Mobility Monthly Magazine
May 2015
Issue 05
volume 11
Pages 44
`20
beyond technology, beyond lifestyle
www.mobilityindia.com
Contents
4
News
8
Launchpad
12-13
Q&A
14-15
Review
16-18
Q & A with Vishal Reddy, Founder, and Karan Bhangay, Co- Founder, Wowsome Xiaomi Mi Band Celekon Millennia ME ASUS Zenfone 2
Analysis
19
Personality
20
Cover Story
refurbished goods market is booming in India!
Smartphone adoption in India, at an all time high
30
Mr. Shripal Gandhi Founder & CEO, Swipe Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.
Channel Focus
22-23
Made in India
24-25
Special Story
26
Consumer Alert
28
SPG Global Distribution Pvt. Ltd.
Videocon offers latest products at Value-for-Money price Smartphones that endures Tips for keeping your Android Device SafeApps
Portfolio
Smartphones that endure
42 34
22
20
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge has set the bar for premium smartphones
Technology & Innovation
38
Opinion
Featured
40
Apps
42
36
Mobile devices fueling explosive growth of e-Commerce
As KGPians take India to the world
Growing WiFi enabled ecosystem in India Best-in-Class Android apps that won t cost you a cent
Editor Chief Editor Associate Editor (Tech,) Asst. Editor Art Director Creative Head Acct. & Finance Marketing Manager Marketing Executives
: : : : : : : : :
Circulation Manager Production
: :
System Manager
:
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 P. Biswas Ashish Ghosh Ashok Kumar Paul Ajay Biswas
Mobility May 2015
26 40
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
Mobility Monthly News Paper, Printed, Published & Owned by Swapan Roy at 38-B / 56 Block, C. R. Park, New Delhi-110019 (India). Printed at Pushpak Printer, C-96, Okhla Industrial Area-I, New Delhi-20. Retail selling price of News Paper Rs. 20/-. Annual subscription Rs. 240.
redg.off.: 38-B / 56 Block, C. R. Park, New Delhi-110019 (India).
Editor
Branch office: Mumbai: E-mail: roy@ mobilityindia.com
Marketing
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Kolkata: 105/12B, Dum Dum Road, Sil Colony, Kolkata-74 Contact: 09330922965; 09903392620 E-mail : roy@ mobilityindia.com
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www.mobilityindia.com
Mobility May 2015
Editorial
6
Editor’S Choice
Intex Mobile Battery Charger PBX 6KL
T
he very stylish and lightweight charger has a high capacity power
We need to manage IT waste to protect our environment! With the growing per-capita consumption rate, our future will be shaped by how well we manage limited resources. We need to extend the lifecycle of electronic products by promoting second and third electronic use, reducing our carbon footprint by recycling obsolete electronics and salvaging components for reuse and re-manufacturing raw materials. We need to focus on creating real wealth for ourselves and future generations by ensuring the overall well-being of our planet. It is individuals and not the industry or households that need to rethink their waste generation and waste management. We need to curb the habit of producing waste by considering the environmental impact of each and every activity of our daily life cycle.
Swapan Roy roymobility@gmail.com
Mobility May 2015
with 6000 mAh Li-Polymer Battery and USB cable for charging power bank & Devices. Intex’s PBX-6KL Mobile battery charger has two Output USB 2.0 Ports with different output (5V 1A & 5V 2.1A) for relatively faster charging times. It consists of LED Lamp with 11 LEDs. There is a small power button and four LEDs that light up to indicate what is remaining.
Mobility May 2015
News
8
COAI Reaffirms Support for Net Neutrality
Viber Hits 40 Million Registered Users in India
T
V
he COAI reaffirmed its support to Net Neutrality and made a strong pitch for ‘Net Equality’ that will enable access to Internet for a Billion Indians as part of the Government’s Digital India vision. The Association urged all stakeholders to have
a comprehensive and informed debate on the subject of Net Neutrality keeping in mind the requirements of India and its citizens. An important and complex subject such as this, which is still being
debated in many countries, which has taken years to conclude in many other countries and which is the subject of litigation in some, should not be left to the opinion of a few. COAI further added that we should ensure customers have the freedom to choose how they want to access the Internet. A customer should be free to choose the device, technology and access platform – paid or subsidized as long as the Internet is always open in terms of access in a nondiscriminatory manner. We support this! The interests of a few should not dictate the fundamental right of a customer to choose what he/she wants.
Ricoh India displayed cameras at Photo Expo 2015
R
icoh announced PENTAX KS2, RICOH WGM1 and RICOH Theta m15 in South India’s largest exhibition Photo Expo 2015 at JRC Convention Centre at Hyderabad on April 18, 19 & 20, 2015. At the exhibition, the audience witnessed new and exciting cameras from Ricoh such as Theta m15, Ricoh WGM, PENTAX KS2 and flagship Pentax 645Z etc. Ricoh also showcased standard products like high performance APSC cameras, famous binocular range and many more.
Mobility May 2015
Besides displaying standard products, Ricoh gave live demo of its flagship Pentax 645Z medium format camera, KS2 and unique RICOH Thetam15 as a part of their major activities at the exhibition. The demo was presented with live wedding, high-end portraits & Studio set up Ricoh at the venue.
iber announced a key milestone of crossing more than 40 million registered users in India. Viber commenced its operations in India in December 2013 at a time when there were 13 million users of the application in India. Within a short span, it has now become the biggest market for the application in the country registering a growth of 200% in 1 year. Viber has over 516 million unique users in 193 countries and is constantly innovating by introducing new platforms and adding new features to delight its users. There are more than 50
Public Chats in India across various genres like fashion, beauty, travel, sports, entertainment etc. Additionally, Stickers are a core part of Viber’s
personality and millions of people worldwide use them in conversations every day to express an emotion, a reaction, a statement or simply to share good vibes with their friends and families.
ICICI Bank launches ‘Tap n Pay’ in arrangement with Tech Mahindra
I
CICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, in arrangement with Tech Mahindra Limited, announced the launch of a contactless payment service based on the Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. Christened, ‘Tap n Pay’, this innovative payment service enables anyone (account holder of ICICI Bank or not) to make over-thecounter payments without using cash. It allows users to just tap the NFC enabled tag or mobile phone at the merchant’s point-of-sale device to make payments. Tap n Pay’ is a prepaid
account, which can be availed by customers of any bank by simply registering for it and transferring money online from any
bank account. ICICI Bank customers can also transfer money to the Tap-n-Pay account through an SMS. To start with, this solution is being offered at large campuses of corporate offices. ICICI Bank and Tech Mahindra have plans to extend this service across the country.
Mobility May 2015
News
10
3 Epson products in the TIPA Awards 2015
T
he winning Epson products this year were the Epson SureColor P600, which was named “Best Photo Printer,” the Epson EH-LS10000, which was named “Best Photo Projector,” and the Epson Perfection V850 Pro, which won the award for “Best Photo Scanner.” TIPA – the Technical Image Press Association – judges the innovation, technology, design, ease-of-use and price-to-performance ratio of products launched in a 12-month period to develop a shortlist and winner for each award category. With members in nine European countries plus Australia, Canada, China,
India, South Africa, Brazil and the USA, TIPA is one of the largest and most influential photographic and imaging press associations in the world. Winning the three 2015
awards means that Epson has now received a total of 37 awards from TIPA for technologies and imaging products, including inkjet printers, inks, scanners and projectors, since 1997. The Following Products Will Soon Be Available in The Indian Subcontinent
Videocon Telecom plans to acquire over 10Mn Subscribers
V
ideocon Telecom, has announced its aggressive growth plans to become a preferred National Operator. As part of its network expansion drive, the telco announced 2489 new cell sites and 231 new exclusive stores in existing circles. The telco also plans to acquire over
10Mn subscribers and deliver a consolidated Top line Revenue of 3000 Cr in FY 2015-16 including its GSM business, NLD/
Mobility May 2015
ILD and Punjab Wireline business. The Telco is also planning to invest Rs 300-350 Cr in current financial year. The telco aims at taking up the data contribution to 15% of Gross Revenue by end of FY201516. The company has posted an impressive 53% growth in its Top line Revenue in FY 2014-15 over last financial year with a consolidated Top line Gross Revenue of 1974 Cr including its GSM business, NLD/ILD and Punjab Wireline business. Earlier last year, the telco talked about its plans for a Top line Revenue of 2000 Cr in FY2014-15 and has been able to deliver 99% of the same.
Vodafone Red Box Helps Transfer All Existing Data Safely and For Free
V
odafone India, one of India’s leading telecommunications service providers, has providing an innovative service offering that facilitates secure data transfer, specially pictures, videos and documents, from one mobile handset to another. Called the Vodafone Red Box Service, it is a first-ofits-kind free of cost telecom service offering in the state. The Vodafone Red Box facilitates easy and secure transfer of key data and mobile applications, including internal memory
and SIM card contacts. The service is available at any Vodafone RoTo (Retail of Tomorrow) stores in Mumbai. The service will be provided free of cost to customers. Trained Vodafone customer service personnel at these stores will take care of the data transfer requirements of the customers. Vodafone Red Box is compatible with all branded handsets. The technology is handset agnostic and can transfer data from and to any handset brands available in the market.
Mitashi partners with Fortumo for its Gaming Consoles & Smart Phones
M
itashi announced a partnership with mobile payments company Fortumo. With this partnership Mitashi will get access to the portfolio of top games and apps of developers who are already using Fortumo’s payment solutions. As a result, Mitashi consumers will now have access to games like Frontline Commando: D-Day, Overkill Mafia, Blood Zombies, Brainsquare, Super Tank 3D & Thumbi amongst host of other casual games preloaded on Mitashi Smart Phones and android based gaming consoles. Furthermore, Mitashi can start collecting payments made by users of its smart
phones in 88 countries through carrier billing. Fortumo provides device manufacturers using carrier billing with developer onboarding and support, creating & maintaining payments APIs and SDKs as well as handling compliance, taxation and payouts to developers. Direct carrier billing with Fortumo enables users make payments over a data connection by confirming payments with one click on their phone. Since the mobile operator has all the information necessary to process the payment, this removes the need to send any text messages during the payment process.
Mobility May 2015
Launch Pad
12
ADATA launches PV120 Power Bank
Sony launches new portable Bluetooth speaker
F
eaturing a leather-textured exterior with smooth metallic side-striping, a bright LED power level indicator shows how much power remains for more charging. The ultra-slim PV120 Power Bank comes with metallic-trimmed siding in black, white, or blue and packs a sizable 5100 mAh capacity for discerning users who need to charge up to two mobile devices at once. PV120 Power Bank sports a single 2A input for faster selfcharging, and 1A / 2.1A outputs so you can charge up to two devices simultaneously. PV120 comes packed with six safety features including Over-Temperature Protection, Over-Charge Protection, Short Circuit Protection, Over-Voltage Protection, Over-Discharge Protection and Over-Current Protection.
S
ony India launched the all new portable bluetooth speaker- SRS-X11 and SRS-X55. In their compact designs and a variety of colours, the two new bluetooth speaker, SRSX11and SRS-X55,combine powerful sound quality with Bluetooth andNFC, enabling users to instantly connect their smart device and stream music wherever they are. SRS-X55 is powered with 2.1 channel system and dual passive radiators that delivers a beat-dropping output power of 30W. SRS-X11bundles surround sound with twin speakers. With its tiny 61mm x 61mm x 61mm cube-design, X11 packs a punch as it combines the power of 10W with two passive radiators SRS-X11 priced 5,490/- and SRS-X55 at 16,990/- will be available at Sony Center and major electronic stores across India.
Swipe KonnectME Dual-SIM 4.5” IPS Display 1.3 GHZ high speed Processor 5 mega-pixel primary camera and 1.3 mega-pixel front camera Wi-Fi, Micro USB Port, Micro HDMI port, Bluetooth, USB OTG Function and Voice Calling KonnectME priced at Rs 3,999
Mobility May 2015
Zebronics launched LED TV’s
Z
ebronics India Pvt. Ltd announces its extension in the consumer electronics portfolio with a range of LED TV’s in the Indian Markets. Some of the key features of the launched Models include advanced features for your viewing experience. It also delivers exceptional picture quality at all angles and sound, packed with sound monster audio. Company has also plans to launch more TV models upto 152cms(60) in size. The Sound system of the LED TVs has given Sound Monster boost which enhances the clarity and loudness. The extensive range includes40cms(16) to 102cms(40) price starting from Rs.6999/-.
Boat launches limited edition Power Banks
B
oat forays into the Powerhouse market by unveiling a limited edition series of stylish and fashion forward portable power banks. After the successful launch of Bluetooth speakers, Boat has unveiled its limited edition of portable power banks – BPR 88, BPR 100, BPR 112 and BPR 25M.
Launch Pad
Mitashi announced Smart LED TV
Intex Aqua Power+
he new Mitashi 50″ Smart LED TV was unveiled by Rajasthan Royals icons, captain Shane Watson and star players Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, Sanju Samson and alongwith Mr. Rakesh Dugar, Chairman & Managing Director – Mitashi Edutainment Pvt. Ltd. The new Mitashi 50″ Smart LED TV is powered with DLED technology and comes with a super SLIM panel, giving it a sleek look. The full HD picture comes with a 1920*1080p resolution. The USB Movie Plug & Play supports 27 movie formats “ so watching films on your TV has never been easier! The TV comes with a PC input, 3 HDMI inputs and WiFi connectivity, so that it’s always connected to every gadget that you wish to use with your TV! It runs on the popular and efficient Android 4.4 OS, making sure that you always have a dependable, smooth system. Priced at MRP: Rs. 51,990 it comes with 3 years warranty.
Dual-SIM Android 5.0 Lollipop 5-inch HD (720×1280 pixels) 1.3GHz quad-core processor 2GB of RAM 16GB of built-in storage expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB). 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, apart from a 5-megapixel front. 3G, GPRS/ EDGE, GPS/ A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v3.0, and USB OTG.
T
Fly Snap 4.00-inch Display Processor: 1.3GHz Front Camera : 2-megapixel 480x800 pixels RAM: 512MB OS: Android 4.4.2 Storage: 4GB Rear Camera: 5-megapixel 1500mAh Price: Rs. 6,999
ViewSonic launches new LightStream Projector Line
V
iewSonic introduces the whole new LightStreamT Series – multimedia projectors offering exceptional audio and visual features to meet the needs of small- to medium-sized business and consumers from presentation. ViewSonic brings the exclusive SonicExpert technology and built-in ViewSonic SonicMode sound system to deliver higher volume and the absolute best-in-class sound for premium audio experience. The exclusive SuperColorT technology offers a wider color range for true-to-life image projection. Moreover, the series comes in an elegant glossy design with state-of-the-art ergonomic features provide the ultimate in style and productivity.
ASUS ZenFone 2
T
he Zenfone 2 ZE 551 ML (4GB RAM) model is priced at Rs 22,999, and the 32 GB version will cost Rs 19,999. The ZE 551 ML (2GB RAM) costs Rs 14,999, while the ZE 550 ML will be available at Rs 12,999. Quad Core, 2.3 GHz Atom 4 GB RAM 5.5 inches (Large) Full HD , Very sharp Gorilla Glass 13 MP Primary Dual-color LED Flash 5 MP Front 3000 mAh, Li-Polymer Non removable
Mobility May 2015
13
14
Q&A
&
Q
A
WOWSOME
Augmented Reality taking advertising to the Next Level Tell us about WOWSOME and how that app works? Augmented Reality
WOWSOME campaigns. How your clients
breaks the monotony and intelligently places your
revolutionary advertising
brand in the perspective of
medium?
creating a solid HumanBrand-Interface.Take your everyday print ad - enhance with its related TVC/ short video, quick links (social media, website), call-to-action (Enquiry, Buy, Share) and deals (coupon codes and discounts). Add stunning, interactive, real-time and virtually unlimited real estate to print by extending it onto your smartphone screens. Lead your audience from
Clients are able to connect their offline media with their relevant online content offering an effortless & immersive experience to their audience. Fans love the experience and spend more and more time engaging with the brand which extends the opportunity to enroll them. How your solution will bring change in this segment? Great Augmented
offline to online media with
Reality campaigns deliver a
a hyper-immersive and
seamless experience where
hyper-targeted experience
users cannot differentiate
unlike anything seen before.
between the real world and
How your app gains traction in India?
Mobility May 2015
executing innovative
are benefited from your
real world surroundings
Karan Bhangay, Co- Founder, Wowsome
have already started
We have approached many of the top brands in India and they are many
its virtual augmentation. With 160 million smart phone users in India braced by steady 3G data, expected to grow by a staggering 225 million before the end of
Q&A media, which gives them
the highest growth rates
a better chance to convert
driven in the digital and
visitors into buyers.
related spaces. Clients are
Is India ready for such kind of solutions? Who are your potential customers? We are ready with the most advanced and feature-rich platform in the
2015, Augmented Reality
West, where the ad world
will soon be ubiquitous as
started buzzing with the
the ultimate mass medium
technology in 2007-08, in
of advertising. Though our
India the concept is still in
business model adds 10% to
the process of catching up.
15% incremental cost on the
While currently Augmented
existing print-spend to add
Reality amounts to sharing
an interactive Augmented
the revenue pie with the
regularly adding up to our list, and every advertiser is our potential prospective customer. What are your targets for 2015-16? We already have
segment. Of course, India
over 50 brands associated
as a country is leading the
with us; hoping to raise the
digital revolution in the
number by 100% or more
emerging markets with
this FY.
Our Clients List • Audi Noida • Q Events by Geeta Samuel • Joseph Radhik Photography • Moto Madness • Reva Aesthetics • Fuji Film • Jaguar • Land Rover • Palladium • Aston Martin • Malabar Jewellers Reality feature, brands find
print or digital spends,
it economical as it extends
in the next two years,
their reach. It is being used
hopefully the brands will
as a sales story by many.
set aside separate budgets
What are all the challenges and opportunities in this market? Compared to the
for the medium. Another advantage of Augmented Reality is that companies can get real-time data on customers who are interacting with their offline
Vishal Reddy, Founder, Wowsome
Mobility May 2015
15
Review
16
Xiaomi Mi Band A wearable for all
Mobility Ratings 40 60 90 80
R
ecently we got a chance to review the Xiaomi Mi Band fitness wearable. Xiaomi is known for diversifying their range of product and this product is another step is that direction. At the Mi4i smartphone launch they announced the Mi Band at a price tag of Rs. 999/- which easily makes it the most affordable fitness band. LOOK AND FEEL Compared to most other companies’ wearables, the Xiaomi Mi Band is a very basic product in both design and features. At an affordable price tag, Xiaomi tries to keep Mi Band functions to a possible optimum ensuring the product is useful enough and comfortable enough to wear. Main construction is rubber with a simple band and pin method of fastening. The strap is just wide enough to hug your wrist but not too wide, so for me it is comfy and
Mobility May 2015
lightweight. The rubber band comes in a range of other colors. A small alloy capsule body is fitted in the middle of the band where it has 3 LED notification lights, Bluetooth and tiny 41 mAh battery which provides 30 days life. To charge the Mi Band, the alloy body can be pushed out of the rubber band and quickly charged via USB with the specially designed included USB charger. The Mi features IP67 water resistance, so it is well protected from water and sweat. The packaging is same as all Mi products, a square beige color box with a nice sponge on the inner side and is beautifully crafted. The main Activity Tracker, silicone band, charging cable and user manual are what you got inside the box. HOW IT WORKS Though the Mi Band looks very basic and available at a very cheap
price, it is very capable of doing an array of useful things which really impressed me. Other than tracking various fitness metrics, including the number of steps you take and your sleep cycle, it also acts as an alarm clock and can even unlock your Xiaomi smartphone. There is also a small built-in motor which can be used as a vibration alert when an alarm is set through the Xiaomi Mi Band App. But the alarm feature that only buzzes 3 times and might not be enough to wake you up, so ensure yourself to have another alarm set as a backup. The Mi Band App also allows you to set the color of the LED notification lights (blue, orange, green, red) and generally lets you set the device up as you like. In a bright day you might find difficult to see small LED notifications. Verdict: Wearables are slowly
Design
Performance
value for money
Overall
becoming a-must-have accessories and the Xiaomi Mi Band is the right product to start off with. Priced : INR 999/Pros: Affordable, lightweight, water resistant, 30 days battery life. Cons: Software could have been better.
Specifications • Type: Watch-style • Tracking metrics: Motion / steps, sleep • Water resistant • Rechargeable battery • Colors: Black, gray, silver, blue, green, pink, orange
Review
17
Celkon Millennia ME Q54
An affordable smartphone for selfie lovers
Mobility Ratings 40 60 70 70
C
elkon Millennia ME Q54 was officially announced in January 2015. The two new unique features of this phone are the gaming aficionados can revel in their experience with the gravity sensors and then selfie lovers can take best selfies with the 5MP front cam. At the affordable price of Rs 5555, this 5MP selfie cam, at lower-mid range model, is a wonderful choice that will please the selfie lovers. Features: Q54 Millennia ME is a dual SIM model powered by 1.2 GHz Quad Core processor. The Kitkat model supports WI-FI, Bluetooth A2DP and 3G video calling. The highlight of Q54 Millennia ME is its 5” Capacitive FWVGA, IPS Display with gravity sensors that make this a delight for gamers and provides better motion controls. The model is backed by a powerful 2000 mAh lithium ion battery. Its internal memory of 4 GB is expandable up to
32GB, and it has 512MB RAM. The WOW factors for Q54 Millennia ME are its 5MP selfie front cam and 5MP rear cam with flash which makes the phone an absolute delight for the selfie lovers. At just 150 gms, the Q54 is slim and light to hold. PERFORMANCE: Celkon Millennia ME Q54 display enhanced with IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen capable to display 16M colors at 187 ppi pixel density touchscreen with multi touch support optimized by capacitive touchscreen. Display resolution of this phone is 480x800 pixels and it has compact 5-inch display with capacitive touchscreen mode. Device has a loudspeaker to amplify music playback and tones, device supports speakerphone while you call. Celkon Millennia ME Q54 supports display orientation sensor, which helps to rotate screen view in any angle. Celkon
Millennia ME Q54 has Dual Card Slots and the device supports all GSMbased network providers. It supports 2G band frequency at GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900 and Hight Speed 3G Network Band at HSDPA 2100. The device comes with network handling support with network settings and work offline with flight mode. Now let us examine the main feature of this smartphone, the front cam and how it performs. With photo output at 5.0 megapixels and 2592x1944 pixels resolution in size, the digital cam helps us to catch our favorite movements as photographs and videos with quite decent quality. Though the cam’s low-light performance is not that impressive, in daylight it delivers good pics and video via front and back cams. Celkon Millennia ME Q54 has Sweep Panorama to take pictures around you. VERDICT: This is an affordable mid-range smartphone
Design
Performance
value for money
Overall
with a lovely front cam feature for the selfie loving generation. PRICE: Rs. 5555/PROS: Lightweight, affordable, equipped with decent front cam CONS: Build quality, average cam performance in low light.
Specifications • Dual SIM • Quad core 1.2 GHz processor • Android 4.4.2 KITKAT • 512MB RAM, 4GB ROM • 5”(12.7 cm)Display • 3G | Video calling • 5MP rear cam with flash • 5MPfront cam • Gravity sensor • 2000 mAh • Expandable up to 32 GB
Mobility May 2015
Review
18
aSUS Zenfone 2
Best in class & fits most criteria MObility RatingS 60 85 85 85
Z
enfone 2 is the new flagship smartphone in the ZenFone family. After launching the first generation Zen4 Zenfone, Zen5 and Zen6 last year, now Asus has announced the second gen Zenfone 2 series in India. Soon after the launch, ASUS grabbed headlines as they offered a whopping 4GB RAM in their new phone at a highly affordable price tag and promised easy availability. We got a chance to review the new varient to see how it stands apart from the crowed. DESIgN & FEATuRE: Design wise there is nothing revolutionary about the Zenfone 2. Made of plastic with chunky bezels and a removable rear panel, we feel that though it might not look like a premium 50k or 60k smartphone in the market, it has a good premium feel with its brushed-metal
Mobility May 2015
finish and concentriccircle detailing, and new refinements, including a graceful curved case that tapers to incredibly thin 3.9 mm at the edges. Powered with a 64-bit Intel Atom Z3580 processor and up to 4GB RAM, it has 4G/LTE connectivity. ASUS Zenfone 2 is introduced in three variants in India and feature Back Light (HDR) mode and fast charging technology for its 3000 mAh battery. ZenFone 2 comes equipped with a 13MP PixelMaster camera with an f/2.0 wideaperture lens and a brandnew ZenUI. PERFORMANCE: Performance: The brand-new ZenUI offers you simpler and smarter experience; the new layout has white space for a cleaner design; and you get all your notifications right in front. In day light also the bright screen gives you clear visibility of every corner of
the screen. At the top, we have a very bright dual tone LED flash, then 13 megapixel main camera and the volume control that looks inspired by LG design. The thing which we loved most is its camera capabilities. The inbuilt camera features of Zenfone2 like the Time Lapse, All Smiles, Smart Remove, Time Rewind, Miniature, Panorama, GIF Animation, Effect and Depth of Field, most of the time each one gave us the desired output. We felt the phone is overall a great device. HDR really needs to be worked on but in the right conditions it works well. Selfie mode actually uses the main camera to detect faces and shoot a group photo with the 13 mega-pixel sensor, great for family photos. VERDICT: Zenfone 2 is surely a value for money product and easy availability will
DESIgN
PERFORMANCE
VALuE FOR MONEy
OVERALL
give this product an edge over its competitors. PRICED : INR 12,999/- to 22,999/PROS: Price, Performance, Good updates CONS: Not the most stylish.
SPECIFICATIONS • 64-bit Quad Core Intel Atom Z3560/Z3580 processor 1.8 or 2.3GHz • 5.5-inch IPS display with 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) • Corning Gorilla Glass 3 • 64-bit dual-channel LPDDR3 4GB • 16GB/32GB/64GB, ASUS WebStorage 5GB (lifetime) • Micro SD up to 64GB • Rear: 13MP, f/2.0aperture • Front: 5MP, f/2.0-aperture • 3000mAh
Analysis
19
Smartphone adoption
in India at an all time high
Z
innov, a Management Consulting firm, released an interesting study on the Smartphone adoption in the country and said that India is at the cusp of digitization, mainly driven by mobility. The study titled India Smartphone Market: Witnessing Exponential Growth, brought to light the various factors that are propelling the smartphone adoption at an exponential pace in India. Growing competition resulting in price reductions; the ease of access of content and language localization; government Incentives through Make in IndiaÂ? and prevalence of internetenabled services on smartphones are some of the reasons for this propelling growth. The released study read that approximately 81 million smartphones were shipped in the year 2014, making it a 51% Quarter-on-Quarter growth. Smartphones are already outpacing the growth of feature phones and are expected to show a massive 36% CAGR over the next 5 years making it to the 651 million mark by 2019.
The unstoppable surge of smartphones in India continues with 29% of urban population with a base of 409 million users adding to its adoption. Smartphone users in Mini Metros and Tier-I / II cities show an evolved usage of smartphone, similar to that of Large Metros. In fact the study highlighted that smartphone users in Mini Metros and Tier-I/II cities match their Large Metro counterparts w.r.t. usage of Online Apps and Browsing. Putting light on the vendor scenario, the released study said that home grown vendors though commanding a major share, are facing a stiff competition from Chinese vendors. It says that while Chinese brands are gaining prominence, with Xiaomi recently surpassing all other brands in sale of 4G LTE smartphones; Micromax is also threatening the dominance of Samsung in the domain. “With consumers spoilt for choice, domestic smartphone vendors will have to increasingly focus on streamlining operational processes and investing in R&D for differentiation,�
Growth of smartphones is outpacing feature phones; expected
said Arvind Rawat, Engagement Manager-Market Expansion Advisory, Zinnov. Smartphone vendors are also adopting new and innovating Go-ToMarket (GTM) strategies like Online Exclusive (e.g.: Motorola on Flipkart), Experience centers to facilitate customer experience (e.g.: #100 experience centers have been planned by Xiaomi in India), Brick & Motor model where vendors are pushing retail expansion (e.g.: # 250 retail stores have been planned by Gionee in India), and hardware differentiation in order to gain traction in the highly competitive Indian market. With users spending significant time on their smartphones, these devices are indeed emerging as multi-activity portals
to show a CAGR of 36% over the next 5 years for everything right from Entertainment, to Communication, to being Staying Informed. Last but not the least, the released study read that these smartphones are indeed changing the way consumers shop. Right from user research to Product Anytime & Anywhere, smartphones are an emerging point of purchase. And to address the demand from Tier 2 & 3 cities and changing consumer shopping pattern, ecommerce companies are increasing their focus on mobile commerce.
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Personality
“I always believed in dreaming big” Mr. Shripal Gandhi,
Founder & CEO, Swipe Technologies India Pvt Ltd
Swipe has been growing over
100%, YOY. Today the company has a market share of 5.7% in tablet PC segment in India.
Swipe is eying a market share
of 10% by FY16. There are more than 5 states in India where
Swipe commands market leadership in terms of volume of
tablets sold, including Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra
Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Swipe has country’s largest range of portfolio of tablets and very
unique innovation driven fablets.
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Q. What key features Swipe considers before releasing a new handset? A. Disruptive Concept / Design: Swipe has been pioneer in launching many ‘India’s First’ innovative offerings like India’s First 3D tablet, India’s Slimmest Tablet. Disruptive Technology: Swipe has rolled out many devices with unique technology like finger print scanner integration, gesture control technology, quick charge technology, etc. Disruptive Price: By virtue of having significant product development strength and understanding Indian’s consumer’s needs, Swipe has developed many products which are true disruption and are for masses due to their supremely attractive price points. Relevant to today’s Youth: We introduce quirky colors and there is abundance of cool applications. Best user experience: Swipe has a dedicated mobility-solution team which works solely on improving the UI/UX of the devices for simplicity and elegance. Content differentiation: Many unique apps, videos and audios are preloaded on the Swipe devices to offer immediate content differentiation.
Q. What next level of innovation we can expect from Swipe this year? A. Since inception, Swipe has been on a mission to develop feature-rich and affordable mobile communication
devices with cutting-edge technology. The company has so far introduced a variety of bestselling tablets from the Swipe 3D like Life+, MTV Slash, Halo Value to Slice Tab which have been instant hits and have far exceeded the company’s own sales expectations. We recently launched a SuperSmartphone, Konnect ME, which is the 4th device in the series from Swipe’s stable; the earlier ones being Konnect 4, Konnect 4E and Konnect 5.0. Swipe is working on super secure, super social and super tech series of tablets and fablets to be introduced in FY16. Swipe has developed an unconventional approach to product development by reducing design-cycle time to 3-4 weeks flat. So far, Swipe has launched a range of 25 products – which include Tablet PCs and Fablets – eight of which are the ‘first-to-be-launched’ in the country. Swipe is really focused on smart devices to begin with tablets and fablets. The idea is to get the millions of connected devices. Swipe is working on a very cool, innovation driven personal smart device to be launched in the month of June 2015.
Q. What is your target for this year? A. Swipe Technologies witnessed YOY growth of 100%+ in the FY201415. Besides focusing on consumer vertical, the company will also focus on enterprise verticals including BSFI, retail, pharma, hospitality, automobile, manufacturing and logistics. Swipe will also be available in international markets like Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, etc.
Q. As sub 10k segment is heating up and getting more competitive, what are your strategies to counter this challenge? A. Every entrepreneur has to face a number of challenges while of building a successful venture especially in a highly competitive and rapidlychanging industry. Hence, it is very crucial to recognize the changing behavior of the consumers and adapt to them instantaneously. Given the fact that the buying behavior of the consumers is rapidly changing, we differentiate our offerings by providing better, faster and more affordable products to customers. Gone are the days where an effective marketing campaign can sway the consumers. Today people judge tablets or fablets based on their technology. We need to be ahead on the curve to ensure that we develop products that have longer shelf-life and have strongly appeal to our target consumers. And in many instances, we are required to anticipate the patterns of consumer preferences. The company’s strategy is to capture market shares in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and towns rather than to fight it out in the metros. This strategy has worked wonders, where Swipe could reach commanding position in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Q. These days smartphones are capable of doing much more than taking images and surfing net. Is Swipe considering some new and unique
features via software and hardware integration in their smartphones? A. Integration of hardware and software has been major strength of Swipe since the beginning having made significant progress in consumer as well as enterprise space in this direction. We are offering unique apps and content integration through software. Also we have developed unique power management and memory management software appbased solutions to enhance consumer experience. In Swipe Sense, we have integrated the fingerprint scanner to be used as a biometric security tool through software. We have also designed and added various gesture-based solutions for deeper user engagement.
Q. You have recently been recognized by a leading daily as a Top Entrepreneur of India. Can you comment on that? A. For a start-up like Swipe, it is a matter of great pride to be part of the prestigious event - The Economic Times India Entrepreneurship Summit 2015. I have always believed in dreaming big. There have been a number of inspirations, but of all, it was a sense of passion to influence the digital revolution that drew me to think of entrepreneurship seriously and made me move back to India from US. It always is a great feeling when your hard work gets recognized in the world/country. And getting recognition on such a great platform encourages one to keep up the good work and keep striving hard to deliver the best.
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Channel Focus
“With many firsts” we find Celkon as the most promising mobile phone brand
“E
arlier we handled several brands of feature phones and smart phones, but now
SPG Global Distribution Pvt Ltd is a prominent distribution company in telecom. SPG was incepted in 2003, by its Founder and Director, Shekhar Kukreja with their main office in Faridabad (Haryana) and branch office in New Delhi
we are concentrating only on distributing feature phones and smart phones for Celkon. We are not distributing mobile accessories or any other IT products at present. Celkon is a Telanganabased provider and Celkon phones are distributed by SPG Global Distribution Pvt Ltd. We started providing Celkon in Feb 2015. For Celkon 80% units sold are smart phones and 20% are feature phones. We are quite satisfied with our Channel Partners’ performance and with the hearty support from our Celkon Retail Partners throughout Haryana,” clarifies Mr. Kukreja. For Celkon, as a part of first phase of marketing, they started off in Haryana
Mobility May 2015
state and plan to gradually expand to other states in India. We have 32 Channel Partners, 500 Celkon key retail partners, 200 ISDs outlets and young, intelligent, dynamic, highly experienced and energetic strong sales team of 60 personnel with a strong backend and effective logistics. Mr. Kukreja wants the number retail partners to increase to 1000 by July 2015. Their strategy is to start in A-Class cities in Haryana first and then move to B-Class cities. Mr. Kukreja asserts, “Our USPs are we do transparent business and offer the best and promised quality to the end customers. We maintain family-like relationship with our channel partners and our business model is long-term and relationshipbased. On the top of it, we give 24X7X365 service support. Our vendor is also very supportive towards us. This financial year we want to achieve 40%-50% growth rate.” As for the latest trends and promotion support to the channel, “Due to increasing competition, prices and then margins are coming down, but if the partners work hard and offer good customersatisfaction, they can make good money. We have dedicated partners and they are our strength. For branding and promotion, we are giving ads in print
Shekhar Kukreja, Director, SPG Global Distribution Pvt. Ltd.
media and TVs, POS branding, hoardings, etc. At key retail outlets, we are also keeping inshop demonstrators and promoters who explain the customers about our brands and models. Today, people are shifting rapidly from feature phones to smart phones in cities, and smaller towns are not far behind in following this trend. From now on we are expecting a decline in the feature phone sales and rapid rise in smart phone sales,” adds Mr. Kukreja. Regarding challenges, “There are apprehensions among the providers about the 4G due to be launched in Dec 2015. Everybody made their spaces in 2G and 3G domains. Now, they are concerned about what new strategies they may have to device to promote themselves in the 4G space. And then there is a controversy that online retailing is adversely affecting the traditional channel. For us that is no issue since our vendor places only some models exclusively online. They do not place these models online which they give to the traditional channel.
That is a good part with our vendor.” Celkon Mobiles is present in more than 400 districts through 80,000 retail outlets in India. The company achieved revenues close to INR 1000 Cr in just a span of 5 years. Celkon is also present in 13 global markets including Africa, Europe and APAC regions. Celkon has launched several innovative products in India such as Campus A35K, WIN 400 - First Windows model from Celkon, Millennia OCTA 510 - First Octacore model from Celkon; to name a few and the recently launched Millennia ME, A419 and Q450. Celkon is currently in the strategic expansion phase and will be introducing many more innovative and exciting products. For future plans, Mr. Kukreja concludes, “We want to focus completely on Celkon and particularly on Celkon smart phones. We want to expand our business in terms of sales volumes and revenues. Gradually and systematically, we want to expand and establish our Celkon sales in other states of India.”
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Celkon Partners with SPG Global
to Provide Their Mobile Phones in Haryana
Mr Y Guru Chairman and Managing Director Celkon Mobiles
C
elkon
Mobiles a fast growing mobile brand in India, was started in 2009. Celkon aims to offer stylish, innovative and feature loaded models at a fiercely competitive market. Celkon has now partnered with SPG Global Distribution Pvt Ltd enhance its presence in Haryana. Technology and design innovation have always been at the forefront at Celkon, owing to which Celkon has a lot of firsts to its credit, such as First Indian brand to launch a 3G phone; First Indian
brand to launch Android OS Smartphone; First tablet with Education Tutorials; First Indian brand to launch Android Kit Kat OS Smartphone; First Indian brand to launch the lightest phone (Campus Evoke A43), and so on. Through the alliance with SPG, Celkon will have a presence in more than 21 districts in Haryana including major cities such as Gurgaon, Faridabad, Mahendergarh, Hisar, Sirsa, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Panipat, Karnal, Yamunanagar, etc. Celkon products will be available at all SPG serviced outlets across the region. Moreover Celkon will also be launching new and exciting models and offers to make Celkon brands accessible to the people of Haryana. Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Y Guru
Chairman and Managing Director - Celkon Mobiles, said “We are looking at Haryana as one of our key markets for the year. We realize that the people of Haryana are looking forward to brands which are innovative, stylish, powerful and feature-rich. We are pleased to partner with SPG and believe that the partnership will enable us reach out to the nooks and corner of the state. Mr. Shekhar Kukreja`s Statement, Director, SPG said, “We are pleased to be associated with Celkon – one of the top 5 Indian brands in India. This association will enable us to build an extensive product portfolio and provide the best-in-class models to our retail associates. We look forward to a long-term association with Celkon.”
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Made in India
“Videocon offers latest tech products at Value-for-Money price” Please brief us about Videocon’s present day brand positioning and plans for India for FY2015-16? Videocon, over the past three decade, has made the latest in technology accessible to the Indian customers at Value-ForMoney pricing. This same ethos will carry the Videocon Mobile Handset Division forward. With an innovation-led business approach, Videocon Mobile Phones has a wide range of mobile devices from the latest in Android-based smartphones to high quality, highly affordable multi-media feature phones. The company has adopted a phase-wise approach of building its distribution presence and marketshare in select states before expanding on a pan-India basis. This objective has been successfully achieved
Mobility May 2015
Mr. Jerold Pereira, CEO -Videocon Mobile in states like Rajasthan, UPEast, Punjab and Karnataka. The plan now is to penetrate states like AP and Telangana, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
How Videocon views Government’s Make in India initiative and does Videocon see it as an opportunity? And how will it affect the Indian handset manufacturers in general? Videocon has traditionally been a R&D and
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manufacturing-led Group. Therefore, with the new impetus being given by the Government to ‘Make In India,’ the Group has been ramping up its local manufacturing capacity and capabilities in its plants at Aurangabad and Kashipur. In addition to put in more assembly lines in these two plants, the Group is also looking at increasing or converting manufacturing capacity at its plants in Telangana and Tamil Nadu, in line with the strategy to have much deeper distribution in the South. There are direct benefits to the Indian handset manufacturers by way of savings on import duty, lesser impact of USD volatility, etc. However, there are many other benefits by way of cost savings by indigenizing manufacturing. We are very optimistic about being able to capitalize on this opportunity given by the Government.
What are the big plans for 2015? How many products will we see from Videocon this Fy?
The success of this handset business, particularly in smartphones, depends on how one keeps pace with the evolving technology. On these lines, our focus is to stay abreast
with all that is happening in the smartphone space, on the hardware and software realms, with what is happening on the airwaves side and the impending ramp-up of 4G as well as with the shift in Rest-of-India to 3G with high data usage. Our product portfolio will therefore reflecting this will be launching smartphones at regular intervals. At the same time, we will also not let go off the opportunity that continues to be present in multi-media feature phones and tablets.
Apart from Mobile handsets, what all exciting categories Videocon is looking at such as wearables? We believe that there still remains much to be done in the mobile handset space itself – be it on the hardware or software side. So that will be our main pre-occupation in the
next few months. There is also much to be done in bringing technological convergence between our consumer electronics, home appliance, satellite television and mobility businesses, where a lot of R&D and effort is being invested. However, this will not preclude us from trying to launch innovations in the niche areas like wearables, watches, etc. As mentioned, we are working on a number of value-enhancing aspects on the hardware and software, which could also include domestic and offshore collaborations. It would be too premature to get into details at the moment.
What are your plans with chipset in your devices; any latest developments on that front?
As said earlier, our success, particularly in smartphones is solely linked to our ability to stay in line with the evolving technology, including new chipsets. Being apt with market needs, our R&D teams are in regular touch with the leading chipset companies to ensure that we maintain abreast with their roadmaps and delivery schedules. “We believe the ‘Make In India’ drive has given us a lot more clarity and drive to stay ahead in the mobile handset business. With our manufacturing legacy and existing capabilities, as well as market-focused approach, we are sure that in the coming months Videocon will continue to play a leading role by launching innovative and valueadded products”
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28
Consumer Alert
T
Tips for keeping your
oday, your smartphone is more precious than your actual computer/ laptop which has most of your sensitive information. Have you ever thought that we don’t do enough to protect our android smartphones beyond perhaps having a four digit pass code. The global Android team of Google has just shared some key facts on how to keep mobile devices safe and secure. The article addresses simple step by step instructions on how to keep to keep ones android device safe.
Make sure Android Device Manager is on: Be prepared if you ever lose your phone by confirming Android Device Manager is set up on your device. Make sure to sign in with your Google Account and turn on “Remotely locate this device” and “Allow remote lock and erase.” You can also try out the “find my phone” feature so you know how it works in case you need it in the future. Set a Screen Lock: Secure your device by setting a screen lock with a PIN, password, or pattern. Each time you turn on your device or wake up the screen, you’ll be asked to unlock your device. Go to Settings > Security > Screen lock. If your device is running Android 5.0 or higher, you can also choose to have your device automatically unlock when you have it with you using Smart Lock for Android
Encrypt your device: Encryption helps keep your data safe if you lose your device. Nexus 6 and Nexus 9 devices are encrypted by default. If your Android device is running Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) or higher, you can encrypt the data on your device in Settings > Security > Encrypt phone. Tip: If you’re planning to sell your device, you can encrypt it as an additional precaution before erasing your information from it (also known as doing a factory data reset).
Mobility May 2015
Know what to do if your voice goes missing: Android Device Manager to locate, remotely lock, or erase your deviceFollow the steps to use Android Device Manager to remotely locate, lock, or ring your device. You can also use it to erase the information from your lost device. Check your Gmail account’s security: If you think your Gmail account has been compromised, follow the steps to check your account’s security or recover your account.
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Android device safe Download apps from trusted source : Some apps can affect your device’s security, so only download them from places you trust. We work to make sure that all apps available on Google Play pass stringent policy checks, including checks for potentially harmful behavior. If you have Google Play installed, you’re automatically protected from potentially harmful apps with the Verify Apps feature. It’s turned on by default and warns you before you install an application we believe is potentially harmful. It’ll also check your device about once a week for potentially harmful apps. If you see a warning fromVerify Apps, we recommend not installing that app.
Before you install an app from an unknown source, first consider: o Is the app from a trusted source? What made you sure it’s from a trusted brand? o Does it offer a service that could include hidden fees? o Is it asking for sensitive information or device permissions you wouldn’t give to a stranger? If you’re unsure about any of these questions, we recommend that you don’t install the app. If you do install the app, we recommend disabling Unknown Sources again after you’re done.
Be careful about the ads you click: Although most ads are safe, you can potentially affect your device by touching or opening banners or pop-ups. Beware of anything that claims that your phone is infected or asks for your password or personal information — you could accidentally download unwanted or potentially harmful applications or give someone you don’t trust access to your account.
Back up your data: Backups make it easier to recover your information and apps if your device is lost, stolen, or damaged.
Chrome as your browser : Chrome is built with security in mind and has frequent updates intended to keep users safe. If you don’t have Chrome on your mobile device, we recommend you download and install it .
Mobility May 2015
Cover Story
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Refurbished market is booming in India!
Buying a refurbished product with substantial discount and with nearly brand new standard is a great choice, but learn before what exactly are refurbished goods, how to choose & check them and most important from where to buy.
B
usiness dynamics is rapidly changing today, whether they are specialty products, luxury goods or daily consumer goods--the ways they are sold and purchased are undergoing rapid metamorphosis. The latest growing craze in the market is refurbished factory seconds-products, including electronics, IT
Mobility May 2015
products, telecom gadgets and others. India is a rising market power with vast untapped potential and the refurbished market here has a great potential for the coming years and decades. People in general have a misconception that all refurbished products (also known as refurbs) are used or secondhand
goods. Refurbished goods not necessarily mean used ones, but they could be the products kept on display or used in demos and hence the package-box is opened. Once packaged is opened, it cannot be counted as brand new good and hence has to be labeled as refurbished. Most of use heard about refurbished goods,
but how many of us really understand what are they? Let us study the refurbished goods and their market in depth. In some people’s minds, refurbished goods are faulty products hastily pushed on to the next consumer. But in many cases refurbished electronics such as computers, TVs,
Cover Story
stereos, mobile devices, etc. are a great steal that cost much less and last nearly as long as their brand-new counterparts. But the key to buying value-for-money refurbished electronics is knowing the right places where they are available and doing a bit of detective work on shopping.
So exactly what is a refurbished product? Lots of items fall under the ‘refurbished’ umbrella. For example, sometimes a customer returns a product for a refund without even opening the box or using the item at all. There’s nothing wrong with it, but the item can’t be sold as new and has to be offered as a refurbished product. And sometimes electronic goods, IT hardware products, TVs, phones, etc are returned to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for minor defects and damages. The companies dispose some of them in sales as seconds-goods, but majority get lapped up by refurbished goods companies who, after removing the defects, sell them. And customer usually gets huge discounts of 3040% on these products.
Some reasons why products get labeled as refurbished Opened box: Opened box can mean anything. Technically, there should be no issue: the item is ‘new,’ but only the box or package was simply opened.
To get an insight, we asked three key players in the refurbishing space in India
Alex Souter, MD, Overcart.com
Rahul Chowdhury, CEO and Co-Founder of Reboot
Hitendra Chaturvedi, Founder & CEO, GreenDust Pvt Ltd
Overcart
Reboot
GreenDust
Overcart is one of India’s first liquidation services provider and works with the leading ecommerce companies and manufacturers. Through Overcart. com portal, the company provides excess, unboxed, and refurbished stock directly to end-users and helps its client-companies realize better value for their unsold inventory. A comprehensive quality check process and a proprietary QC technology helps the company ensure a high level of trust among its loyal fan-base. The company also provides inventory-management, warehousing and fulfillment services to its client-companies as part of its liquidation service.
Reboot was founded in the year 2012 with the mission to increase PC and mobile devices penetration at par with the developed nations of the world. We visualize being India’s first national provider to offer certified, co-branded, preowned, reasonably-priced refurbished hardware (PCs, laptops, desktops, servers and smartphones, etc), backed by a warranty and quality assurance. As agents of change, Reboot’s leadership team is on a mission to ‘Reboot’ & redefine IT, computer and the allied hardware market dynamics and to help bridge the digital divide between different social strata.
GreenDust, a brand of RLC, offers high quality, genuine, branded products at highly discounted prices backed by their world class warranty and after-sales-service. GreenDust’s buyers are continuously on the lookout for factory seconds, surplus, demo, damaged packaging, discontinued and overproduced items. GreenDust negotiates the best prices on such products and passes on the savings to the customers. GreenDust allows manufacturers and retailers to comply with e-waste regulations and become in true sense a ‘green’ company by supporting the 5Rs – Reduce, Repair, Reuse, Recycle and Resell.
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Cover Story
Mr Alex Souter, Managing Director, Overcart.com Due to the recent surge in the number of smartphones being sold – India is now the second largest smartphone-market in the world with 140 million units – it is inevitable that the refurbished market will grow in the coming years. In addition – the fact that today the Indian customer is very educated about IT gadgets and knows exactly what he or she wants – means that customers are actively sourcing phones at the best price.
Demo units: Demonstration units used at trade shows, retail stores and product reviewers may be repackaged as refurbished items. Shipping or exterior damage: Minor scratches or dents to the product during shipment would force a retailer to return it to the manufacturer and the manufacturer put it on the refurbish checkout lane. Production defects: If minor defects are found, the manufacturers might repair the returned defective units and sell them or send them to retailers as refurbished units. How much faulty are refurbished electronics? Is it worth buying refurbished electronics? According to Alex Souter of Overcart.com, the onus is even higher on the retailer to have high
Mobility April May 2015 2015
quality products as there is a misconception that refurbished products are faulty or of lower quality. Our return and failure rates – are the same as for new products. If you are looking for a discount – a refurbished product has the same quality as a new one but is significantly cheaper. Hence, it makes a lot of sense to purchase them. From Overcart every single product goes through rigorous quality testing and comes with 7-day return policy. Mr Chowdhury of Reboot, says refurbished goods are as good as brand new ones if you buy them from a reputed and national refurbished goods sellers. We use standards that are globally recognized. In fact, Reboot uses a 16-point check for all its refurbished products that include US Military Grade methods to ensure highest standards of product safety. Also all our products are functionally as good as a new product and cosmetically almost as good as new. “Refurbs are certainly worth buying and buying refurbs, in my option, is a highly sensible purchase-decision given today how quickly technology keeps changing and gadgets often become outdated within months. Not just that there is a massive cost-saving up to 50% but it is also a way of saving the national resources, environment and sometimes FOREX which are important for a country like India. In fact, FOREX is the 3rd largest national outflow due to imports of IT hardware and the related things,” adds Mr Chaudhury. “People from every segment of the society
(including educational institutions, NGOs, MSMEs and governments), as a consumers, should pay attention to the refurbished goods. Only early adopters who always want new products instantaneously irrespective of price can be made exceptions to this principle. For example, an iPhone fan may buy the new model the minute it is in the market and definitely he will not look for refurbs.” According to Hitendra Chaturvedi of GreenDust, when a product is returned, the e-commerce companies will immediately refund a customer or give him a replacement but the returned items become orphans with no one using them. E-commerce will ask the vendors to own the returns. And these returned items increase warehousing, handling and transportation besides increasing obsolescence as the products remain unsold (for example an unused mobile phone may lose as much as 30% of its value in 4 months). Vendors are often so focused on forward supply chain and ignore the costs of reverse logistics. Monthend fire-sales of returned items by e-commerce to the unorganized sector has been fraught with risks including unorganized sector cartelization (different sellers colluding to control prices in unfair ways) and returned items being sold into the brand-new channel adversely impacting customer satisfaction and margins. The process of handling returns involves several actions Customer needs to get a refund or replacement
soon. The defective product needs to get picked up fast so that customer is happy with the return experience and comes back to buy again. Our research has proven that 80% customers with bad return experience will not buy from the same e-commerce company, while similar number said if the return experience was good, it would build trust
Mr Rahul Chowdhury, CEO and Co-Founder of Reboot In today’s world, with increase in consumerism and the fast paced technological innovation, managing the old or the so called waste is a growing environmental issue. Along with this is a large scale divide between the technology ‘Have and Have nots.’ about the company and they were very likely to buy again. Mr Chaturvedi says that the returned products are quickly assessed for reasons of returning and decide whether it should be sent into shelf, sent to vendor, checked for DOA (dead on arrival) to claim warranty, repaired and refurbished or should be sent for scrap. All these decisions need to be taken quickly and with accuracy. If a product is sent back to shelf (meaning sent to e-commerce fulfillment center) it can be sold as new. Vendor terms will dictate which product will be sent back to vendor. OEM terms need to be examined to know if a product can be filed as DOA and if warranty can be
Cover Story
Mr Hitendra Chaturvedi, Founder & CEO, GreenDust Pvt Ltd. We sell refurbished products in all categories IT, mobile, home appliances, consumer electronics, accessories, apparel, furniture, shoes, toys, etc. Our assurance, warranty and support are among the best in this segment. claimed. If a product does not fall in any of the above categories, then effort needs to be made to repair it. Once repaired, direct to consumer channel has to be established to sell it only as a refurbished item and not to sell it as new. This part is very important as this affects the brand image, customer satisfaction and vendor satisfaction. A direct to consumer channel where products are sold as ‘refurbished’ or ‘open box’ will allow clear separation between the two channels and ensure that there is no mixing. Finally, any product that is not economically viable to repair should be scrapped in an environment-friendly manner.
Who takes care of warranty? “In most cases there is 6-month manufacturer warranty. For example, all Xiaomi products sold through Overcart come with exactly 6-month warranty. When the products are within the manufacturer warranty – then the brand is responsible. We also provide return-policies for
customers who face any issues,” says Alex Souter from Overcart.com. “From Reboot a customer gets a 1-year replaceable pan India warranty on all our desktop range, 6-month national replaceable warranty on our laptop range and 3-month national warranty on our Mobility device range of products. Of course, we also have special schemes as raas (repair as a service)refurbishment and sell add-on protection plans, etc. You can walk into any of our stores across the country and get counter replacement or return via the website for a free replacement within the warranty period. All Reboot parts are warranteed unlike some other refurbished product providers,” says Mr Chowdhury of Reboot. “At GreenDust, we offer 6-month warranty from our side on all the products that are bought from our website or from our connected-retail stores. GreenDust also offers accidental-damage and liquid protection to users. All our warranties are above the warranties offered by OEMs. GreenDust protection plan is free of cost and is applicable for 1 year from the date of purchase,” says Mr Chaturvedi of GreenDust. What is the market size of refurbished products? “There are several statistics on refurbished market but many developed nations recognize that the refurbished industry is large and in fact promote it via long-term government initiatives. For example, in the United States, 26 out of 50 states, mandate public schools and government
institutions to buy ONLY refurbished products thereby reducing their CAPEX outflow and also equally looking after the environment. It is 25 times more environment-friendly to refurbish a product than scrapping. In India, like the e-commerce, re-commerce via refurbishing is a large and growing business. Just the IT hardware and mobility devices, leaving aside white goods, is a whopping USD 5 Billion market and growing at a VCAGR rate of 25-30% annually. The only issue is there is no national refurbisher of our scale and the entire market is fragmented via unorganized sector and then there are secondhands selling e-commerce websites,” says Mr Chowdhury. According to Alex Souter, “In the refurbished mobiles only, the market size is expected to reach USD 14 billion by 2017, according to Gartner Research. We put the market size for refurbished phones in India at USD 3 Billion, by 2017.” Mr Chaturvedi says, “Studies indicate that by 2020, e-commerce in India will be $115 billion and assuming 10%-15% return rate means that over $12-$17 billion in value of products will be returned every year. E-commerce is the fastest growing segment today in India. The current returns rate between 12%-15% is in line with return rates in developed countries. For example, in the US ecommerce return rates are between 10%-15%.
Check points before buying
a Refurbished Product: • Is it a factory-refurbished product? • Is the refurbished unit being sold by a manufacturer’s authorized dealer? • Does the refurbished unit have a warranty? • Does the retailer offer a return policy for the refurbished unit in case you are not completely satisfied with your purchase? • Expect at least 15-days return policy. This is important so that you can inspect the product yourself before a final decision. • Accessories and Other Details: Check that all the chargers, cables, cords, manuals, software, drivers, and other things that come with your product are included in the package. Also check the complete description and specs list for your product and make sure it is the item you are expecting (a simple change in model numbers, for example, might mean you’re looking at a different product).
At last Although there are some risks when it comes to buying refurbished electronics, there’s no reason to be put off just by the label “reburbished.” Buying refurbished can land you an incredible deal. Just buy it from the manufacturer or reputable dealer and with a long warranty to cover any problems—and enjoy your savings.
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Portfolio
SaMSUng galaXy S6 EDgE
has set the bar for premium smartphones New curved display The Galaxy S6 Edge introduced some intuitive and innovative features like lightning fast charging and a quick-launch camera gesture.
Quad 2.1GHz + Quad 1.5Ghz) Octa Core Processor
DIMENSIONS: 142.1 x 70.1 x 7 mm RAM: 3 GB
INTERNAL STORAGE: 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB
USER INTERFACE: TouchWiz WEIGHT: 132 g
REAR CAMERA: 16 megapixels
SCREEN SIZE: 5.1 in FRONT CAMERA: 5 megapixels
ANDROID VERSION: 5.0.2 - Lollipop CONNECTIVITY: HSPA, LTE, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1 BATTERY SIZE: 2600 mAh
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SCREEN: 2560 x 1440 pixels (576 ppi)
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Opinion
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Mobile devices fueling explosive growth of e-commerce Businesses must weigh interoperability against functionality for a fine balance to give the consumers an easy-touse mobile experience. A good and secure interface is a must to ensure safe transactions.
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ndia is one of the world’s fastest growing e-commerce markets that have taken the Indian business by a storm. According to the recent study, the Indian e-commerce industry is valued at $17 billion in 2014 and is estimated to see a 67% increase in the average annual spending for online purchases per individual by 2015. Approximately 65 million consumers in India are expected to buy online in 2015 against 40 million in 2014. As the Indian e-commerce market is in the budding stage, it is surely set to increase in the years to come. With many improvements in technology, e-commerce will only be more easy, user-friendly, convenient and secure. Ecommerce is expected to top $100 billion in the next 5 years which is why every day there are new trends and changes in the interfaces and digitization for an enhanced experience. E-commerce
Mobility May 2015
covers many outward-facing processes for users, suppliers and external partners, including sales, marketing, logistics, customer service, purchasers of raw materials and production and procurement managers. E-business includes e-commerce but also covers internal processes such as production, inventory management, product development, risk management, finance, knowledge management and human resources which require enterprise technology at various ends for a tech–friendly support. The increasing acceptance and usage of smartphones and tablets has also aiding the e-commerce growth. In 2015, computers & telecom devices and their accessories, consumer electronics and apparels together are estimated to account for 42% of total retail e-commerce sales, as against 39%. Smartphone purchases is a dominant trend in e-commerce domain today. The Indian smartphone handset market has witnessed dynamic shift with leading vendors and distributors such as Nokia, Samsung, Sony Motorola and LG who are losing
a significant amount of market share to the smaller local players like Micromax, Xiaomi, Spice, Karbonn, Maxx, Lava and Zen etc. Many mobile ecommerce websites like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra, Amazon etc maintain to support early technologies, which address the needs of a wide range of devices including relatively old smartphones but it does not always provide the level of support most consumers expect. This technology makes it difficult to maintain content equality between
consumers to a better mobile experience. A good security interface is also a must especially for start-ups and new venture models as they often outsource the technological processes to manage critical portions of the ecommerce experience. Indian ecommerce industry provides a wide variety of developing and emerging solutions to grow online business. They also provide ultimate and elegant e-commerce web designing solutions like Internets Graphic Style, e-commerce banner developing, site logo & flash
Subhash Aggarwal, Chief Managing Editor, Cheers Devices
different versions of the site, develop new features, integrate new marketing software and deliver advanced functionality for mobile-friendly experience. Businesses must weigh interoperability against functionality for a fine balance. This leads the
designing services. It is estimated that between 2017 and 2020, the e-commerce industry could spend around 2% to 6% of the revenue on warehousing and sortation centers, which would translate to $450-900 million giving a big boost to the retail and IT sectors.
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Technology & Innovation
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As KGPians take India to the WORLD (Karen 3.0 to enter for RoboSub 2015) L
OVE for BOTS – that is what has brought together a group of brilliant students from various undergraduate disciplines at IIT Kharagpur and formed “Team AUV”. They have designed and built Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for research and competition purposes. The project is running under Centre for Robotics , IIT Kharagpur and is being mentored by Prof. C.S. Kumar (Mechanical Eng. Dept.), Prof. Vishwanath Nagarajan (Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture Dept)
Mobility May 2015
and Prof. Vikranth Racherla (Mechanical Eng. Dept.). Team AUV is working towards participating in the International AUVSI RoboSub Competition. This annual competition, held at San Diego, California, is a platform for industries and students to display their skills in underwater robotics. “We live in an age where we are trying to reduce as much human effort as possible , whether that’s a good thing or bad, is for you to decide but until you decide we’ll try our best to make your lives
as laid back as possible. Our lives are affected by Bots to an extent which is beyond our imaginations. From painting our cars to cleaning our houses they do everything without complaining. So we at Kharagpur Robosoccer Students’ Group (KRSSG) thought of taking off their stress by making them play soccer.” says Abhay Kumar, (Fourth Year Undergraduate Student, Department of Ocean Engineering & Naval Architecture, Team Lead, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur).
An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a robot which traverses and completes an assigned task /mission under the water surface. The team is developing whole vehicle including the control systems, hardware, sensor interfacing, manufacturing etc. that is building a platform by the means of which task is to be accomplished. Secondly the team needs to encode the mission /task efficiently in the vehicle so that it can effectively exploit the resources which the vehicle is offering and thus
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complete the given task. The team is taking India to the world yet again with Kraken 3.0 for 18th AUVSI RoboSub (July 20th–
26th, 2015). Previously, they have also won the National level SAVe (National Student AUV competition). The team
made its debut performance in the 14th AUVSI ROBOSUB competition where it cleared qualifying rounds of competing
against 30 international teams. Since then the team has burnt midnight oil to make Krazen 3.0 competitive in the world platform. Active testing of the vehicle is going on in the Hydrodynamics Laboratory to develop a rugged autonomous vehicle that is strengthened to win Robosub 2015. The zeal and passion of the team is so high that the entire team is staying back in summer to further improve the vehicle. Interested entrepreneurs in the field may connect to this student team for innovative ideas and partnership.
Mobility May 2015
Featured
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Growing Wi-Fi enabled ecosystem in India is propelling the mobility television etc have also been witnessed. Hence , with more WiFi enabled cities ,the mobility technologies are evolving at a very fast pace. 2015 has been witnessing a huge transition in mobility space which is becoming even more pervasive and according to a recent survey by Citrix, 71 per cent of the enterprises believe that mobility is a top priority while 63 per cent believe it to be the biggest factor in helping them gain a competitive advantage. Mr Gaurav Gupta , Mobile Practice Head, TO THE NEW Digital.
Current day scenario
Mr Gaurav Gupta, Mobile Practice Head, TO THE NEW Digital
I
n smart cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi, where penetration of WiFi is expanding across length and breadth of the cities is helping the mobility to propel at an extensive rate. This has made a lot of enterprises relook their websites’ compatibility with mobile interfaces. This is an
Mobility May 2015
era of smart phones where smart phones are becoming more affordable and there has been an incredible surge in the internet consumption. The trend is also percolating down to Wi-Fi devices and personalised Wi-Fi zones for seamless connectivity around the clock. WiFi devices are gaining
popularity for personal mobile internet connectivity owing to their ease of use and cost effective plans that telcos are constantly coming up with. Moreover, with growing WIFI enabled ecosystem, the rise in consumption of smart devices such as smart watches and smart
As a mobile app developer these are exciting times for us. The appetite of end users to stay connected while on the go has been ever increasing. Users are increasingly using mobile devices to do things that were earlier done using desktops. Mobile is now becoming the primary channel to access information, play games, book tickets and so on and so forth. This is opening up huge opportunities for the developer community as all of our web clients are now moving towards mobile apps. The market for mobile applications development has never been as vibrant and active as it is today. Along with the huge demand for mobile apps, there are new mobile technologies that is
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making this space quite interesting. These new technologies provides unique experiences for the end users at the same time provide great learning opportunities for us as developers. To name a
entertainment to the end user.
Challenges A lot of times, clients are not clear about what they want to build in the
Profile of TO THE NEW Digital THE NEW is an Internet products and solutions company specializing in SMACK - Social, Mobile, Analytics, Content and Knowledge. With a client promise of ‘Online For Your Bottomline’, TO THE NEW believes in helping clients use social and mobile media to enhance business rather than mere advertising. Geographies: TO THE NEW, since its inception, has focused on expanding its reach in multiple geographies including US, Europe, India and South East Asia. Being headquartered in Singapore, TO THE NEW enjoys a critical edge over its counterparts in terms of global experience and operational innovations. Experts: With over 600 social experts, data scientists, tech engineers, content creators, creative mavericks, market analysts and production specialists globally, TO THE NEW credits its success to the young army that thrives for innovation in the ever growing digital space. Clients: TO THE NEW caters to more than 150 clients across industry verticals, including Viacom 18, Toyota, Canon, Sony, Castrol, P&G, Citibank to name a few. TO THE NEW is also an established strategic partner with Google, Adobe, Amazon (AWS), Datamatics, Sokrati, YouTube, DataStax and MongoDB. For more information, visit www.tothenew.com
few upcoming mobile technologies that we are looking forward to are Wearables, Beacons, Apple TV, Google TV, and home automation. As developers, we also see this as a huge opportunity to convert unique ideas into mobile apps that can provide convenience, value, and
mobile app. Sometimes the client briefs are as vague as - replicate my website to mobile app. These clients need help in defining what they should build in a mobile app. We need to begin with defining the business need, analyzing the target market, analyzing the competition, designing the complete user experience,
and suggesting the feature set for the application. Post this, we get into actual app development. This entire pre-development process is called as Discovery phase where we help our clients discover what they need to build. This has proved really helpful for a lot of our clients as this helps them streamline their thoughts around the app requirements. – Secondly, with varied device platforms like Android, iOS, and Windows and devices with different screen resolutions, configurations, and features, it becomes quite challenging to build the apps that would provide seamless user experience across devices. On top of it, we need to be cognizant of the fact that our apps could be used on low end devices with much less processing power and memory. – Third, market changes at a fast pace so the client’s expectation is to go to market in a short span of time. Also the competition results in frequent changes so we need to keep the architecture of the app dynamic and scalable.
How much efforts it takes to maintain any particular app ? One of the common mistake that a lot of developers and clients make is that they do not plan for the maintenance effort and cost for their mobile apps. You can draw an analogy with buying a car and not planning for the maintenance cost for the same. At a high level, app maintenance effort would come out to be 10-25% of
the development effort. This will vary from apps to apps and depends upon shelf life, product road map, and technology stack used to develop the apps. But it is absolutely essential to plan for it because as soon as the app will be live there could be instant feedback from the end users. Key is to be prepared to answer your end users questions and feedback and also make quick releases by fixing the bugs raised by them. One also needs to release incremental features into the product over a period of time. A good mobile strategy would include a dedicated maintenance effort over a period of time.
Expectation from Government ? We would expect government to lead from the front and build mobile apps that makes things easy for the common man. This will not only make things convenient for the end user but also the government will be able to gather feedback in real time. For example, a mobile app to log a complaint about nonfunctional street light can go a long way in empowering common man. Similarly other utility apps that can act as an interface between the common man and the government departments will be helpful. Another aspect to seek government help is on net neutrality. Government should not allow telecom companies to monopolise or dictate on what content to be fed to the end users. In short term the telecom companies will benefit with revenues but in the long run they might end up shrinking the mobile app market considerably.
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Apps
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Best-in-class Android apps that won’t cost you a cent Drupe With Drupe, you can manage all your contacts and messaging apps in one place. Your contacts are on the left, your communications app icons on the right, then it’s just a matter of dragging your contact into the icon of the app you want to contact them with. Can give it a permanent icon on your screen in order to instantly access it whatever you’re doing on your phone. A greatlooking useful app.
Autodesk Pixlr Pixlr is the gold standard for awesome free photo editing apps on Android. You can edit all sorts of things in your photos like you normally would on a desktop (see screenshot below), and you can also make collages, add filters, overlays, borders, text, stickers and more.
Mobility May 2015
Skype Able to call anyone anywhere in the world (with internet). The app interface is simple and very well-designed, letting you communicate by video and voice calls, as well as messaging.
Any.do Task List & To-do Any.do Task List & To-do List. It’s got it all in one clean-looking user interface.You can make multiple kinds of lists, like for chores, shopping lists etc, as well as attach videos, photos and Dropbox files. The lists can be shared with colleagues or family members.
Evernote Evernote is a little like Google Keep but has its own particularities. You can save notes, voice memos and files and access them on your various devices or laptop at any time you choose. You can also set reminders, take snapshots and even hand write your notes for that personal flair. Evernote has also had a nice Material Design makeover, making it one of the best looking productivity tools on Android.
Audible for Android If you haven’t got time to read a book, that doesn’t mean you can’t listen to it! With Audible for Android installed on your phone, you can listen to books on the go from about 150K titles, of all different genres. Perfect for the commute, going for a run or a long road trip.The app is really well made, with a bunch of features like bookmarking, sleep mode, variable narration speed, multitasking features, etc.
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Date of Pub: 22nd May 2015 | Postal Dt.: 27th & 28th of same Month/ Posted at NDPSO
R.N.I. No. DELENG/2004/14198
Postal Reg. No.: DL(S)-01/3442/2013-15