth speakers in India. The company brings the JBL Clip 2 and Harman Kardon GO+ Play Mini, priced at Rs. 4990 and Rs. 29990, respectively to the Indian market. JBL Clip 2 comes with high-quality, powerful sound and increased playback time and is considered to be the next generation Bluetooth speaker. It packs big sound into an ultra-compact, waterproof, rugged design and durable fabric casing coupled with its new, smart carabineer that attaches anywhere, making it an ideal companion for hiking, camping or pool parties. Two JBL Clip 2s can be paired to amplify the sound and create a resounding atmosphere.
INTEX UNVEILS THE FEATURE-RICH AQUA ECO 3G
Designed to offer users unmatched power and performance for everyday use, Intex Technologies launched one of its most powerful and path-breaking entry level smartphones - the Aqua Eco 3G. With a sleek look and design, Aqua Eco 3G comes with unique features and a price that is its biggest unique selling point -- Rs.2,400/- the device has a 0.3 MP primary and secondary camera with dual LED flash that enables beautiful clicks even in low light. The Aqua Eco 3G is packed with high definition video supported formats which enables consumers to watch their favorite videos on the go. The dual-SIM smart phone has a battery power of 1400mAh, which offers a talk-time of up to 5 hours along with a standby of at least 9 days.
SONY’S NEW FLAGSHIP: XPERIA XZ WITH TRIPLE SENSOR CAMERA!
Sony India has made another addition to their Xperia range with the launch of Xperia XZ. Xperia XZ comprises of two powerful cameras: a 23 MP main camera with triple image sensing technology that captures images with three times the precision and a 13 MP wide angle front
camera, which not only gives you clear shots, but also super-fast start-up going from standby to capture in 0.6 seconds. With the touch of a dedicated shutter release button, this Smartphone ensures you to take the perfect shot whenever it might strike. Xperis XZ is also featuring special characteristics such as manual focus and shutter speed controls which give you more creative freedom than ever to click photographs. consid
ITEL ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF IT1520FLAGSHIP CAMERA PHONE WITH IRIS SCANNER!
itel Mobile, the hi-tech innovative brand from Transsion Holdings Conglomerate, has announced the India launch of its flagship selfie phone, it1520. Designed to fulfil itel’s brand promise of providing users with superior camera performance and q u a l - ity, it1520 comes equipped with wide angle 13 MP front and back cameras. The latest model runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. With features such as IRIS scanner, 4GVoLTE connectivity and a Reliance Jio connection.
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REPORT
68% Indian Business Leaders ready with data-driven strategy for Digital Transformation T
he Asia Data Culture Study 2016, recently unveiled by Microsoft Asia, reveals that 88% of business leaders in Asia agree that it is important for their businesses to be data-driven for agility. However, 57% believe they still do not have a full digital strategy in place. In comparison, 68% in India believe they have a full digital strategy in place today. The Study polled 940 C-Suite executives from mediumto-large companies across 13 Asian markets including India. Respondents were surveyed on their organizations’ digital and data strategy and readiness for the digital economy. • 90% of respondents in India feel that the data culture should be driven top down with a formalized role in the leadership team to drive successful adoption of data strategy. Most business leaders felt that the data culture should be led by the CIO, Chief Digital Officer and Chief Data Officer. • The Study ranks data visualization, IoT (Internet of Things), cloud data storage, predictive data analytics and real-time analytics as the top five data capabilities that businesses will require in the next 12 to 18 months. These capabilities are clearly aligned to how they see their data culture evolving to meet their needs.
1. Building infrastructure for data agility is a key imperative for Indian businesses • 89% in India agreed that they need to drive an agile data-driven business. However, they think their capabilities in infrastructure inadequate (compared to 88% in Asia) • 62% in India said that their data is accessible across mobile devices today • 67% felt confident that their existing data infrastructure is scalable with business growth • 72% respondents in India are use data to predict future trends.
2. Data governance plan, data security policies and collaboration are the priorities of Indian businesses • 89% in India felt that data driven collaboration across the organization needs to be enabled (compared to 87% in Asia) • 70% in those polled in India were confident they have a clear data security policy that would prevent unauthorized leakage and threats • 71% respondents in India claimed they have a clear data governance plan to guide ownership, storage and use of data.
3. Indian businesses want to create an analytical workforce
• When it came to leveraging IoT, Indian business decision makers are more focused on Smart R&D, followed by security management and safety monitoring as their top priorities. The survey elaborates India’s businesses need to address the following in order to realize their full potential as datadriven organizations: MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
• 77% respondents in India agreed on the importance of having a datasavvy workforce (compared to 84% in Asia) • 74% in India (Asia average is 42%) felt they have employees who have the relevant skills to combine data to help identify business outcomes • 74% organizations polled in India have invested in training to enhance their employees’ data skills. The confluence of cloud, mobility and data is changing the way companies do business with their customers. This is resulting in new demands that make it necessary for every business to transform to a digital and data-driven business. Data is the currency of the new economy and businesses need to convert data into actionable insights that will enable them to predict the future and to get ahead of growth curve to develop new revenue streams.
MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
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SPECIAL STORY
Smart Chatbots Emerging as New Disruptive Interaction Media
Today the way customers and users are going to interact with company websites and ecommerce portals is changing much faster than expected and much different from that was predicted. Smart chatbots supported by Artificial Intelligence (AI), assisted with language-recognizing and answering back voice systems are fast emerging as substitutes to call center assistance. Though these new AI-assisted smart chatbots are not going to replace the call center support, these future chatbots are expected to substantially reduce the call center works. We at Mobility magazine interacted with some industry experts who revealed many interesting facts about the future role of smart chatbots.
MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
Smart chatbots as the future conversational user interfaces With smart chatbots, the conversational interfaces are substantially different from the traditional, screen-based interfaces that are common in desktop, web and mobile paradigms where the user experience is primarily a sequence of messages that flow back and forth and the rendering of the message is usually handled by the underlying messaging platform and is often highly constrained. The primary consideration of the conversational interface designer is the required narrative flow of the conversation and not the visual design. Beerud Sheth, Co- Founder & CEO of GupShup Technologies Pvt Ltd, shares, “Conversations usually consist of two kinds of interactions — the structured and the unstructured. The unstructured includes freestyle plain text while the structured involves forms, menus, choices, etc. Ordering from a menu at the restaurant (I want ‘item #3’ or ‘combo #2’), filling a form at the doctor’s office (e.g. medical history), sending an invoice to your customer, sending meeting notes to your team—these are examples of structured conversations. On the other hand, conversations with friends, family, teachers, colleagues and acquaintances tend to be unstructured. Messaging apps will
SPECIAL STORY
gradually add more support for these ‘smart messaging’ capabilities, which will be a critical prerequisite to enable more advanced workflows and bots. A good place to start is by comparing the effort required by the user (input) to accomplish a certain goal (output). This gives a measure of the ‘efficiency’ of the conversation. As this space evolves, conversational interface design will become a lot more analytical than it is today. Conversational bots do not necessarily mean these bots must be engaged in human-quality conversations. So long as they can do a few things and do them well, that will be fine. Bots should not overpromise and underdeliver. So long as its capability matches the expectation set with the user, the experience will be great.” In the words of Pranay Jain, Co-Founder of Enterprise Bot, “For conversational interface, the AIsupported virtual assistant is expected to be the way in the coming years. In Mr. Pranay Jain, Co-Founder, Enterprise Bot the short term, you will see evolution of ui and ux to make it faster for people to “For conversational interface, the AI (artificial intelligence) supported complete things faster. We are already seeing this happen with the evolution virtual assistant is expected to be the way in the coming years. We are of facebook messenger bot platforms already seeing this happen with the evolution of facebook messenger with the concepts of smart cards being bot platforms with the concepts of smart cards being introduced.” introduced.” Sachin Jaiswal, CEO, niki.ai, conveys, “Touch and Tap UIs, which currently exist, are simple but conversations are simple as well as the most natural way of interaction. And conversational applications are scalable too – since they can happen within a mobile app, on web, on a chatbot, on voice and so on. Thus, we believe, in future most our daily tasks will all be channeled through conversations.”
The impact of chatbots on future consumer-to-business communication Chat is the future of commerce. Commerce is more than just picking an item from a catalog and clicking ‘buy.’ More often than not, consumers want their friends’ opinions before making a decision, especially if it’s a joint-use product like furniture or a fashion-related category like apparel or jewelry. Sometimes, buyers want to consult an expert about a complex product like electronics. And still at other times they wish to consult prior buyers who’ve used the said product, for instance when purchasing long-term durable goods. Even after deciding to buy, the purchaser may want to negotiate price or terms with the seller, especially if it’s a second-hand or involves multiple shipping options. Beerud Sheth of GupShup Technologies says, “The common thread among all of these scenarios is chat. If the conversation is not handled well during any of the purchase cycles, the merchant will inevitably lose the sale (and the customer). Ecommerce merchants now have to enable easyto-use, highly responsive chat options to increase sales conversion. Using unstructured messages to implement chat in e-commerce is expensive and non-scalable. The better option is the use of structured messages for instant interactions. The structured message can render interactive elements within a single message and can be programmed to automatically handle a user’s response. For example, selecting a shipping preference simply requires one structured message. After a user contacts support, a series of structured prompts can autoguide that user to the FAQ section to solve his/her problem. Chat is the future of commerce just. It has been proven to deliver higher conversion rates, customer satisfaction and a lifetime of value.”
According to Ravina Mutha, Co-Founder of Enterprise Bot, today, it is frustrating for a consumer to have to call businesses as it can take anywhere between a few minutes to half an hour or more. Conversational user interfaces which will be powered by AI will allow you to get data you require on any platform. We are seeing all industries from airlines to banks looking at how it can improve consumer to business communication using chatbots. For example, what if you could ask your airlines with a single message about how much will you get as refund if you cancel now or what your baggage limit is for an international flight. The requests are simple but the technology that allows computers to understand this has just started evolving. Sachin Jaiswal of niki.ai asserts, “Conversational commerce opens up a huge market for businesses. There are 10 times more users on messaging than who do commerce online. For consumers it becomes simpler to reach and interact with a business, which will lead to higher conversion and retention rates.”
The growing trend of chatbots will also attract growing risks As with any new technology trend, there will be bad bots as predictably as good ones. With every advance in technology, there are people looking to exploit it. One should know how to avoid the ‘dark bots’ to be safe. Beerud Sheth of GupShup Technologies feels, “For instance, a bot whose ownership is unknown has the freedom to cheat with impunity. Trust and verification is essential for security on any platform. There will also be bots that will leak information about you to other bots. The information may or may not be personally identifiable, but these leaky bots will compromise your privacy beyond reasonable use. Expect some social engineering with malicious bots as well. This type of bot will abuse your trust to gather knowledge about you. By leveraging the messaging metaphor, bots assume the role of a friend. Bots have a conversational interface, making them appear more human than websites or apps. Inevitably, human users will start seeing bots as their friends, sharing
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more information than they would with sites or apps. Don’t forget the spam bots. These are bots that start off being wellbehaved but gradually start spamming you. While a single bot can be managed or blocked, the scale of this problem will
new trend, certain segments in the industry like e-commerce are likely to adopt them faster than others. As Beerud Sheth of GupShup Technologies foresees, Chatbots have the real potential to disrupt the businessto-customer communication space as it is an efficient, nonintrusive and effective way to solve user’s queries. Players in the retail and e-commerce fields have also innovated using chatbots to their advantage to provide users with a completely fresh shopping experience. One industry that is using chatbots very well is the content-creation industry. Chatbots present an excellent means to distribute content like surveys, resumes and research pieces. Celebs have also created chatbots for themselves for fan interaction!
Ravina Mutha of Enterprise Bot tells, “Chatbots will disrupt call centers in Telecom, Banking and Airlines in the near future. We see great application in wealth management as well but the earliest and largest impacts will be seen in companies and industries that have a large client base where AI-based chatbots will reduce the need for call Ms. Ravina Mutha, Co-Founder, Enterprise Bot centers by up to 60% for all the generic queries. Only long tail (queries that “Chatbots will disrupt call centers in Telecom, Banking and Airlines are unique) will need to go to call centers.” in the near future. The earliest and largest impacts will be seen in Sachin of Jaiswal of niki. ai comments, “It is going to be omnipresent - right from helping you out in your home to driving your cars to doing commerce for you. We at niki.ai are focused on using AI and messaging to cater to anything commerce can. niki.ai will become your go-to-sales assistant who knows every brand out there, and knows you too at the same time, thereby making your buying decision the most convenient that it can be.”
companies that have a large client base where AI-based chatbots will reduce the need for call centers by up to 60% for all the generic queries. Only long tail (queries that are unique) will need to go to call centers.”
grow rapidly as more bots get aggressive. Also, beware of the bot that performs a bait-and-switch on the user. It advertises a compelling service upfront but gradually switches over to a different kind of service over time. For example, a content bot could become an ad bot over time. Bots are yet another battlefront in the cat-and-mouse game played between good and bad actors. This new ecosystem must prevent, preempt and prepare for the coming onslaught of the bad bots. They will be here before you know them.” Pranay Jain of Enterprise Bot states, “Currently, most chatbots you see don’t use any machine learning or artificial intelligence. This means that the accuracy they are able to achieve is much lower. Our entire focus as a company is to look at how we can get the last ounce of accuracy using the latest methods and technology. We believe this will help us always stay at the top of the chain and deliver the most sustainable results for our clients.” Sachin Jaiswal of niki.ai opines, “We feel that conversations in chatbots should be designed to be as natural as they can be - which requires investment in technology of Natural Language Processing. A quicker way to design is by including buttons for every scenario – thereby creating an artificial look of a conversation – which we feel is a pitfall developers can fall into.”
The business segments likely to gain most from this new trend Given that messaging is the new paradigm in the consumer tech world, all industries will slowly but surely adopt the user of chatbots. The segments that have seen early adoption are in the customer support, retail and ecommerce space. The traditional customer support over email and phone is a broken process that alienates users. As in the case of every
MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
Challenges for the bot developers as well as to the users Now we are in the early days of the chatbot ecosystem so there definitely will be challenges faced by bot developers as well as end users. In the words of Beerud Sheth of GupShup Technologies, “One key challenge will be how effectively the tools and platforms meet the requirements of the developer for developing efficient bots. During the early days of the web and app stores, tools and platforms weren’t as sophisticated and user-friendly as they are now. There will be a similar cycle for bots as well until these tools evolve over time. Another key challenge will be bot discoverability. Right now there is no unified bot store and the discovery of bots is very fragmented. That is bound to change in the near future as bots become a more mainstream part of the ecosystem.” Pranay Jain of Enterprise Bot elaborates, “The most critical challenge to this chatbot technology will remain accuracy. The industry is new to the use of this application and the data of existing customer service logs are generally not formatted in the way required for AI. So any company trying to start an AI-based activity will take 2-3 months to get a system that is accurate and fast. Further, to get users to switch from calling to texting is also a challenge in developed countries but in India this seems to be a much smaller challenge with the large base of youth in our demographic.” Sachin Jaiswal of niki.ai asserts, “Local language understanding is one challenge. At the same time, language
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already started coming up. The adoption is only going to increase further.”
What are your direct experiences in the beneficial use of the chatbots? Ravina Mutha of Enterprise Bot reveals, “As we have NDAs with all our clients and white-label our technology. We can divulge that we are looking at creating significant cost savings in India and UK in the banking and insurance space by working for some of the largest banks in these countries. Sachin Jaiswal of niki.ai shares, “niki.ai currently has partners in Utility Bill Payments (Electricity, DTH, DataCard, Postpaid Bills), Mobile Recharge, Cab Bookings, Bus Booking, Food Ordering and Home Services (Laundry). niki.ai has 25+ Mr. Beerud Sheth, Co-Founder and CEO, GupShup Technologies Pvt Ltd services in the pipeline for the next 3 months including Hotel Bookings, “Chatbots have the real potential to disrupt the business-to-customer Flight Bookings, Movie and Events Ticketing, Groceries, Healthcare communication space as it is an efficient, non-intrusive and effective and several others. niki.ai provides way to solve user’s queries.” multiple benefits to the partners. Due to the presence of many services on the platform, as well as intelligent cross-sell algorithms of niki.ai, we are able to target customers at the point of sale – keeps on modifying, so to be able to have language models leading to a higher conversion, for example, recommending adapt accordingly is also going to be critical.” a cab to the airport before a few hours of the flight leads to a much higher conversion to cab bookings for our partners. Since niki.ai has this data, our brands get the benefit of How soon the chatbot usage will become a reaching to the customers at the right time. Since niki.ai is a widespread practice chat-based platform, it’s very light (<4Mb in size) and works There are already 1000s of chatbots connected to different websites, though their maturity, technology, functionality, purpose, etc vary from company to company, that are still in the early stages of evolution, but they are evolving rapidly and diversely to meet the varying needs of their users. According to Beerud Sheth of GupShup Technologies, “Right now, there are thousands of chatbots available on messaging channels already. Many of these bots have growing user bases. Sage, a multi-national accounting firm, launched Hello Pegg, a bot that helps you track expenses. Hi Poncho is a weather bot that is widely used for its accurate weather updates. Slack has many business bots that help automating business workflows that otherwise can be a time sink. Celebrities, brands and sports teams have created bots to enhance their branding and fan interaction. There are also successful Mr. Sachin Jaiswal, CEO, niki.ai bots created for social causes such as the one that overturned 160,000 parking tickets in London and New “niki.ai currently has partners in Utility Bill Payments (Electricity, York. A chatbot also helped homeless DTH, DataCard, Postpaid Bills), Mobile Recharge, Cab Bookings, Bus people find housing. This is just the Booking, Food Ordering and Home Services (Laundry). Since niki.ai is a tip of the iceberg! A lot more can be chat-based platform, it’s very light (<4Mb in size) and works seamlessly expected in the future.” Pranay Jain of Enterprise Bot believes, “Bots are already present. American Express, ICICI and many others have already launched bots and many others are in the process of doing so. Most bots today are very rule-based and hence deliver a very poor output, but we will see the real use of bots by early 2017 and it will grow significantly by the end of 2017. Their scope and accuracy will keep increasing with the development of self-learning algorithms. We are moving to the next industrial revolution led by artificial intelligence and it will be here, sooner than we think.” In the words of Sachin Jaiswal of niki.ai, “Utility bots have
on all networks (like WhatsApp).” seamlessly on all networks (like WhatsApp). This helps our partners to provide a seamless experience to their users, even in 2-tier markets, thereby extending their market reach. Additionally now niki.ai is also available on messenger and with this integration, the company has taken all the partner brands too there. For instance, now users can book a cab even on desktop in our country, which was not possible before. This has opened up a huge acquisition channel for all our partners.”
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INTERVIEW
Lead the Change And Make A Difference Mr. Deepak Kabu CEO, Ziox Mobiles MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
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X O I Z K C I P L L I W Y T S I R L E A M U U Q S R N U O O C R O F S E L I B D O N S M A T , C E U C D N O A R R P U ASS MPLICATED UNCO Mobility India meets Mr. Deepak Kabu who joins Ziox Mobiles as its Chief Executive Officer, having more than two decades of experience in distribution, marketing and sales he is presently focusing on the driving last mile visibility & availability for Ziox devices. Though Ziox is very new in the market, it started very aggressively in the feature phone segment. We at Mobility India like to know what are the key factors that drive your brand and help you gain in future. Please describe these key factors in detail. Our vision at Ziox is to be an enabler and our quality products will help us live up to the expectations of consumers along with uncomplicated yet robust technology. By quality products I mean the products which are actually needed by people, which will be easy-to-use, which will address all of a user’s needs and will truly partner him in making his life simpler. Technology after all is not about complicating life but simplifying it. Also our state-of-theart manufacturing and R&D facility focuses on constant innovations, turning ideas into reality. Lastly, we have the best team which includes industry veterans and trustworthy channel partners. With these key elements we at Ziox foresee a promising future to drive the brand and gaining stronger footing in the market. As an industry veteran, you have seen many challenges and overcame them. How do you develop strategies for your team and motivate them in difficult situations? I believe, you may not be able to control every situation and its outcome but you can control your attitude by keeping yourself positive and be prepared to deal with difficult situations. Never quit, if you stumble, but get up and strive forward is the success mantra of my life. When the going gets tough, motivation is certainly one of the keys to effective leadership, but figuring out how to do it in the midst of a difficult environment can certainly be challenging. The reality is that there isn’t a bag of tricks – just a few proven secrets that will enhance your ability to motivate your team in virtually any environment. What is your mantra to your team as a leader? My leadership mantra is encapsulated in two simple phrases: “Lead the Change and Make a Difference.” Learn powerful principles to help you think like an elite warrior
and lead with dignity to achieve success in life. I also believe that to be a proficient leader, it is very important to empower others along the way. As a new brand, what are your best offerings for the market? Basically there are two main parameters on which a Ziox device will be picked by consumers, one - strict quality assurance, and two - uncomplicated products. Our products go through rigorous quality checks before they hit the market shelves which assure maximum reliability to the consumers. In a market flooded with devices which are neither quality-assured nor easy-to-use, we are sure that consumers will make the right choice in going for a Ziox device. As you know, festivals are a good-time to popularize any brand. Are you planning any special activities with your partners this festive season? Festivals are an excellent opportunity for any company to promote their products and for Ziox it’s of prime importance as we aim for multifold sales growth before the end of this festive season. We have planned several channel partner meets at pan India level to help us determine the key aspects to focus on this festive season and also to strengthen our relations with them. To promote our products and penetrate further into the Indian markets, we are offering lucrative & attractive trade schemes on our products and to familiarize the customer with our efficient handsets, we have laid out a strategic plan for BTL activities across India. How are you building your network throughout India? Currently we are focusing on the offline sales strategies as we would be driving last mile visibility & availability for Ziox devices. We have made a systematic roadmap to strengthen our existing pan India network and the focus is to increase the width of distribution deep across India as the company aims to expand aggressively with several new launches in pipeline.
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FACE-TO-FACE
“HIGH QUALITY PRODUCTS, AFTER-SALESSERVICE & AFFORDABLE PRICE ARE HITECH’S DIFFERENTIATORS” H
ITECH MOBILES is one of the pioneer Indian mobile brands, which is also in the forefront of ‘Make in India’ program with their own manufacturing facilities. Based out of Kolkata, HITECH started their operations providing mobile accessories in 2003 and started providing feature phones in 2008 and later added smartphones. In an interaction with Mobility magazine, Md. Giyazuddin, MD, HITECH Mobiles shares his company’s policy, strategy and future plans. Md. Giyazuddin shares, “We are an Indian brand with a presence of over a decade in the Indian market. During the last 10 years, we experienced impressive growth and we are confident about our future. In Eastern India we are No. 1 the customers to buy a particular brand. mobiles brand. We offer high “Our main target Good quality and service are indispensable quality products at affordable for the success of any brand, but brand is B and C class prices, supported by excellent ambassadors do play their impacting role service. We directly control our cities with service in driving a brand further. In this regard, service operations by ourselves Md. Giyazuddin comments, “We chose since today service is a very at the top of our Arjun Kapoor as our brand ambassador important factor for any brand to agenda, besides high as a symbol of youthfulness so that he can be successful. And we are in the inspire young people. After we introduced front when comes to providing class quality and our brand ambassador, there was a service.” affordable price.” significant increase in our sales.” HITECH has its state-of-theHITECH through its self-regulatory art 72,000 sqft mobile factory e-waste policy is committed to the Greener in Sankrail, Howrah (outskirts Earth with continuous efforts to recycle of Kolkata), which is a fully electronics goods – Mobile phones and integrated greenfield mobile factory. The factory has the accessories that are no longer useful. ‘HITECH for the capacity to make 2.5 million pieces of mobile handsets, 9 greener earth’ program is an initiative towards the efficient million pieces of mobile batteries, 6 million pieces of mobile management of e-waste and to raise awareness in the chargers per annum. Committed to the economic growth of society. HITECH collects and recycles mobile & accessories, the nation, the facility has created 100s jobs for the youth so that people can live in a better environment. and opportunities to its partners. Consumers can drop their HITECH branded old, nonRegarding their market strategy, Md. Giyazuddin states, working mobile phones and accessories at any of the “Our main target is B and C class cities with service at the HITECH service centers. All Hitech branded items sold in top of our agenda, besides high class quality and affordable India, ranging from mobile phones, mobile accessories, price. We closely coordinate with our distributors and other mobile battery, charger, audio devices and also other partners to provide the best possible service support. We are brands of mobile phones, mobile accessories are accepted growing at 50% growth rate. Before Diwali we are launching for recycling. After accepting e-waste, first, HITECH team several new 4G smartphone models. As an Indian brand, evaluates the possibility of extracting any useful component we have an edge as our handsets cost less compared to for reuse and after completion of this process, the waste is MNC brands. There is a price gap of 50% between MNC dispose to Govt. of India accredited recycler. This recycling brands and our brands. So we have higher acceptance in the is a non-profit initiative from HITECH’s side, whose sole aim domestic market.” is to create a cleaner, safer and greener environment. Brand ambassadors play an important role in inspiring
Md. Giyazuddin MD, HITECH Mobiles
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PRODUCT REVIEW
HyperX Cloud Stinger Affordable & Lightweight Gaming Headset
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very product of HyperX comes with a great packaging, so the Stinger’s packaging features a very prominent image of the headset on the front of the box, and lists a few of the various features found on the product. A red bar across the top of the front panel touts some of the various devices that the Cloud Stinger is compatible with, but for our review purposes, we will be focused on PC usage. Flipping the box to the backside reveals another look at the headset, and more highlighted features. The stylish blackand-red gaming headset is very comfortable and stylish red HyperX logo on each ear cup. The Cloud Stinger headset is very light, at a mere 275 grams, which translates to right around 9.7 ounces. Oftentimes lightweight devices can feel cheap, but that is not the case here. On the plus side, the ear cups fold flat, so you could stash these in your bag and wear them without too much of a fuss. The over-the-ear cups themselves are made of a breathable foam material that is extremely comfortable to wear. An adjustable microphone sits on the left ear cup so that you can move it up and down on
an arm, but it’s not bendable. Just below the right ear cup, there’s a simple volume-control slider. There’s a generous amount of foam padding on the headband. The Cloud Stinger is easy to connect. By default, it connects via a 3.5mm audio jack, but you can also attach it to a splitter (included) for discrete microphone and audio streams on a gaming rig. It’s not a USB headset, so there’s no software to grapple with. For better or worse, there’s no external amp. The microphone mutes automatically when you slide it all the way up, which is a nice touch.
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Many headsets also feature an in-line volume and mic mute button on the headset cord, but we were happy that Kingston chose to place these functions on the headset itself. Being able to know exactly where the volume slider was at a moment’s notice kept us from fumbling around with a corded solution. The configuration of the volume slider on the right ear cup made it very easy to increase or decrease the volume, whereas we have had issues in the past knowing which way to scroll a volume wheel when mounted on the cord. As mentioned earlier, the Kingston HyperX Cloud Stinger is aimed at budgetconscious gamers that don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on every single one of their peripherals. Performance of this headset is pretty satisfactory, weather it’s gameing, movies or music.
VERDICT: If you want something competent and comfortable, the Cloud Stinger delivers. The gaming and music performance won’t leave you in aural awe, but they’re clear and loud enough to get the job done for both single- and multi-player titles.
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PRODUCT REVIEW
Honor 8 FreshLook, Brilliant Design with an Awesome Camera
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he Chinese Telecommunications Company has been manufacturing mobile phones since 1997. It is also the largest telecom infrastructure maker in the world. Huawei struggled in the past to make its brand appealing to customers, but this year noticed a massive surge in popularity. Huawei completely changed its focus in 2015, launching a range of high-quality, all-metal devices including the G8, Mate S, Mate 8 and P8. The telecommunications giant went from a middle of the pack manufacturer to the best seller in China and revealed 100 million Smartphone sales in 2015. Recently Honor celebrated its 2nd anniversary in India and the brand hosted an exclusive preview of its latest flagship Honor 8 in Goa. We spent some time checking out the new Honor 8 dual camera system that Huawei started with Honor 6 Plus. Sample shots from Honor 8 LOOK AND FEEL: The Honor 8 features an aluminium frame that is sandwiched on both sides by Corning’s Gorilla Glass, Huawei states that there is a very detailed process involved in making the glass with a 2.5D effect that sits on both the front and the back of the device. But it doesn’t include water-resistance or splash protection; also it is quite a delicate device as it is prone to scratches. On the backside it has two 12MP cameras stacked side-by-side and a fingerprint reader, on the left side of the frame features a SIM tray that can accept one nano SIM along with a microSD card and on the right is the volume rocker and the power button. On the top it has a secondary mic and an IR blaster while the bottom features a 3.5mm headphone jack, a USB Type-C port and a speaker grille. Overall the device has a high quality feel, seamless design, looks impressive and feels good in your hand.
FEATURES: The highlight of the Honor 8 is the dual-camera setup on the back and a fairly attractive metal unibody design. Honor 8 comes with two 12MP cameras on the back. Huawei is using f/2.2 sensors here, an 8MP front camera (f/2.4) on the handset. The Huawei Honor 8 features a HiSilicon-designed Kirin 950 chipset. The chipset is paired with the Mali-T880 MP4 GPU and 4GB of RAM. The device features 32GB of internal storage which can be further expanded up to 256GB via the microSD card slot. Honor 8 features a 5.2-inch display that features an LTPS display at Full HD resolution and this delivers a pixel density of 423 PPI, which is pretty good for a mid-range device. The Honor 8 packs in a non-removable 3000 mAh battery, 4G bands, MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (dual band), Bluetooth v4.2, GPS, NFC and an infrared port also. CAMERA PERFORMANCE: Got a chance to test the camera in Goa which is one of the favorite places on earth. Had a great time with the Honor 8, very consistent and most of the time I got the desired output, the colors and details are excellent in day and night. The Honor 8, like the Huawei P9, is equipped with two main cameras, one of the Sony-brand IMX386 sensors captures only in black and white and helps provide brighter pictures. Secondly, focus can be adjusted in 12 MP pictures. It has a number of customizable features including an exposures dial for shooting at night or light painting. The main cameras have an f / 2.2 aperture, while the front camera makes use of an 8 MP sensor with f / 2.4 aperture lens. The camera also allows you to capture in Pro mode if you want to do more creative stuff like light painting, etc.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE: The Honor 8 is fast and gives us good benchmark scores. Delivers fast booting speeds when you turn on the Honor 8, great image processing and web surfing performance. Not enjoyed much with its gaming performance though. Not much heating issue during usage and overall gives us a very stable performance.
TYPE: Phone MODEL: Honor 8 MANUFACTURER: Honor DIMENSIONS: 145.5 x 71 x 7.45 mm WEIGHT: 153 g BATTERY SIZE: 3000 mAh SCREEN SIZE: 5.2 in DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY: LCD SCREEN: 1920 x 1080 pixels (424 ppi) FRONT CAMERA: 8 megapixels REAR CAMERA: 12 megapixels FLASHLIGHT: Dual-LED ANDROID VERSION: 6.0 - Marshmallow USER INTERFACE: Emotion UI RAM: 4 GB INTERNAL STORAGE: 32 GB REMOVABLE STORAGE: microSD CHIPSET: HiSilicon Kirin 950 NUMBER OF CORES: 8 MAX. CLOCK SPEED: 2.3 GHz CONNECTIVITY: HSPA, LTE, Dual-SIM, Bluetooth 4.2
VERDICT: Though Honor 8 packed all the key ingredient, the price tag of Rs.30,000/- may push consumer to opt for OnePlus 3, which is still going strong in this price segment. But we really feel that Honor 8 is much more attractive, specially the blue variant and much comfortable and easy and great if you care about one hand usage.
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FESTIVAL
Hot gadgets and deals for this festive season
HOT PRODUCTS OF THIS SEASON iPhone 7 Apple’s much-awaited iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is here with amazing features and a performance like never before. Login to Amazon.in and shop for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus with much convenience. With iPhone 7, enjoy cool features like the most advanced mobile OS ever, stereo speaker system, longest battery life and many more. New Colours: Real Black and Jet Black iPhone 7Plus Price: Rs 72,000 (32GB); Rs 82,000 (128GB); Rs 92,000 (256GB)
OnePlus 3 OnePlus has done it again, delivering a superb smartphone to rival the high-end competition at a bargain price. But the OnePlus 3 is the best you can get right now at this price.
Honor 8 The latest entry in the mid segment is very fresh and featured great specs. If you are looking for a good looking great performer than this device is a great choice.
Coolpad Mega 2.5D Great budget option The best part of this phone is the 2.5D screen at the price tag of 7k only. Coolpad Mega 2.5D is one of the most premium phones available at this price tag.
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very year, consumers eagerly look forward to the festive offers for buying their favorite gadgets.And for brands festive season is the best time to launch and showcase products because the demand reaches a peak. Also from last few years this is that time of the year when e-commerce giants battle it out with exciting offers for customers. Deals from the Electronics & Gadgets category are usually the highlight every year. Brands are looking at their branding and marketing initiatives in a big way. They’re leaving no stones unturned to get their marketing formula right for this year’s festive season. MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
Intex Cloud S9 Finger print with 5.5 screen at 6499, this is best in class. Everything looks perfect from camera to processor to memory
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Lenovo Z2 Plus Great mobile under 20k I think it is one of the best mobile available under 20K with so many latest features. So far I have not faced any issue.. processor is pretty fast and camera quality is good. Best think about mobile is its multi task Home button. It is having so many features in it that Everybody likes it. THE DETAILS OF OFFERS ON MI SMARTPHONES AND ACCESSORIES ARE: • •
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• • • • •
Mi 5 will get a price drop of INR 3,000 and will be available for INR 19,999 Mi Max will get a price drop of INR 1,000 and will be available for INR 13,999 Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime will get a price drop of INR 500 and will be available for INR 6,499 and INR 8,499 respectively. Redmi Note 3 (2GB + 16GB) will get a price drop of INR 500 and will be available for INR 9,499 Redmi Note 3 (3GB + 32GB) will get a price drop of INR 1,000 and will be available for INR 10,999 Mi 4 16 GB will get a price drop of INR 1,000 and will be available for INR 9,999 10,000mAh Mi Power Bank will get a price drop of INR 400 and will be available for INR 899 20,000mAh Mi Power Bank will get a price drop of INR 300 and will be available for INR 1,899
GET LEECO’S LE MAX2 THAT PACKS QUALCOMM® SNAPDRAGON 820 PROCESSOR : Available on
LeMall, Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal at a special festive price of Rs 17,999 for a limited period
LG IS OFFERING DISCOUNT COUPONS ON THE FOLLOWING SMARTPHONES VALID TILL 31ST DECEMBER 2016 ACROSS INDIA:
LG G5: A smartphone with dual rear end camera, this is one of the top ten smartphones in the country. It follows a modular version which permits external accessories to be added to it. This phone comes with a discount coupon of Rs. 25,000. LG X Cam: This is a phone that makes it a pleasure for people to take photographs with incredible clarity. The X Cam comes with a discount coupon of Rs. 7,500. LG X Screen: A smartphone that comes with an alternative screen is always useful and ensures efficiency. This is a phone
DEALS & OFFERS HTC launches festival celebrations: Flagship device HTC 10 now available at a discounted price of Rs. 47,990/Mi India kickstarts its biggest festive season sale with exciting offers: Deals and offers available across all partner platforms
Amazon’s Great Indian Shopping Festival will be between 1 to 5 October and will offer deals on Redmi Note 3, Mi Max, Mi 10000mAh Power Bank and Mi 20000mAh Power Bank. Mi Band 2 will be also be available on 01 October[1].
Flipkart’s Big Billion Day Sale will be between 2 to 6 October, with Mi Air Purifier 2 going on sale for the first time on Flipkart starting 2 October at midnight. The offers will be available on Mi 4, Redmi Note 3, Mi 5, Mi Max, Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime, starting 3 October. Snapdeal’s Unbox Diwali Sale will be between 1 to 6 October and will feature offers on Redmi Note 3 and Mi Max. Paytm and Tata Cliq will have its festive sale during the month of October, and offers on Redmi Note 3 and Mi Max will be available on these platforms.
All these offers are available only during the sale period. that has taken innovation and a fast paced lifestyle hand in hand. It comes with a coupon of Rs. 6000. LG Stylus 2 Plus and the LG Stylus 2 Dual are two of LG’s leading smartphones that come with discount coupons of Rs. 8000 and Rs. 6,500 respectively. LG K 10 and LG K 7 are two budget smart phones that come with a discount coupon of Rs. 5,000/- and Rs. 3,500/- respectively. This year, further expanding its innovative portfolio Karbonn has launched two new devices for festive shoppers in addition to offering special festive dis ounts on its best selling devices
KARBONN TITANIUM VISTA
Keeping the festive spirit in mind, Karbonn Titanium Vista is an elegantly designed feature packed Smartphone ideal for gifting. It boats of big 12.4 cm (5’) screen for a spectacular viewing experience, 1.3 MHz quad core processor that runs on a Mediatek MT6580 chipset which makes the device a true multitasker along with long lasting 2300 mAh Li-ion battery. The Smartphone is packed with an internal memory of 8GB which is expandable to 32 GB for saving numerous festive selfies and family photos and videos. It also offers a 3.2 MP front camera with flash and an 8MP rear camera. The device would be available across retail stores and ecommerce portals in October.
Karbonn Titanium 3-D Plex
Karbonn Titanium 3-D Plex is the latest offering from the company focused at offering an enhanced video viewing experience to entry level Smartphone users. The Karbonn Titanium 3D Plex comes packed with 3D glasses apparatus for cinematic 3D video viewing. It also packs in a graphics processor and 8 GB of internal storage which can be expanded to 32 GB via a microSD card. It runs on an Android 6.0 OS and is powered by a 2300 mAh battery. The device includes 3.2 MP rear shooter with Auto Focus, Face Detection, Touch Focus, Digital Zoom and Video Recording. Available across all leading retail stores and ecommerce portals at INR 3890.
Festive Discounts
Apart from the new launches, Karbonn has introduced special festive rates for its popular its Fashion Eye and K9 Viraat Smartphone available at INR 4990 only.
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SERVICE FOCUS
“GANPATI MAINTAINS LOW TAT AND OFFERS BEST REPAIR SERVICE FOR MOBILE PHONES” Mr Surender Singh, Proprietor, Ganpati Enterprises
Ganpati Enterprises is a Jaipur-based prominent repair service provider for many mobile brands for smart phones as well as smart phones. In an interaction with Mobility magazine, Mr Surender Singh, Proprietor of Ganpati Enterprises, shares his company’s nature of work, views and plans.
Q. Please brief us when you started Ganpati Enterprises, and list some important mobile brands you provide third party service. How many technicians work for you at present? A. We are handling mobile repairing as authorized service partner for the last 8 years for over 25 brands including some top brands like Intex, Huawei, Salora, Lemon, Penta, Swipe, Ice, Trio, Simmtronics, Adcom, Alcatel, etc. Q. Please explain your cycle of operations (from receiving service requests from customers to getting paid for services, etc). A. We deal with only authorized brands which have been tied up with our company. The client can just walk in with his defective device and we will ask him to fill the service sheet and then we repair the device and deliver it to customer. We claim payment from the parent company at the end of the month. Q. As a Service Provider, how do you find the support from the brands for the service problems? A. Most of the brands are providing the necessary parts and we find the overall process to be hassle-free. Q. What are the latest trends in the mobile Service Providing sector and which vendors offer you attractive terms in terms of good technical support, quick payments, etc? A. The latest trend is that most of the brands are providing support in the form of giving parts to keep the TAT in control, so
MOBILITY OCTOBER 2016
that customers are satisfied and the brands can maintain good image in the minds of the customers. Q. What new brands do you plan to add to your list in the immediate future? A. We are trying to tie up with some new upcoming coming and stable brands. We have to wait and see how these plans are going to work out. Q. How you do better than your competitors? A. We have many satisfied clients. We maintain good image in the market and healthy relations with the customers. We offer quick and effective service. All these factors help us to retain the customers and stay in the competition. Q. What challenges or problems are you facing and how are you meeting these challenges? A. Servicing itself is a challenge. We actively coordinate with the parent companies and keep the TAT as low as possible to ensure customer satisfaction. Q. Do you get service requests only from Jaipur city or from outside also? What are your future plans and where do you want to be in the coming 2 years? A. Most of our customers for service come from within Jaipur city. As I mentioned, we have a lot of satisfied customers. We are planning to open more branches within the Jaipur city to expand our reach and customer convenience.
Date of Pub: 10th October, 2016 | Postal Dt.: 16th & 17th of same Month/ Posted at NDPSO
R.N.I. No. DELENG/2004/14198
Postal Reg. No.: DL(S)-01/3442/2016-18