The Moto 360 was hands down the best looking smartwatch last year and probably gained more attention that the Apple Watch. Of course it wasn’t the perfect smartwatch, but it was certainly the best looking piece of technology to own. It’s almost been a year since the launch Motorola was expected to give the popular smartwatch an upgrade since the first version faced issues with the battery life and felt large for certain consumers.The second generation Moto 360 is all about the look, yet again. However, Motorola has added new sizes, this includes a men's version which will be in two sizes and a women's version. The watch now includes lugs to mount the straps which gives it a more traditional look. The single hardware button has been slightly moved to the 2 o’clock position so that it is more easily accessible. The men’s version will include a 46mm dial, just like last year, and a smaller 42mm dial. The women’s version also comes with a 42mm dial but with narrower 16mm strap mounts. Apart from the new sizes Motorola is also bringing in the Moto Maker to the new Moto 360 which will be offering about 300 customisation combination options including bands and case colours, which will make it the most customisable smartwatch around.Motorola also announced sports version of the Moto 360 which will have a similar to 42mm dial like the men’s version but will include a GPS chip, a new AnyLight display for better outdoor visibility and a non-removable rubber strap in black, white and orange colour options. This will be arriving later in November.One of the biggest complaint of the Moto 360 last year was that it didn’t offer a full round display as a small section at the bottom was used to accommodate the ambient light sensor. Motorola has not changed it with the new 2nd generation as the company believes it allows them to have a better screen to body ratio. The resolution of the display has been bumped up though and now you get a slightly sharper 360x330 on the 46mm dial and 360x330 on the 42mm dial.The innards have been updated as well and now your get a Snapdragon 400 processor with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage inside. The battery is now 300mAH on the 42mm version and 400mAh on the 46mm version. The watch will be running on Android Wear as usual but on the latest version 1.3 which has improved overall experience and also brings in interactive watch faces. Prices start from $299 (Rs. 18,000 approx) and goes up to $430 (Rs. 27,000 approx) depending on the style you choose. The watch should reach India in time for Diwali and there is a high possibility that it will reduce the pricing on the first generation of the Moto 360.
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Sony was in trouble earlier this year as news had gathered that the company might sell off its smartphones division due to low sales. The rumours were scrapped by Sony as it confirmed that the smartphone business is here to stay. Known to have an erratic cycle to launch flagship smartphones, Sony has yet again announced a whole new series and now made it clear that it is not going to go down without a fight. The new Xperia Z5 series was announced yesterday at the ongoing IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany. Instead of announcing one flagship model, Sony introduced three new smartphones this year all with similar hardware but different screen size, resolution and battery. The hero product and the most talked about smartphone at the launch was the Xperia Z5 Premium which is now the world’s first ever smartphone to sport a 4K UHD display. Yes that’s 3840x2160 resolution packed in a 5.5-inch display bringing a pixel density of 806 pixels per inch. While it sounds staggering it is also an overkill as such a high resolution on a smartphone does not make sense. Another major concern for having a 4K display onboard will be the battery life, to which Sony says that it will be fitted with a chunky 3,430mAH battery and would last about 2 days which seems hard to believe. Apart from the Z5 Premium, Sony announced the Xperia Z5 with a 5.2-inch full HD display and also the Z5 Compact which comes with an appealing 4.6-inch 720p display. All three smartphones run on a Snapdragon 810 octa-core chip with 3GB of RAM on the larger models, and 2GB on the Compact. All of them will come with 32GB of inbuilt storage which can be further expanded to up to 200GB, and a brand new 23MP camera which will be one of the fastest cameras available on a smartphone thanks to the hybrid-focus technology. All the three models will run on Android Lollipop with Sony’s custom UI skin on top. Sony has also incorporated a fingerprint scanner in all three models and has placed it on the right edge where it usually places its power button. Speaking of which, there has been a slight change in the omni-balance design and we now see a flatter power button to make space for the fingerprint scanner. Of course all of the models will be dust and waterproof which has been Sony’s USP ever since it announced the Z series. The Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact will launch globally from October 2015, and Xperia Z5 Premium from November 2015 and there hasn’t been any confirmation regarding the pricing.
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As more and more consumers take to the digital world, companies are realising that traditional customer engagement models need to be drastically updated. Thanks to the internet, e-commerce and a global market, customers today are spoiled for choice and have a variety of options and channels to exercise their choice. Moreover, they have a platform in social media to engage with other consumers to share their experiences and reviews, and also to engage directly with companies about their likes and preferences in a public manner. If they are to stay competitive, companies have to acknowledge that customers are now centre-stage, and extremely savvy and well informed about their options and choices. Rising expectations from customers and the impact of social media on customers’ ability to broadcast good and bad experiences are the top two drivers for organizations’ focus on customer experience. This has served to propel customer engagement organisations within companies to the leadership table, where they are closely involved with the company’s strategic planning for the digital paradigm. The customer is now the most important stakeholder and the customer experience has become a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and is measured using metrics like Net Promoter Score, Customer Effort Score is a clear indication that organisations place customer experience, loyalty and advocacy at the top of their agendas. Addressing this challenge requires a shift in approach the way an organization engages with the customer across different departments and business units in the company. Traditionally, large Fortune 500 companies have many silos that have formed over time, each with their own narrow single-dimensional view of the customer, system interactions based on their subset of data and tools. Organizations realize that this fundamental and sweeping transformation of older and established enterprises to make them customer-centric is critical if they are to compete against the nimble young companies born into the digital era, who approach customers in new, non-traditional ways leveraged by data. Forward-thinking and fleet-footed enterprises who have adopted the right customer experience spanning Sales, Service and Marketing Automation solutions are seeing gratifying progress in their race to the customer and to provide the best customer experience. Adopting modern customer experience strategies formulated for the digital world and the digital customer often means sweeping changes within the company. A venture of this complexity doesn’t succeed overnight, but the most successful companies are the ones who have done it in a relatively short time. A key factor to a successful transformation is the right technology and tool set that allows a company the ability to look at all aspects of a customer’s digital body language (online searches, social media, mobile activity) and marry this behavioural data to that customer’s transaction data and construct an accurate view of the customer’s identity and customer interactions with the systems. Cloud-based commerce, Service and marketing automation solutions are key to helping companies manage, combine and activate data from all these different channels in real time to provide the complete customer experience. Tips while designing a digital strategy:• Don’t Wait: Accelerate the planning and focus on executing customer experience programs – or risk falling behind • Know your Customers – or lose them: Map the customer journey. Select priority focus areas and identify and deploy the people, process, and technology changes that will deliver real improvements• Empower Your Customers and Organization: Foster a customer-centric culture that transcends internal silos. Develop and cultivate a knowledge foundation – supported by scalable IT systems – that provides customers with self-service options and frontline employees with easy access to a complete view of each customer relationship• Deliver a Seamless Experience: Offer multichannel choice, develop a single customer record, and ensure flexible workflows between departments• Listen and Communicate: Conduct timely, targeted customer surveys to gauge feedback; use personalized proactive outbound communication to deepen engagement • Measure and Adapt: Implement flexible processes and systems both on premise and in the cloud to serve customers through their entire experience lifecycle. Communicate goals across the organization, make metrics visible, and reward achievement. Continually listen, measure, test, and adjust your approach in real time An increasing number of enterprise customers are able to deliver the level of real time service needed for digital customers by leveraging comprehensive data, content management and customer communication cloud platforms. These consumer experience applications enable companies to understand customers via their digital body language and anticipate their behaviour and communicate with them effectively and in real time using the most suitable channel. The number of customers moving to the digital world continues to increase exponentially. People and devices and sensors are getting connected at unprecedented rates. Business and commerce are moving online and companies who adapt to this new way of doing business and understand the importance of data-enabled customer identification and management are the ones who will thrive in the digital economy. The author, Nitin Singhal is Senior Director, CX Solution, Oracle India.
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Digital service provider IT Partner for the Olympic Games Atos, on Wednesday (2 September) announced the secure, cloud IT infrastructure that will be used for the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games and beyond has now been delivered by Canopy – the Atos Cloud – in collaboration with EMC Corporation.The new cloud IT infrastructure powered by EMC, Atos’ strategic partner, will be used to test and run securely the IT applications used to distribute the results to the world’s media. It will also support the core planning systems that are used to recruit volunteers, support workforce management, manage the competition schedule and process accreditations for athletes, media and the wider Olympic Family.Jean-Benoît Gauthier at the IOC said: “Cloud is a perfect fit for the Olympic Games and we are delighted to be working with our long-term Worldwide IT Partner on this important project that will benefit all those who participate in the Games – media, athletes and spectators.The creation of the new cloud infrastructure is built using the Canopy Enterprise Private Cloud and VCE’s Vblock® System - a converged infrastructure solution that can support other businesses on their journey to cloud. It represents a major milestone in the digital transformation of IT for the Olympic Games extending the use of cloud to most applications managed by Atos.The new cloud infrastructure will be first put to use in August to test the Competition Schedule and the Workforce Management systems that will be used by the Pyeongchang Organizing Committee from the end of this year. In September this year, the cloud capacity will escalate upwards for a limited period to perform technical testing proving the solution can support the expected demand through the project, and after this escalate down to support the limited production needs at the early stages of the project. By the time the Volunteer Portal for PyeongChang Games goes operational around two years before the Games, capacity and bandwidth of the cloud will be increased again to cover the high level of demand for thousands of volunteer requests being addressed in a very short period.(BW Online Bureau)
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The Moto 360 turned a lot of heads and became one of the most popular smartwatches thanks to its round dial and a realistic watch-like design. A lot of manufacturers have adopted the round design since then and the latest comes from Samsung in the form of the Gear S2. The Korean tech giant announced the new smartwatch yesterday which will be officially launched at the on-going IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany.The Gear S2 will arrive in two variants, one will be a standard version with a simple rubber strap and a minimalistic look while a classic version will include a leather strap and traditional watch faces. The former one will also come in a 3G version which will allow you to insert a SIM card slot. Both the smartwatches will run on Samsung’s home brewed operating system, Tizen for wearable devices. Out of its portfolio of about seven smartwatches (Including the Gear S2), Samsung only has one smartwatch that runs on Google’s Android Wear platform. This is a clear indication that the company is keener on focusing on its own platform rather than adopting Google's platform. The watches will be dust and water resistant, and while the former one is slightly larger, both of the watches will have the same hardware on the inside. The specs include a 1.2-inch 360x360-pixel display using AMOLED technology which is usually found in Samsung high-end smartphones, a dual-core 1GHz processor and 4GB of storage. A bunch of sensors will also be available on the watches including an accelerometer, gyroscope, heart rate monitor, ambient light sensor and barometer. Of course it will track your health stats when paired to Samsung’s S-health companion app. In terms of battery life, both the versions will have a 250mAh battery while the 3G version will have a 300mAh battery to which Samsung says will churn out about 2-days of battery life.Prices of the Gear S2 have not been revealed but we can expect Samsung to announce it soon.
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Globally 'internet of things' has seen the past decade as more of a pursuit of innovative web tools to collaborate giving rise to a sharing economy and e-commerce era. Industry estimates indicate that the next five years will likely see the Indian e-commerce industry to clock a CAGR of 35 per cent and cross the $100-billion mark. It is estimated that over 65 million consumers in India will buy online by this year end from a 40 million last year. Besides Tiger Global, Sequoia, and Naspers amongst others, this year Indian e-commerce segment also saw new investors like DST Global, Soft Bank, BlackRock, etc. Tier II, III and IV markets are expected to come closer with planning infrastructure advancement that the new political regime may undertake thereby improving logistics and delivery time.While the last few years have seen an upsurge of many online companies big and small, there are yet fewer success stories sharing information about their profitability and organic growth. India is beholding a sea of disruption. E-tailing became a buzz word since last year. Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra, Jabong, Home Shop18, Yepme, Limeroad, Olx etc seem to have witnessed an extreme hype during the festival month. Flash sales received a boost from concepts like Singles Day, Big Bang Day, GOSF etc. The prices are extremely competitive. Freebies are a usual thing. Latest is that discerning Indian customers eventually have started to feel these as gimmicks as the discounts are becoming too regular now. Price fails to remain as a differentiator. Dr Yasho V VermaWhat all new may entice an astute buyer entails the selling or marketing strategy entirely. As the tech online players may like to understand, what marketing or sales tactic may act as a growth hack for them may decide their future in an ever changing and ever growing e-retailing world.A global entrant like Jet.com joins the rank as the newest club retailer and is seen offering prices lowest possible but that is not their core strategy. It isn't just about penny-pinching but also about creating a more personalized experience for shoppers. They have a unique selling preposition to allow discounts for repeat customers in a week urging them to buy more often allowing a more consistent sales curve, customers are encouraged to "Jet Anywhere" and shop on other affiliate merchant sites. When Jet first launched to a small number of beta testers (insiders program), its customer relations team sent out handwritten notes to customers after they made their first purchase. Since then, Jet reps have been encouraged to handwrite at least one note to a person they've interacted with during the day. In order for Jet's business model to work, it needs to sell $20 billion worth of merchandise annually. Jet cofounder Marc Lore thinks the company will hit that mark in the next five years. Amazon was generating a little more than $19 billion in sales annually in its first five years. Much like Amazon, Jet is focused on bringing its customers value and developing a loyal following. It is expected that Jet.com may spend $100 million on advertising and marketing to create unambiguous value proposition to enable volume of shoppers to the site.Another mention is that of Roposo that is positioning itself as a dedicated fashion social network that shares everything that is fashion - hairstyles, nail enamels, stilettos, lingerie and ways of wearing them in a unique way every time. Then there is a localbaniya.com or grofers.com trying to sell monsoon special offers along with fresh and organic monsoon fruits for your basket! These are illustrations of how Flipkart and Amazon started as their USP is going beyond the mundane of regular feedback, reviews and on time product delivery. Rankings and ratings may soon lose relevance too. Social networks are replacing the traditional word of mouth way where one-on-one feedback is considered paramount. It is a known fact that likes of Flipkart, Amazon, Jet.com have deeper pockets and wider visibility through paid form of all round advertising, the followers may find it a lot more difficult to advertise with costs increasingly becoming unbearable.If you see few other seemingly similar looking online startups like Pepperfry, Urban Ladder, LivSpace, et all, they all have picked up a niche market but may still differ in offerings to that of another. A solid wood furniture provider may be the USP of one, another may be offering Italian design and the third may be selling an entire concept of designing a room or a corner of your living space rather than focusing on selling per units of a furniture. So one observes after a closer look that each may have a fair chance of survival in a niche industry and further niche in the way they package their offerings. What also remarkably make them look different is they customize the product as per an order (size, color, delivery) and neatly package it as per the type of the product providing an anticipating customer with joy at the sight of delivery and further reinstating quality at the very first interaction with the brand.In India, traditional retail channel still covers 90-95 per cent share and until an online player acquires a double digit market share in retail segment, they still rule the game. Though there seems lesser skepticism now than perhaps five years earlier on proven success of e-commerce ventures it may still be considered a better cousin of dot com companies that went bust in 90's. Even then, Bill Gates had implied a possibility that even if 95% businesses fail, it will create enough content for the humanity and empower them with the knowledge. Businesses failed then largely due to lack of revenue models and that seems common to ecommerce models too. It may not be ideal to compare dotcoms with ecommerce platforms of today where physical exchange of goods may still be less at this point in time but then remains a revenue streaming model that needs acceleration. Well thought marketing strategies will provide these startups with the required impetus.Akin to dotcoms, it may be harsh to predict about ecommerce companies, but the way market is behaving seems the ones to survive would have become very large to maneuver market dynamics or would have achieved success in demonstrating core disruption in a niche industry and deeper niche in a service or a product.E-commerce is not content relevant neither it demonstrates any lucrative commercial value as yet, but if it proves itself in another few years, it will certainly be a leap in 'retail of things' and most of them would have sorted their sail boats to traverse well the vast blue ocean.The author, Dr Yasho V Verma, is a management thinker & philosopher
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IFA, one of the biggest technology trade shows, will kick off from the 2nd of September in Berlin, Germany, but before the official event begins, Lenovo has already announced a bunch of new products under its personal computing department. The new products include the ThinkPad E Series, the updated Lenovo M, B and E series of laptops and S series desktops including all-in-ones.The ThinkPad E series has been updated with the 14 and 15.6-inch models coming with an anti-glare display, and optional fingerprint scanner for added security and up to nine hours of battery life. The new range will be loaded with the latest Intel 6th-gen Skylake processors with options up to Core i7 or AMD options with up to the A10 and FX processors and will be configurable to up 16GB of RAM, SSD storage for faster data access and USB 3.0 ports. Lenovo is also offering the E560 model with an option Intel RealSense Technology 3D camera.Under the desktop range Lenovo has announced the refreshed S series all-in-one desktops which will be available in 19.5-inch and 21.5-inch or 23-inch full HD models with optional touchscreen. The Lenovo S200 is for more conventional desktop users with a proper CPU tower and display setup and are loaded with the new Intel N3700 quad-core and N3050 dual-core processors. S400 all-in-one range comes with the Intel 5th-gen processor configurable to Core-i5 and AMD A8 processor options. Lastly the S500 small-factor will be loaded with the Intel 5th-gen processors and the all-in-one range with the 6th-gen processors. Lastly, the laptop range has been renewed and offers a range that includes budget friendly, thin as well as high performance models. The M41 laptop is aimed at business travelers who need a powerful machine in a thin and light package. It comes with 14-inch full HD IPS antiglare display, the latest Intel Core i7 processor, discrete AMD Radeon R7 graphics, 16GB memory and solid state storage, and up to nine hours of battery. The Lenovo E41 and E51 laptops offer a 14-inch and 15.6-inch displays respectively with upto full HD resolution, optional fingerprint scanner for better security and an extensive suite of productivity applications. Then there is the Lenovo B41 and B51 have also been updated to offer the latest hardware at a more affordable price for day to day business needs. All the laptops have been updated to the 6th generation Intel Skylake processors and can be configured to the high-end Core-i7 and will be come bundled with Windows 10.The ThinkPad E460 and E465 will be available this year with a starting price of $549 (Rs. 35,000 approx) and $449 (Rs. 28,000 approx) respectively while the ThinkPad E560 and E565 will come at a starting price of $549 (Rs. 35,000 approx) and $479 (Rs. 30,000 approx) respectively. The prices for the rest of the updated range has not be revealed as of yet and the refreshed lot should arrive in India by the end of this year.
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The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has accused Google Inc of abusing its dominant position in online search, people with knowledge of the matter said, which if proven could force the US company to alter its practices in a key market or even pay a big fine. A preliminary report from the quasi-judicial regulatory body found fault with Google's handling of its online advertising services and search results, said the people. Google, which just last month appointed India-born Sundar Pichai as its new CEO, is already facing a billion-euro fine from the European Union after accusations the company cheated competitors by distorting Internet search results in favour of its shopping service. Google has rejected those charges. The regulator first began investigating Google in 2012, and a preliminary report was submitted to the top CCI officials about six months ago. The findings of that report have been mentioned in the local media in the last few days. The CCI is expected to make a final ruling after a hearing on September 17, where Google will present itself before a seven-person CCI panel, the people said. CCI Chairperson Ashok Chawla was not immediately reachable over the phone for comments. "We're currently reviewing this report from the CCI’s ongoing investigation," a Google spokesman said in a statement. "We continue to work closely with the CCI and remain confident that we comply fully with India's competition laws." The initial complaints of Google abusing its position in online search in India were filed by matchmaking website Bharat Matrimony and a not-for-profit organisation, Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS). Udai Mehta, assistant director at CUTS, said if the final ruling too finds Google guilty, the CCI can either order the company to halt what it deems unfair practices or fine it even as much as 10 per cent of its revenues. If found guilty, Google could challenge the decision in court, he said. Google posted annual revenues of $66 billion for 2014. A guilty verdict could impact Google's growth in India, where it dominates Internet searches among the country's 300 million online users and is increasingly launching its Android phones and other initiatives to get more people on its operating system.(Reuters)
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