6 �THE ECONOMIC TIMES | MUMBAI | FRIDAY | 23 OCTOBER 2015Disruption: Startups & Tech

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Microsoft’s HoloLens is the epitome of aug-mented-reality glasses right now. But it looks like others may also be following suit. CNET re-ports that Asus may be the first outside compa-ny to build a version of Microsoft’s device, which projects 3D images and overlays them on real-world environments.

Traditional watchmaker Fossil has finally announced its first range of smart products – the Fossil Q line. Three of the four Q watches are standard analogue timepieces with elec-tronics integrated into their bands for activity tracking. The Fossil Q Founder runs Android Wear and has a touch screen and starts at $275. The entire line uses Intel chips and is compatible with An-droid 4.3 and higher, iPhone 5 and above (running iOS 8.2 and higher), and connects via Bluetooth.

TechBUZZAsus may Make its Own HoloLens

Fossil Gets Smart with New Watch

32.6 mExpected global shipments of HDR TV sets in 2019, according to critical information and insight source IHS

Quick Byte ANIRBAN BORA

The most popular wire-less charging standard supported by most device makers likeMicrosoft, LG, Sony and Samsung.

QiJargon Buster

Remember, for all the skepti-cal pieces on “moonshot” start-ups, failure is more a function of entre-preneurship suc-cess rate than any-thing.

Michael Dempsey@mhdempsey

Miles to Go Before I ClickPoor women in cities in developing countries are 50% less likely than poor men to use the Internet.They blame high internet cost and their lack of skills for the gap, according to a survey by the Web Foundation.While 59% of such men use the Internet, when it comes to women, just 37% do so. Here's a look...

Women are

1.6 timesmore likely than men to report a lack of skills as a barrier

They cited cash asanother major obstacle, with one gigabyte of data costing as much as three quarters of the amount regarded as the monthly poverty line in the countries studied

SKILLING ISSUE

Women are mostlikely to use the Internet for keeping in touch with family and friends through social media

Most poor urban women are confined to (a technology) ghetto that does little to help them break out of the real ghetto of poverty and gender discrimination

ANNE JELLEMACEO, Web Foundation

There is a real risk that online social networks simply recreate the inequalities that poor women face in their offline lives, rather than helping them to open up new horizons

INGRID BRUDVIGAuthor of the survey

Survey: Researchers questioned 750 poor women and 250 poor men in the biggest city or capital in each of Cameroon, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Philippines and Uganda between January and October this year

They are

25%less likely than men to use it

for job hunting

Also, they’re

52%less likely to express controversial views online

WEB FOR SOCIAL MEDIA

Source: Reuters

Muntazir.Abbas@timesinternet.in

New Delhi: Telecom experts haveattributed poor quality of servicesand low mobile internet speeds to In-dia’s low investment in optic fibrefor telecom backhaul deployments.

In India, less than 20% of the tow-ers are back hauled on fibre com-pared with an average of nearly80% in countries such as USA, Chi-na and Korea. Increased fibre ac-tion in the country can improve thequality of mobile services, includ-ing call drops.

India deploys just 15 million kilo-metres of fibre every year, against150 million kilometres each year byChina. “This deployment needs toincrease to at least 50 million kilo-metres fibre per year to improvethe network capacity — both forvoice and high speed data includ-ing 3G and 4G services,” said AnkitAgarwal, Sterlite Technologiesglobal head for telecom products.Sterlite is part of mining-to-oil &gas conglomerate Vedanta Group.

Optical fibre deployments remain

the most viable medium for highspeed data communication as well aswireless access that ideally requiresfibre-based backhaul networks.

China and the US have installednearly 1 billion kilometres and 600million kilometres of fibre, respec-

tively, while Indiahas deployed only70 to 80 millionkilometres, inclu-sive of privateplayers and gov-ernment net-works. China cur-rently has 250million 4G users,compared withless than 1 millionin India while ithas 450 million 3Gusers compared

with around 100 million in India.The concerns over fibre deploy-

ment comes at a time when the de-bate over call drops has reached fe-ver pitch with the telecomregulator recently mandating tel-cos to compensate customers for ev-ery dropped call, subject to a maxi-

(RoW) is a challenge for operatorsand there is a need to have a unifiedRoW policy covering all states andlocal bodies. This is a major hurdleoften pointed out by telcos to offer-ing better quality of services.

“Now, more than 25% revenuecomes from data for operators. Tel-cos are realising that ARPU (aver-age revenue per user) growth will

come from data and are now seri-ously looking to increase fibre-based networks,” Agarwal said.

US-based Juniper Networks thatoffers network solutions to telecomoperators and large enterprises en-dorses Agarwal’s views and be-lieves that relatively less fibre de-ployments are keeping networksfrom advancing to the next level.

Both government-led initiativesas well as private enterprises suchas Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio andTata Teleservices are putting fibreto connect base stations, but theyare the slowest moving piecethroughout the country, JuniperNetworks India managing directorAmajit Gupta said.

Telecom consultant and ComFirstowner-director Mahesh Uppal saidthat India needs substantiallymore fibre to accommodate thegrowth in data services, especiallyvideo that requires sufficient band-width in the backbone.

“The absence of fibre can becomean important reason for poor quali-ty of internet services since thewireless is not adequate for back-haul. Wireless has helped achievephone connectivity in record timebut offers lower capacity than fibreor cable,” Uppal added.

mum three in a day, a move thattelcos have opposed strongly.

Both private and public sector arekeen to increase their fibre networkin the country. As operators look toenhance 3G and 4G capacity, and arekeen to improve the quality of ser-vice, investments in fibre networksare set to grow, said Agarwal.

He, however, said that Right of Way

Slow Fibre Rollout Hurting Telecom HealthExperts say India, which currently deploys just 15 million km of optic fibre every year, needs to invest more in the space to improve service quality

‘India needssubstantiallymore fibre toaccommodatethe growth indata services,especiallyvideo thatrequiressufficientbandwidth inthe backbone’

FOR A BETTER NETWORK This (fibre) deployment needs to increase to at least 50 million kilometres fibre per year to improve the network capacity — both for voice and high speed data including 3G and 4G services

Ankit Agarwal, global head-telecom products, Sterlite Technologies

Increased activity in fibre deployment in India can improve the quality of mobile services, including call drops, say experts

The concerns over fibre deployment comes at a time when the debate over call

drops has reached fever pitch with the telecom regulator recently mandating telcos to compensate customers

TOWERS BACKHAULED ON FIBREIndia — less than 20%US, China & Korea — 80%

CURRENT FIBRE SPANIndia — 70-80 million kmChina — 1 billion kmUS — 600 million km

FIBRE DEPLOYMENT PER YEARIndia — 15 million kmChina — 150 million km

Gulveen.Aulakh@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: Reboot Systems In-dia, a refurbisher of desktop com-puters, laptops and smartphones,is in talks to raise $15 million to$25 million in early-stage fundingas private equity investor interestin the business increases.

The company, which operates inthe same space as GreenDust,OverCart and others, currentlyrefurbishes only Apple mobiledevices and plans to include oth-er brands, too. It is adding retailconsumers to its client list ofeducational institutions, non-governmental organisationsand companies.

The funds raised will be spenton enhancing technology to re-furbish smartphones includingdata wiping and data analysis,recruiting additional employeesand adding Reboot stores overthe next two years.

“This Diwali, you will see our fo-cus shift to consumers,” said Ra-hul Chowdhury, chief executiveofficer and co-founder of Reboot,which was started in 2012. Afterstarting with revenue of .̀ 90 lakh,the company plans to close thecurrent financial year with reve-nue of .̀ 25 crore.

“We’re going to raise between $15million and $25 million,” he add-ed, without disclosing the equityhe plans to dilute.

Refurbishing mobile phonesand other consumer electronicproducts is a multi-billion dollaropportunity in India, which has been highlighted by compa-nies such as Foxconn Technolo-gy Group.

The world’s largest contractmanufacturer is in advancedstages of investing .̀ 430-460 crorein GreenDust, putting refurbish-ing as an industry in India on theglobal map.

The refurbished and unboxedmobile phone category itself is ex-pected to grow 30% annually till2020 from about $1.5-2 billion in2014 and has got global investorsinterested. The growth in the seg-ment has also propelled online re-tailer Amazon to start refurbishedsections on its sites.

“This is a brand new category,which is growing at the speed of

sound. Investors will come and tellus the valuation,” Chowdhurysaid. The market in India for refur-bished electronics is expected torise to more than $50 billion by2020 from $20 billion now, as per in-dustry estimates.

Reboot, which is the only Micro-soft-registered re-furbisher in India, plans to op-timise this inter-est and increasecapabilities.

It will add Sam-sung Electronics,LG and HTC tobeef up its mobilephone businessand will intro-duce additionalproducts such asgaming consoles,including Xbox,fitness productsand LED and LCDtelevisions with-in four months.

It will increasethe number of showcase stores to250 by March 2017 by appointingmaster franchisees in each state.

“We will also do some acquisi-tions in the mobility space whodon’t have any profitability but are focused on B2C,” Chowd-hury added.

Reboot Looks to Raise$15-25 m to Take onGreenDust, OverCart

As Fresh As New

Reboot is adding retail consumers to its client list

Funds raised will be spent on enhancing tech, recruiting additional employees and adding Reboot stores

Reboot isthe only Microsoft-registered refurbisher in India

`25 croreRevenue target for current fi nancial year

30% Annualgrowth expected in refurbished and unboxed mobile phone category till 2020

Co, which refurbishesonly Apple devicescurrently, plans to nowinclude other brands

The fundsraised will bespent onenhancingtechnology torefurbishsmartphonesincludingdata wipingand dataanalysis,recruitingadditionalemployeesand addingReboot storesover the nexttwo years

REFURBISHING CONSUMER DEVICES

Divya.Sathyanarayanan@timesgroup.com

Mumbai: Food entrepreneurs Na-chiket Shetye and Mangal Dalal,the duo who started the Restau-rant Week India five years ago, aregetting ready to enter the onlinespace by replicating the ‘Book-MyShow’ model for food eventshappening in the country.

Shetye and Dalal will create afirst-of-its-kind online culinaryevents platform which will listdown the activities and events hap-pening across India.

“Like the ‘BookMyShow’ for mo-vies or events and ‘Insider’ formusic events, we wanted to createsomething similar for the foodevents. It will be like a calendarwhich will put down all culinaryevents — including food promo-tions by restaurants — which hap-pen through the year or aroundseasons and festivals,” Dalal, di-rector, Cellar Door Hospitality,told ET. Founded in 2012 by She-tye and Dalal, Cellar Door Hospi-tality is a culinary consultingfirm engaged in gastronomicevents, restaurant consulting, tal-ent management, product devel-opment and research.

The platform — to be called Stokd— will be launched in April 2016,starting with events in Mumbai.“It will not just give informationabout events but also enable usersto make bookings for them,” saidShetye, the chef of Mumbai-basedall-day restaurant and bar 36 Oak

search,” Dalal said.Cellar Door’s portfolio of culi-

nary events includes RestaurantWeek India, Food With Benefits,Cellar Door Kitchen and CitiChef ’s Table Week. The companyis organising a 10-day multi-cityculinary event called DineFestbetween October 23 and Novem-ber, which will feature 30 infor-mal dining restaurants acrossDelhi and Mumbai at a fraction ofa la carte rates.

“In the past five years, we haveseen the explosion of standalonerestaurants and it’s only in recenttimes that we have seen the quali-ty factor coming through. Wewanted to showcase these restau-rants at a tailored price,” said Da-lal, adding that the companyplans to take its events overseas.

The company claims to havemade online sales worth .̀ 9.5 lakhin the first three days since reser-vations opened for DineFest.

& Barley, who has also worked atrestaurants in New York such asNobu, Per Se and Penang.

Cellar Door is now in talks toraise funds from angel investorsto beef up its technology andteam. “This will help in fundingthe development of Stokd and in-vesting in marketing and re-

A BookMyShow for Food Events in MakingCellar Door Hospitalityfounders plan newplatform for foodevents in the country

Jonah Bromwich & Daniel Victor

We were promised hoverboards.And if you’re angry because we don’t have them, the moviethat planted the dream might also be to blame.

When it came out in 1989, “Back tothe Future II” suggested we wouldbe bouncing off walls and racingcars while floating above theground, all with the ease of a skate-board. Our futuristic and reallyfun transportation device wouldsurely arrive by October 21, 2015.(Yes, we’re milking a meme here,but for a good cause: hoverboards.)

There are many reasons — most-ly involving the laws of physics —that we don’t yet have hover-boards. Actual designs, whichhave emerged in recent years, arefar more rudimentary than themodel used by Marty McFly in themovie. And one hoverboard mak-er says the film may have ledastray the generation of engi-neers it inspired.

That inventor, Philippe Maalouf,39, the co-founder and chief exec-

utive of the Montreal-based com-pany Omni Hoverboards, saidthat the “visuals of the movie,how it looks, held back the hover-board industry.

“We’ve noticed that with the de-sign of other hoverboards thathave been done so far by Lexus andHendo, they’ve created a hover-board that looks exactly like theone in the movie,” he continued.“But when it comes to usability, itdoesn’t work like the one in the mo-vie. It’s like a banana peel.”

Jill Henderson, 51, a co-founderof the company Arx Pax, whichowns Hendo, says that “the Hendo Hoverboard is a proofof concept designed to capturethe imagination.”

She added that the company’sboards are a work in progress, andthat a new beta version of theproduct — Hendo 2.0 — has“adopted a more true-to-skate-board-like design for usabilitypurposes.” That model makes itspublic debut late Wednesday. Thedate is not a coincidence.

Lexus did not respond to a re-quest for comment.

Tony Hawk, the professional ska-teboarder, rode a Hendo hover-board with Dave Carnie, a writerfor The Ride Channel, but it proveddifficult to balance, making nei-

boards use electromagnetic tech-nology. Hendo, which Hendersonsaid allows for about 15 minutes ofhover time, can stay aloft over met-als that do not contain iron, butwill fall flat over other surfaces.

The New York Times paid a visitto Hendo in 2014.

The Lexus model uses super-conductors cooled by liquid nitro-gen, but also fails if the surface be-low it is not embedded withmagnets.

So while both boards, particular-ly the Lexus, bear a striking re-semblance to the models from“Back to the Future II,” neitherboard would enable a dramatic ge-taway from Griff or Biff.

But even skeptics like Maaloufand his co-founder, Alexandru Du-ru, have paid tribute to the film intheir own way. They had a workingprototype in 2013, but waited tostart the company.

“We said, let’s wait until the year2015 until we found the company,just so that it overlaps with whatwe saw in the movie ‘Back to theFuture II,’ just as a symbol.”

( NYT News Service)

dreams were way too ambitious,”Carnie wrote.

A writer for The Verge had a simi-lar experience with a hoverboardmade by Lexus. “Marty McFlywould be disappointed,” SamSheffer wrote.

The Omni Hoverboard does notclosely resemble the models fromthe film. In a survey of variousmodels, Wired magazine said thatit performed “most like what wewould expect of a hoverboard.”

The board uses propellers, and anearly model was powered by a bat-tery. But problems with the weightof capacity of current batterytechnology led Omni back to amore faithful standby: fuel.

“We’re kind of sick of waiting fora hoverboard. We want one to workfor real, today,” Maalouf said. “Sowe had to move on from batterytechnology.”

He claims that a model using fuelwill be able to fly for “about 25 min-utes,” but admits that a currentmodel — one still using battery-power — can only stay aloft for a lit-tle more than a minute.

The other two prominent hover-

ther look like a professional.“I had arrived with all kinds of sil-

ly ideas of what to do on the hover-board, but after my first spin on thething I realised that all of my hover

Why a ‘Back to the Future’ Hoverboard Never Took OffCompanies such as Lexus & Hendo have managed to create hoverboards that look exactly like the one in the movie, but their usability is questionable

A still from the movie ‘Back to the Future II’

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