Today, India is the second largest market for Xiaomi as confirmed by Global VP, Hugo Bara in February at Mobile World Congress 2015 in BarcelonaXiaomi entered India just last year with the Mi 3 smartphone and while the first impression of the company was not very impressive, it managed to lure in audience over time. The most attractive point has been the pricing of their smartphones which is close to their production cost making them quite affordable than most of the smartphones in the market. The company also brought in the flash sales model which gave their smartphones a bit of an exclusivity as limited stocks were sold in these sales. This wasn’t appreciated by customers who couldn’t get their hands on the devices, but proved to be an effective marketing strategy which was followed by other smartphone makers. Today, India is the second largest market for Xiaomi as confirmed by Global VP, Hugo Bara in February at Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona. Their Indian portfolio today comprises of a variety of products including two flagship smartphones, the Mi 3 and Mi 4; three low-end smartphones, the Redmi 1, Redmi 1S and Redmi 2; two affordable large-sized smartphones, the Redmi Note and Redmi Note 4G and a mid-ranged device, the Mi 4i. Apart from that the company also has a tablet (Mi Pad), a fitness band and a bunch of accessories like power banks, earphones, smartphone cases, etc. that go out of stock even before you hit the buy button. These products are available through online retailers including Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon, The Mobile Store and Airtel. Today marks the company’s first anniversary in India and to celebrate the Xiaomi has announced a 32GB version of the Mi 4i smartphone which was only available in a 16GB variant through the same flash sales model. The company has also launched a new Mi Store app for Android devices to sell its range of products. There are also special offers on its website, like free Mi Coupons worth Rs. 500 on the purchase of a Mi 4i (16GB), free colored phone case with the purchase of a Redmi 2 or Mi 4, and cashback offer on the 16GB variant of the Mi 4i. There are also two new headphones available for purchase, the Mi Headphone with a 50mm drivers and aluminum finish, for Rs. 5,499 and the Mi in-ear Headphones for Rs. 999.
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The UE Boom portable wireless speakers combine great audio performance with rugged designby Kunal KhullarLogitech’s subsidiary brand, Ultimate Ears, is the latest wireless speaker maker to have entered the Indian market offering quality design and great sound. The wireless UE Boom speakers can connect via NFC, Bluetooth or the standard 3.5mm audio jack.These speakers come in a cylindrical shape and have a rubber and mesh finish. Offered in a variety of colours, the UE Boom is certainly one of the flashiest wireless speakers in the market today. Although there is a decent amount of weight to it, the portable size makes it easy for you to carry it in your bag. The rubber strip across the mesh has two large and distinct volume controls while the power and Bluetooth pairing buttons sit on top in the same rubber material. The best thing about this speaker is that it is meant to be a rugged device and is waterproof, dustproof and shockproof so you can use it outdoors, in the shower, or even on your next hiking trip.The bottom of the speaker houses the ports and a cap to cover them and also a hook in case you want to hang the speaker. The UE Boom also offers a special pairing system where one can easily pair two units and control the equalizer settings via the UE app. This sounds very interesting but, at the same time, makes no sense because it means you have to buy two speakers.The sound quality is brilliant. The mids are quite focused and almost any type of music sounds clear thanks to the pair of 1.5-inch drivers sitting inside the mesh. The output is amazingly loud and since it has a cylindrical shape, it offers a 360-degree effect. Given its size, it is certainly the loudest speaker on the block and can definitely be used as an everyday speaker to connect to your PC, gaming console, or even a small home entertainment system. It takes about two hours to fully charge the speaker and provide battery life of about 12 hours. Logitech, however, claims the battery lasts about 15 hours.At Rs 14,995, it’s more expensive than most other high-quality portable speakers. But for the little extra money you get a rugged design and who doesn’t want their device to be water resistant? (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 10-08-2015)
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The Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 has respectable tech specs but there’s still a lot holding it back by Mala Bhargava Lenovo may have been a little quiet on World Yoga Day, but the rest of the time the company doesn’t let up in launching variants in its line of Yoga hybrids and tablets. Each one is actually significantly different, no mean feat when everyone else has a hard time making one product distinct from another. The Yoga Tablet 2 I’m looking at today was actually launched sometime last year but has become available now. It’s a tiny 8-inch version in ebony black and it’s running Windows 8.1. The build is very solid and gun-metal-ish and there’s the cylindrical bottom that houses a heavy battery and the power button and 3.5mm earphone jack. The cylinder acts as the base for the tablet and on the back is the familiar Yoga kickstand which lets you stand it up or give it a comfortable angle if you put it down flat to use the keyboard. The cylinder also gives a grip on the left if you turn the tablet into portrait mode, but after a few minutes it’s really very uncomfortable to hold, so forget about putting the Kindle app on it to read for hours. The stand and cylinder gives this device a very nice look, but consider the ergonomics before you spend Rs 22,499 for it. Strangely, I actually found it easier to hold the tablet from the non-cylinder end, but then, the thumb will be plumb on the screen. The screen is actually a nice 1280x800 with good colours, angles and enough sharpness. But here’s the problem. With Windows, it’s not easy to scale everything, even after customising the font or display. Some dialogue boxes and checkboxes are painfully tiny. I would check out the Android version instead and use Microsoft Office, now available on the Play Store. But this tablet has one big trick up its sleeve. You can use any pen to write into a notepad or OneNote or whatever else you find. It’s slippery smooth and there’s no lag in the input and result as you write, but there’s no palm rejection so you have to hold the pen straight up at an awkward angle. Ok for short bursts of input, but not for long hours of work. So although this little tablet is meant to be a productivity device, there’s a lot holding it back, despite respectable tech specs. (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 10-08-2015)
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The average increase in revenue as a result of IoT initiatives is 15.6 per cent, while market leaders in IoT see revenue increase of 64 per cent, says a new global study by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) looking at the impact of IoT technologies across a wide range of industry sectors around the world. The TCS Global Trend study on IoT, which surveyed 795 executives from large multi-nationals, identifies the huge potential for revenue increases from IoT, while also highlighting the significant challenges that lie ahead for businesses transitioning to the new model. Companies arevset to make huge IoT investments – with 7 percent of companies planning to spend $500 million+ in 2015 alone. However, the study also found that there are major roadblocks in the way of organisations seeking to capitalise on the IoT Commenting on the study, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD of TCS, said: “The age of IoT is well underway. The question is, whether businesses are ready to realize the full potential of this technology. Our latest global trend study found that leaders in using IoT technologies are using it to completely re-imagine their businesses by changing every aspect of them from business models and products to business processes and workplaces.” He added: “Now is the time for every leader in every industry to reimagine the possibilities for their businesses in a world of smart, connected 'things’.” A Significant Opportunity For Revenue Growth Through IoTAcross the board, those companies investing in IoT are reporting significant revenue increases as a result of IoT initiatives with an average increase of 15.6 percent in 2014. Almost one in ten (9 percent) saw a rise of at least 30 percent in revenue. Company executives still see the IoT as a growing area for businesses, with 12 percent identifying a planned spend of $100m in 2015 and 3 percent looking to invest a minimum of $1bn among the 795 companies surveyed. The report also shows that companies predict their IoT budgets to continue increasing year-on-year, with spending expected to grow by 20 percent by 2018 to $103m. Companies at the very forefront of this drive for innovation through IoT have seen the biggest benefits from their investments. The top eight percent of respondents, based on ROI from IoT, report a staggering 64 percent average revenue gain in 2014 as a direct result of these investments. Currently the biggest business impact is that companies can offer their customers more bespoke products and services, yet by 2020 this will convert from marketing functions to increased sales, through adding considerable value to the customer. This is reflected in the finding that the most frequent use of IoT technologies by companies is tracking customers through mobile apps, used by almost half of all businesses (47 percent). More than half (50.8 percent) of IoT leaders admit to investing in IoT to track their products and how these were performing, whereas this is only the case with 16.1 percent of the respondents with the lowest ROI from IoT. Culture Is The Number One Issue Holding Companies BackDespite the encouraging data on IoT investment and its impact on revenue growth, the report also revealed that major challenges remain in realising the promise of IoT for businesses across all sectors. The report found that the three biggest factors holding companies back were: Corporate culture: Respondents identified the ability to get employees to change the way they think about customers, products and processes was a major barrier; Leadership: Having top executives who believe in IoT and are willing to invest time and resources is critical; Technology: Questions around technology continue to loom large including handling Big Data; internal vs. external development; integrating IoT data with enterprise systems; and ensuring security and reliability. Healthcare lags Industrial Manufacturing which stands out for IoT successThe Healthcare sector has been hailed as having the greatest potential to benefit from the IoT, but remains one of the most underdeveloped industries due to regulatory restrictions and data security concerns that currently hinder innovation. The sector plans to spend just 0.3 percent of revenue in 2015, but will be increasing this investment by at least 30 percent by 2018. The healthcare market driven by the IoT is predicted to be worth $117bn by 2020[1]. In contrast, executives in the Industrial Manufacturing sector are reporting the largest increase in revenue from IoT, with an average 28.5 percent, followed by Financial Services (17.7 percent) and Media & Entertainment (17.4 percent). The Automotive industry has the lowest revenue gain with just a 9.9 percent increase. The report, which looks at trends across 13 key industries, found that large-scale investment in IoT infrastructure and monitoring is not confined to those in Manufacturing, however, with the Travel, Transportation and Hospitality sectors planning to spend 0.6 percent of revenue this year. Media and Entertainment companies will spend 0.57 percent of their revenue on IoT in this year – significantly more than the 0.4 percent average and the 0.44 percent spend in Banking and Financial Services.
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Trouble seems to tail Uber all over the world, but it drives on regardless. And never mind the potholesBy Mala BhargavaTimes were when you used to call your local taxi stand and keep your fingers crossed hoping the cab, rickety as it was, would turn up in time to take you to the airport. That tradition has been all but turned on its head by Uber Technologies, now a legitimate verb, icon of the on-demand economy and disrupter of transport in over 57 countries. It’s in a rich variety of trouble in most of those countries, but Uber is driving on regardless, never mind the potholes. With its new app-based model of ride-hailing, Uber is a fascinating study for anyone who wants to be part of the wave of startups today.The $46-billion San Francisco-based Uber Technologies launched in 2009, and took the Indian roads starting with Bangalore in 2013. There have been radio taxi services in many parts of India for a while now, but Uber’s is a separate kettle of fish, one that has civic authorities and administrators nonplussed. It’s barged in with a fleet of cars, big and small, and a user just has to tap into an app to get a ride. “It’s liberating,” says an Uber customer, “I feel free to go anywhere, anytime and don’t really need a car of my own. Even if I use a cab everyday, it’s cheaper than the car, its EMIs, fuel, maintenance and a driver.”Legit Or Not?You may be able to get a ride in mere minutes, but amazingly, Uber doesn’t claim to be a taxi company. “We are a technology player,” says Neeraj Singhal, Uber’s head of expansion in India. “We don’t physically own cars, we don’t employ drivers, we aren’t a radio taxi company, we don’t have meters in Uber vehicles. There are many distinctions that make it important for us to be governed differently from others.” Uber believes it merely connects commuters with the means to get where they want with the use of technology. To get a taste of Uber, download the app and register. Pinpointing your location, the app will show you an offering of cars (even an auto rickshaw) for you to select. Set your destination, request a fare, and confirm the ride — sit back and wait for the driver’s call.Uber was, for a start, tolerated by the transport authorities. But unfortunately for the company and commuters who were enjoying the convenience of cabs on demand, an Uber driver raped a passenger in Delhi in December 2014 — and the house of cards quickly collapsed. The question of who was responsible for the behaviour of drivers, who after all, Uber is supposed to train and check, exploded to the surface. It turned out the driver hadn’t even been verified and was a repeat offender who had even been in jail previously. The Delhi government promptly banned Uber in Delhi, and eventually in other cities, taking rival Ola Cabs and TaxiForSure with it. In fact, any app-based taxi service.The legal issues have not been sorted out yet, but the companies have been permitted back on the roads, not that they had stopped being available for any length of time. Uber has, in fact, had many similar problems elsewhere in the world. In San Francisco, an UberX car ran over and killed a six-year-old girl and Uber disclaimed responsibility as there wasn’t a passenger in the car at the time. That’s not the way insurance company saw it. Uber’s UberPop service is banned in many countries and recently there were outright riots in France involving regular taxi drivers whom Uber is all but replacing. But brazening it out seems to be in the company’s culture. And it has paid off. “It is always good to be in a situation where you have innovated upon a historically archaic model, for lack of a better phrase,” says Singhal, “The model and the regulations, even in India, haven’t been improved upon in a long time. The Motor Vehicles Act was written in the 80s.”Indeed, the technology used by Uber today was not in existence then and it could not be taken into account in the laws being used today. Clearly, the laws need to be upgraded to take in today’s reality. Uber says it is in close talks and is having “healthy discussions” with the government and it is time for regulatory changes that are good for everybody. The companies are now supposed to apply once again for licences to operate. So if one were to ask whether Uber and its rival Ola and other app-based car services are in fact legal — there’s no easy answer.How Safe Is Safe?Uber is not having an easy time shaking off the rape case of last year as it barely recedes into memory when some new incident erupts into the open. “Never before has there been such transparency,” explains Singhal. “Before, if you were to take a taxi somewhere, that’s that, it ends with no one knowing anything more. But now you have the ability to track a ride, use an SOS button, rate the driver, whose credentials we check, etc.” Transparency is bound to show up what may otherwise have remained unknown. Safety is possibly an issue that many e-commerce and on-demand services will have to address as deliverymen make their rounds of homes, a point sadly brought into focus by the assault on a little girl recently by a pizza delivery man. Deval Delivala, security lead at Uber, says that Uber is in multiple partnerships and projects to do everything possible to ensure the safety of commuters in Uber cars.Like, Uber has a tie-up with First Advantage, a screening agency that authenticates drivers for the company. There is also a partnership with security app SafetyPin which crowdsources safety ratings across the city. But India, as a market, presents its own unique challenges. “In certain markets there are already existing extensive databases of information on citizens. To do background checks for drivers is then much easier,” she said.“In the US, there are also lists like a sexual offenders list publically available. In India, it is said that 30 per cent of the drivers’ licences are fake. So new processes are needed to run multiple checks. These are not issues that are just pertinent to Uber and there is no one easy thing you can fix to ensure safety. It will have to be done through partnerships with many industries,” added Delivala.Uber allows drivers, who have commercial licences issued by the government, to be accessible via its app, and so it can be argued that the responsibility for safe drivers is not Uber’s alone. Uber is taking no chances and exploring all avenues to safety. In Kolkata, it is trying out a solution with the police to set up screens in key control rooms that have an Uber dashboard of car movement. Any problem will trigger off an alert for the officers on duty to investigate. In New Delhi, none of that makes women comfortable riding in an Uber or other cab during the night.Ubering It Across IndiaIt is in Uber’s interest to tackle the safety issue and any others that arise because after the US, India is its secondlargest market geographically, and in terms of number of potential users. To open its largest facility outside the US, Uber has invested $50 million in Hyderabad and signed an MoU with the Telangana government. This facility will work on technology solutions and will identify and train 2,000 drivers — some of them women — by the end-2016 as it spreads beyond the 18 Indian cities it is already operating in. The company wants to cater to tier-II and tier-III towns in the shortest time possible.In other markets, Uber allows personal cars to become part of the network, giving drivers the flexibility to work as many hours as they choose. An Uber driver could be a college student, who drives a few hours to earn a bit of money, or a full-time driver, whose only job is to operate a taxi service. In India, an Uber driver must have a commercial driving licence. The company does not object to a driver working across different platforms like Ola. Uber takes a percentage of the driver’s earnings but also comes up with incentive schemes that it keeps changing on a frequent basis. There are also attention-grabbing promotional offers for riders, including price cuts, offers to ride free in “supercars” and even order in a bunch of puppies to play with. Recently, it opened up direct credit card payment, if booking from an Android phone.Uber has sunk its teeth into the Indian market, but globally as well as in India, its disruptive model means it is in for a bumpy ride. Although customers find it can often be cheaper than travelling in an autorickshaw, issues of safety create their own legal roadblocks every so often. “What Uber faced can be simply categorised as teething problems that any new entrant would face. Over time the Indian government and Uber will have to meet midway to work on legal and regulation issues. However, with recent announcements by Uber, it only goes to show that it’s here to stay,” says Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst & group CEO, Greyhound Research. With the company’s investments in India however, Uber has clearly dug its wheels in and decided there’s no turning back. mala.bhargava@gmail.com, @malabhargava(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 10-08-2015)
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Wearable devices are growing by the day but almost all of them offer similar features like giving alerts and notifications, calculating your health stats and so on. The newest gadget however, is a step beyond the regular smartbands and smartwatches and is probably the most innovative use of a wearable device specifically designed for musicians.Soundbrenner, a Berlin-based startup has made a wearable device called the Pulse, a simple metronome tool which sends beats via vibrations or light. The device made an appearance at the MWC Shanghai just last week where a quick demo of the device was shown which involved musicians trying it out live. The Pulse looks like a large smartwatch except it doesn’t have a touchscreen. It can be worn on the arm, wrist or even on the leg by one musician or a number of Pulse units can be synched together and worn by different members of a music group. It has a strong motor on the inside that sends vibrations which is claimed to be six times more powerful than the vibrators found in smartphones and smartwatches. Since every beat can be felt rather than listening to clicks via headphones or earphones, one would never miss a beat even in the loudest of environments.By simply tapping the desired tempo on the face of the pulse, the capacitive sensor along with some clever algorithms reproduces it as vibrations or a flashing LED which can even be customised to various colours. There is also a dial around the face of the band which can be used to fine tune each beat. With the Pulse smartphone app musicians will be able to program up to 300 beats per minute on the Pulse, and the app itself can act as a metronome, store setlists, customize beats, synchronize up to 10 other Pulse units, and act as a Smart Coach for practice sessions. The device is not only made for professional musicians but can be used by people who are learning or want to practice on and off.The Pulse is still in its beta stage and is currently being developed by Sounbrenner with a release date around the month of November. It is a part of an Indiegogo campaign and will be available for $99 (Approx. Rs. 6000) for customers who pre-book the device.
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Facebook is testing out a new fee model for video ad plays. The social network currently levies a charge once a video ad shows up on the platform. However, advertisers are emphasising on viewability these days, and want to make sure their ads are actually viewed. As a result, the social media network plans to soon introduce a cost-per-view (CPV) option for ads that play at least 10 seconds.The new option on Facebook’s ad buying tools is a fallout of increasing popularity of videos on the platform. According to the social networking site, in just one year, the number of video posts per person has increased 75 per cent globally and 94 per cent in the US. Globally, the number of videos from people and brands has increased as much as 3.6 times year on year.“We recognise that advertisers value different performance metrics and methods of buying: CPV buying is for advertisers who value video views as the best proxy for a business objective, and while we don’t believe this bidding option to be an optimal brand bidding strategy, we firmly believe in giving advertisers control over how they buy,” said Facebook in a media statement.Facebook’s current options include ‘reach & frequency’ and ‘auction optimised for video views’, which the firm says are the recommended methods of driving reach and brand impact.A Nielsen report on Facebook video ads shows that from the moment a video ad was viewed (even before one second), lift happened across ad recall, brand awareness, and purchase consideration.Brand BuzzMore GIFs On TumblrBlogging platform Tumblr has launched a new feature called Tumblr TV that will allow users to discover and share GIFs. It has incorporated TV features into GIFs — such as play, pause, forward and rewind. The new site for Tumblr TV shows the trending GIFs on a full-screen and users can search for any kind of GIF on the platform. The search feature is also open to non-Tumblr users.Tumblr launched this feature with a view to ramp up user engagement on the platform. Currently, the feature is only available for the desktop version.Dig The DataYouTube CelebsWhen we think of celebrities, we might first think of Jennifer Lawrence, Brad Pitt and Beyonce, but YouTube stars beat out mainstream celebrities in terms of influence and popularity among American teens. A survey conducted by Variety shows the top five most influential figures among American teens aged 13-18 all rose to fame via YouTube.CEOs’ ChoiceIn a study by Weber Shandwick on the habits of chief executives, 22 per cent of the sample reported using LinkedIn, while 10 per cent favoured Twitter. By comparison, none of the CEOs surveyed used Facebook or Google+.LEADERUday Kotak@udaykotak Exec. VC & MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank“China stock bubble burst shows command and control cannot manage markets. India learnt hard way over time to regulate but respect markets.”Jeff Weiner@jeffweiner CEO, Linkedin“The amazing thing about truly disruptive products is how quickly they render the legacy convention a distant memory, e.g. Tesla & gas pump.”(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 10-08-2015)
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Engineering centres push their teams to build smart platforms. Over 300 patents were filed last year alone, writes Vishal KrishnaIn the narrow housing colonies of Indranagar, a suburb in Bangalore, a startup called Ather Energy has filed a patent for its battery design and battery management system. When the product is out, on a two wheeler, it will be the most powerful battery because of the software's ability to manage the discharge intelligently. Over 300 patents were filed in 2014, from Bangalore-based engineering companies that combined software and hardware services. This is one of several such stories. This adds to the whole 'Make in India' spin. At least India's software skills have upgraded to a whole new level. Ather Energy, which has a zero revenue base, was funded purely on the product development skills of engineer founders, Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain, by Tiger Global's Lee Fixel. The company has raised Rs 76 crore. Now look at this way; there are 1.7 million Mercedes cars sold globally and all of them has a piece of software written by Indians. Mind you these are not mundane software testing programmes but rather entire modules of safety and structural integrity made in India. The smart city and internet of things (IoT) revolution globally is driving Indian companies to innovate on a large scale. Philips Innovation Centre, Robert Bosch, Continental and Mercedes Benz Research and Development Centre India (MBRDI) are upping the ante in making engineers innovate from a grounds up perspective and to solve real life solutions. Take Robert Bosch Engineering India Limited, it has filed 79 patents in 2014 and in 2013 it filed 180. If you go in to their building there are global and Indian cars. Cars like the Cadillac XTS have their entire telematics software being made in India. Robert Bosch believes sensors and cameras will eventually become the main stays of a smart city which will use cloud services and video analytics on a pay as you go business model. "We are pushing our engineers to innovate for a smarter age. A lot of the products will eventually find their way to applications within India," says Vijay Ratnaparkhe, MD of Robert Bosch Engineering India. He says that his centre is also creating software for the entire car to infrastructure, car to car and connected home concepts. "We are looking at quality in patents," says Ratnaparkhe. Around 2300 engineers sit out of the MBRDI facility in Bangalore. These are engineers who are building the future of transportation globally. MBRDI has filed over 116 patents last year. "Our engineers are modelling cars on high end tools. They have a high understanding of system level processes," says Manu Saale, MD of MBRDI. He says that for his parent company, Daimler, India had become of strategic importance to build smart cars by 2020. "Patent filing will go up in the coming years. It's no longer about just coding," he adds. Even the software on the new BMW i8, the hybrid car, it's battery and engine management system carries software components built by the Continental Corporation in India. This company too files more than 50 patents a year. If the automobile industry has taken the leap, the health industry is not far behind. They too file several patents. Philips and GE Health alone file more than 40 patents per year. Unfortunately they would not disclose the exact numbers filed out of India. The Philips Innovation Centre is bringing health on to the mobile. "You need to understand in a connected world data becomes important," says Ben Hallam, Global R&D head of Philips Healthcare. He adds that the amount of analytics one can do to cut down on waiting time, staff balancing and augmentation is the first step to making healthcare accountable. If this real time flow of data happens the power is going to be with the patient and pricing treatment economically becomes imperative. All this thanks to the innovations coming out of these innovation centres. Organisations are leveraging cloud computing, data visualization and will accessbig data to enable patients to consume information that was not available to them earlier. Last thing that they (hospitals) have to do is in collaboration with entities like insurance companies, employers potentially. Today there are several pilots running to connect machine data and consumer data to sell services; but none of them have gone commercial yet in India. At least filing patents has gone up. This is just the beginning of a larger turnaround story for the Indian engineering talent story.
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