Mobility India

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www.mobilityindia.com 3Mobility April 2014

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Content

Samsung unveils Galaxy S5 Smartphone

Qualcomm Sale of India BWA License Cleared by Regularor

Simmtronics XPad Partners with STAR CJ

Spice launches 5 inch 3G Android Stellar Mettle Icon

Industry welcomes Kerala Govt.’s New Mobile Tower Policy

ASUS Anounces the Pan India Accessibility of Zenbook

Motorola Launches Moto X in India

Microsoft Seto to Offer Windows Phone free to Lava and Karbonn

Apple might setup Stores across India to Push Sales

Microsoft introduces Windows-based Tablets in India

Nokia Presents ‘Nokia X’ Android Smartphone

Google Set to Unveil Android Watch Soon

Rapoo Wins ‘iF Product Design Award 2014’ for the 4th time

iBall launched Slide 3G 7271-HD70

Karbonn announces Smartphone with Android KitKat

Mobility News 8-11

Cover Story 14

Special Story 19

Channel Focus 12Modi Infosol betting big on Mobility

Mobility Interacton 22Mediaman Target Growing Smartphone Sector for Storage Market

Tech Story 23-25LTE - The True Future for Mobile Broadband

Mobility Personality 26“Intel is partnering with Indian OEMs to launch innovative devices”

Special Report 27Gionee presents Special and Slimmest Smartphone – Elife S5.5

Mobility Interview 29BYOD and BYOS not a “zero-sum” game

Product Feature 30-33

4 Mobility April 2014 www.mobilityindia.com

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Mediaman Target Growing Smartphone Sector for Storage Market

Tech Story LTE - The True Future for Mobile Broadband

Mobility Personality “Intel is partnering with Indian OEMs to launch innovative devices”

Special Report Gionee presents Special and Slimmest Smartphone – Elife S5.5

Powering

Mobiles

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Smart

Devices

Upcountry Goes Mobile Rise of the Small Town India

Content


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Today there is a lot of discussion and hype around wearable computing. As wearable computing

moves from science fiction into everyday life and the workplace, the wearable electronics market is set to cater to a multitude of different industry verticals and consumer groups.

From smart glasses to smart watches and wearable fitness and health devices, it seems that consumers and enterprises alike are eager to explore the benefits of wearable computing.

Smart glasses, such as Google Glass, are causing CIOs to take a fresh look at the impact wearable electronics will have on the enterprise and their potential to improve worker efficiency in vertical markets such as manufacturing, field service, retail and healthcare.

Smart glasses with augmented reality (AR) and head-mounted cameras can increase the efficiency of technicians, engineers and other workers in field service, maintenance, healthcare and manufacturing roles. In the next three to five years, the industry that is likely to experience the greatest benefit from smart glasses is field service, potentially increasing profits by

Sony Xperia Tablet ZIt is true that the Xperia Tablet Z is Sony’s attempt at making a comeback in the tablet segment after its previous attempts with Xperia Tablet S and Tablet P. The tablet is based on the company’s recent flagship phone the Xperia Z in terms of design as well as software and is without doubt one of the sleekest devices available in the market. Is it the best tablet that money can buy at this point in time? We try to find out.

At 6.9mm, Xperia Tablet Z is the thinnest tablet around - iPad fourth generation is 9.4mm thick, in case you are wondering. Sony engineers have done a commendable job, packing in all the power into such a sleek device. It weighs 495 grams and for a 10-inch tablet the weight to dimensions ratio of the device makes it easy to carry.

The back is made of plastic and sports a matte finish. The quality of plastics used here is better than what we’ve seen in products from rival brands. But our only gripe with it is that it’s a smudge magnet. You’ll see some silver Xperia branding at the centre and the 8-megapixel rear camera lens at the top right corner, flush with the tablet.

The Sony Xperia Tablet Z features an 8-megapixel rear shooter. The camera app is feature rich, having Superior auto, Normal, Video, Burst, Picture Effects, Sweep Panorama and different Scene selection modes.

The Sony Xperia Tablet Z is powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor with 2GB RAM, and an Adreno 320 chip for processing graphics. There is 16GB of internal storage, which is expandable by another 32GB via a microSD card.

At a price of `46,990 the Sony Xperia Tablet Z is an expensive offering from the Japanese electronics giant. The tablet packs in a large number of features, a unique design and high-end specifications, but recommending it over the latest generation iPad (3G+WiFi) that costs a similar amount, is a bit difficult.

Editor’SChoiCE

Editor : Swapan RoyChief Editor : Manoj JhaAsst. Editor : E.J. Jawahardatham

Design DeskArt Director : Anit Kumar

Acct. & FinanceFinance : Sandip Sarkar

Marketing & SalesMarketing Manager : Tridip DeyMarketing Executives : Sujit Goswami Pratap Biswas S. Dutt Raj KumarCirculation Manager : P. BiswasProduction : Ashish Ghosh Ashok PaulSystem Manager : Ajay Biswas

H.O.: Delhi / Editorial OfficeRoy Mediative A-23, 1st Floor, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi-110020 (INDIA) Mob: 09810380882, 09811346846Ph: 91-11-41602841, 65683896, 40536384-87

Redg.Off.: 38-B / 56 Block, C. R. Park, New Delhi-110019 (India).

Editorial Front

Branch Office:Mumbai: E-mail: roy@ mobilityindia.comKolkata: 105/12B, Dum Dum Road, Sil Colony, Kolkata-74Contact: 09330922965; 09903392620E-mail : roy@ mobilityindia.comOrissa: Krushna Nagar, 5th Lane, Lalji Palli, Berhampur-760008 (Orissa) (India)Contact : Raj Kumar-09338410809 Email : [email protected] [email protected]

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.

Editor : [email protected] roy@ mobilityindia.com Marketing : [email protected] [email protected] Info : [email protected] : subscription@ mobilityindia.com

Web : www.mobilityindia.com

Mobility Voice


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$1 billion annually.The greatest savings in field service will come from

diagnosing and fixing problems more quickly, without needing to bring additional experts to remote sites.

However, during the next five years, the ecosystems will evolve to include more apps that do specific tasks with smart glasses, which may cause IT organizations to provide them for a wider range of employees.

Now is the time for IT organizations to refresh their bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies with smart glasses in mind. Though IT organizations will provide smart glasses to employees who regularly wear them for their job task, much of the IT impact may come from employees wearing their personal smart glasses at work. This is surely a big space to watch out now.

Swapan Roy

[email protected]

Welcome to the World of Wearables

Welcome to the World of Wearables


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8 www.mobilityindia.com

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Mobility April 2014

Mobility NewsSamsung Unveils Galaxy S5 Smartphone

The company’s 5th generation Galaxy S redefines how technology innovation enhances our lives. Expands Wearable Line with the

Next Generation of Gear devices that offers unmatched freedom and style Samsung Electronics, India’s leading smartphone manufacturer, has introduced the Galaxy S5, blending features that matter most to consumers. The new Galaxy S5 offers consumers a refined experience with innovation of essential features for day-to-day use. “The Galaxy S5 is yet another great proof point of people-inspired innovation. Designed to be both effortlessly smart and intuitively simple, the Galaxy S5 has been created to maximize consumer benefits by integrating superior hardware with enhanced smartphone usability and an iconic design,” said Vineet Taneja, Country Head, IT & Mobile Division at Samsung India. “This sleek and innovative smartphone believes in the importance of an effortless user experience, making your life easy and hassle-free; and, it empowers your life, helping take care of your well-being. At Samsung, we’ll never stop pursuing innovation conceived by people, so we can inspire them in return.”

The Galaxy S5 combines an advanced camera, the fast network connectivity, dedicated fitness tools and enhanced device protection features as consumers stay fit and connected in style.

Be more fit and active

With the enhanced S Health 3.0, the new Galaxy S5 offers more tools to help people stay fit and well. It provides a comprehensive personal fitness tracker to help users monitor and manage their behavior, along with additional tools including a pedometer, diet and exercise records, and a new, built-in heart rate sensor. Galaxy S5 users can further customize their

experience with an enriched third party app ecosystem and the ability to pair with next generation Gear products for real-time fitness coaching.

Essential device protection

The Galaxy S5 is IP67 dust and water resistant. It also offers a Finger Scanner, providing a secure, biometric screen locking feature. The Ultra Power Saving Mode turns the display to black and white, and shuts down all unnecessary features to minimize the battery consumption.

All three devices - Gear Fit, Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo allows users to express their mood or coordinate with their outfit with modern and sophisticated strap color options including Charcoal Black, Gold Brown and Wild Orange for Gear 2 and Charcoal Black, Mocha Grey and Wild Orange for Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit. The home screen background, clock face and font are also customizable to reflect their personal taste. The devices also offer personal fitness coaching in real time, allowing users to develop a customizable fitness routine and monitor their heart rate in order to improve their overall well-being.

“Samsung next generation of wearable devices were developed to redefine the way

we live and to maximize our fulfilment of life,” said Mr. Taneja. “Our Gear portfolio continues to expand with unique devices designed for extended connectivity features, stylish customization options and a robust application ecosystem. These devices, especially the new Gear Fit, help consumers striving to live fit and active lives, without sacrificing their own personal style or their ability, to stay connected on the go. These devices enable one of the most seamless, natural and human-centric mobile experiences; opening up new horizons that allows you to live a life extraordinary.”

Qualcomm Sale of Indian BWA Licenses Cleared by Regulator

Simmtronics XPad Partners with STAR CJ

Qualcomm has received approval to sell its remaining stake in it’s Indian BWA spectrum holding company to Bharti Airtel. Qualcomm

paid just over US$1 billion for the licenses in the auctions of 2010. Qualcomm sold a 49% stake in the holding company to Bharti Airtel for around US$165 million in May 2012. Since then it has steadily increased its holdings, and has a long term plan to take full ownership of the company. Last October it raised its stake to 93.45 percent, and now has full ownership of the holding company.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has now approved the deal after the law ministry said the sale didn’t violate the 2010 auction rules. There had been some doubt about whether the sale could include the associated ISP license as well as the spectrum.

Qualcomm’s licenses cover Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala, while Bharti has BWA licenses in four circles - Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra - and 3G licenses in thirteen circles in India. With this agreement, Bharti has secured a near nation-wide broadband capability in 18 circles.

Simmtronics announces its association with STAR CJ Network India Pvt. Ltd. Simmtronics has forayed into the smartphone segment, with series

like FUNDROID, AMAZOID and SMARTROID and will offer these products (and demos) to the consumers through STAR CJ Home Shopping Television Channel.

Anjana Sukhani, Indian Film Actor and Model says, “I remember using Simmtronics products in my computer when I was a kid. The qualities of the Simmtronics tablets are authentic and are very handy to use.”

Mr. Kenny Shin, CEO, STAR CJ Network India Pvt. Says, “We are pleased to associate with Simmtronics, a rapidly rising brand in the IT sector.”

Mr. Amoogh Sabharwal, Director, Simmtronics says, “We are overwhelmed by our association with STAR CJ Network, which as empowered us to provide extensive reach and value to our patrons.”


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Mobility NewsSpice launches 5 inch 3G Android Stellar Mettle Icon

Industry welcomes Kerala Government’s New Mobile Tower Policy

Spice Retail Limited has launched Spice Stellar Mettle Icon Mi- 506 smartphone at an affordable range. The phone has been priced at

Rs 6,999 and will be available across India through all major retail stores and www.saholic.com.

The device has 1.3 GHz Dual Core Processor, 5 inch FWVGA capacitive touchscreen at 854 x 480 pixels resolution. This Android 4.2 smartphone offers an 8 mega-pixel rear camera with LED flash and a front-facing 1.3 MP camera. The 1800mAh battery gives a talk-time of more than 11 hours (2G) and 5 and a half hours (3G) hours and up to 227 hours standby ensuring a strong battery backup.

Stellar Mettle Icon comes in a sleek, stylish and sturdy metal body, has an inbuilt memory of 4 GB ROM + 512 MB RAM which can further be expanded upto 32 GB with a microSD card.

ASUS Announces the Pan India Accessibility of Zenbook

Motorola Launches Moto X in India

The ASUS Zenbook UX302 is a stunning, stylish touchscreen Ultrabook with a scratch-resistant finish ASUS, a leading brand, driven by the

strength of mastering technological innovation and design perfection for the ultimate life-enhancing and computing experience announces Pan India accessibility of their stunning, stylish touchscreen Ultrabook with a scratch- resistant finish - Zenbook UX302. Zenbook UX302 has

a strikingly gorgeous design refined with crystalline Gorilla Glass 3 and classic brushed metallic finish.

Mr. Peter Chang, Regional Head - South Asia & Country Manager, ASUS India said, “We were

the pioneers of bringing Ultrabooks in the market. Our first model was introduced in

2011. Introducing the Zenbook UX302 is one of our elite ranges of products, will be further enhancing our Ultrabook Series and quality offerings to our customers. Amazingly, it is just 15.5mm thick - 14% thinner than the previous Zenbook. It is a first ever Ultrabook which comes with NVidia GT 730M 2GB VRAM accelerating the performance with responsive multimedia and faster gaming. We are affirmative that this device will content techies with fetish for excellence in the country. It is the Ultrabook you’ll want with you, wherever you go.?

Motorola is set to in India Moto X, priced `23,999 onwards, in partnership with e-Commerce company Flipkart.com.”After the huge

success of Moto G, Flipkart.com and Motorola are now launching the Moto X in India. At `23,999 for the colour variants and `25,999 for the wood finish variants, t h e M o t o X i s p r i c e d aggressively, m a t c h i n g prices in the U S m a r k e t ,” Flipkart said in a statement.

The device i s a v a i l a b l e in the US for U S D 3 9 9 . 9 9 ( ` 2 4 , 3 9 2 ) w i t h o u t contract for the 16GB version and USD 449.99 for 32GB (`27,465).The Moto X features a 4.7-inch touchscreen, Android KitKat OS, dual core 1.7 GHz processor, supports 4G LTE, 10 MP rear camera, 2 MP front camera and has 2GB RAM. Previously, Motorola had partnered with Flipkart to launch its affordable smartphone, Moto G.

It added that this would be a phased launch and once sold out, the next lot of Moto X will be available on Flipkart .

The Indian Telecom industry has welcomed the Kerala Government’s decision to accept the Central guidelines for clearance for installation

of mobile towers in the State and said that the other State Governments can take a leaf out of the Kerala Government’s initiative of adopting the Central guidelines in totality.

Rajan S Mathews, Director General, COAI said: “The move by the Kerala Government is a step in the right d i r e c t i o n f o r t h e development of ICT sector. India has adopted stringent safety norms for emissions from Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) which is one-tenth of the international s t a n d a r d s . F u r t h e r , the Central norms of tower guidelines were formulated after elaborate discussions with all stake holders including, the State governments, Department of Telecommunications and the industry and we find no reason why they should be subjected to further scrutiny and change,” he added.


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Mobility April 2014

If you like to use your tablet for work and play - in office, on-the-go or at home,

you now can choose from 20 different Windows-based tablets in India which are on offer from eight of Microsoft?s original equipment manufacturing partners. Eight of these tablets from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Panasonic and Lava .

Windows tablets offer consumers the power of a PC in a tablet. They are also the only tablets which allow multiple user accounts, so you don?t have to worry about your child wiping off your office email. Windows-based tablets allow multi-

tasking, so you can listen to music, do social networking and download a presentation all at the same time. They come pre-installed with Microsoft Windows Home and Office 2013 and best of all, all Windows tablets are equipped with all-purpose ports that can connect to the TV via HDMI, the Internet via a dongle or a keyboard/printer/

mouse/headphone via a USB port.

Since its introduction in mid-2010, the tablet category has witnessed huge growth in demand and shipments. Currently the hand-held segment leads with an impressive annual growth of 629% *. Consumer usage patterns around technology are

constantly evolving and what people are doing with technology today is vastly different from what we have seen a few short years ago. Given the ease with which tablets enable convergence, the popularity of this device comes as no surprise.

Mobility NewsMicrosoft Set to offer Windows Phone free to Lava and Karbonn

Apple Might set up Stores Across India to Push Sales

Microsoft introduces Windows-based Tablets in India

According to media reports, Karbonn and Lava are the two phone makers in India who will be spared the usual

licensing fee for adopting Windows Phone. And Microsoft reportedly will dole out Windows Phone for free to these couple of Indian phone makers to spur adoption in the country.

The software giant has been chatting with Indian phone makers about developing more affordable Windows Phone devices. Two device makers purportedly agreed, but only after Microsoft promised to drop the normal license fee for its mobile OS, according to the sources.

Microsoft is surely changing its game here as the company typically earns its bread-and-butter by charging a licensing fee for each Windows Phone handset. Microsoft even charges key partner Nokia to make Windows Phone devices.

Apple is set on big plans to make a big entry into Indian cities and tier II markets. The company was looking to set

up a chain of outlets that will sell Apple products in regions where the company has limited retail presence currently.

Now Apple is set to be going for an India-specific strategy aimed at trying to grab market share from dominant rival Samsung. The stores will reportedly be set up in cities and towns such as Pune, Vishakhapatnam, Guwahati, Durgapur and Gangtok.

Apple is expected to set up independent stores in neighbourhoods across the country with help from Indian distributors Redington and Ingram Micro, and other distribution partners. The move comes on the back of Apple’s decision to bring back the

iPhone 4 to India, which is one of the key growth markets in the world. With a miniscule market share in India (around 2 percent), Apple is a not a force to be reckoned with yet in the Indian smartphone market.

It would seem Apple approached multi-brand outlets as well to set up Apple-specific stores, but not all of them agreed. An executive at a retail chain told the paper that margins on Apple products is quite less compared to Samsung or other brands, hence it makes more sense to stick to the multi-brand format.

Mobile Phone Batteries can be Charged with Sugar?

H ave you heard of a battery that consumes sugar and can run your smart phone for 10

days? This bio-battery may soon become a reality. Researchers at US based Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, popularly known as Virginia Tech, have designed a new bio-battery with a greater output per weight than the typical

lithium-ion batteries used in most electronics.

A bio-battery converts sugar into energy - much like our metabolism - decomposing sugar into carbon dioxide and water while releasing electrons.The new bio-battery fully converts sugar into energy, which means more power

output than previous bio-batteries and a greater battery charge than common lithium-ion batteries.

The new bio-battery gets its efficiency by using a novel system of enzymes which are proteins that help the reaction to take place. The system uses two active

e n z y m e s that liberate two pairs of e l e c t r o n s f r o m t h e sugar while 1 0 o t h e r e n z y m e s help to reset the reaction i n s i d e t h e bio-battery.

Once the reaction is reset, the active enzymes release another quartet of electrons. After six cycles, the bio-battery extracts all of the energy bound in the sugar molecule along with carbon dioxide and water.


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Nokia Presents ‘Nokia X’ Android Smartphone

Nokia has announced the launch of its newest phone ‘Nokia X’ Android smartphone which will be available in Indian market. As the Finnish firm

plans to grab a good share of the burgeoning affordable smartphone market. The smartphone priced at Rs 8599 MOP, is a four inch touchscreen dual SIM

handset loaded with Android’s Jellybean OS a dual core 1 GHz processor, 3MP rear camera and 512 MB of RAM a n d m e m o r y expandable up to 32GB.

The phone come pre-loaded

with apps like Maps, Mixradio, Facebook and Twitter.As per the Nokia website, Nokia X also introduces to an all-new customizable home screen in which one can customize as per requirement. Resize and rearrange apps with resizable tiles, group apps into folders and get Android widgets for the things that a user may require frequently. “India is one of the fastest growing markets for smart phones in the world. With the launch of Nokia X, we are adding more ammunition to our smartphone portfolio.

“We believe Nokia X is a unique combination of Nokia quality and experiences, Microsoft services and Android apps. It will resonate with consumers and set a great precedent for the level of quality that can be achieved in the fast-growing, affordable smartphone segment.” Said Mr. P Balaji, Managing Director, Nokia India. Nokia X comes with Fastlane, a screen which lets people switch between their favorite apps more smoothly. People can access curated, quality-tested apps from Nokia Store, more than a dozen third-party app stores and by side loading.

Mobility News

Google Set to Unveil Android Watch Soon

RAPOO Wins ‘iF Product Design Award 2014’ for the 4th Time

RAPOO has bagged ‘iF Product Design Award 2014’ award for RAPOO A600 Bluetooth portable NFC speakers. RAPOO has won the ‘iF Product Design’ award for the 4th time in a row. RAPOO has been successful in qualifying for this award category due to its professional cutting-edge wireless peripheral designs.

‘Industrie Forum Design (iF)’ award is a German based renowned International design association - reputed provider of design services at the interface of design and economy. iF Product Design Award has been dubbed “Oscars of Design World” by European media. Mr Sunil Srivastava, Country Marketing Manager at RAPOO said, “It is an honor to be acknowledged by iF international design award for the 4th time.”

iBall launched Slide 3G 7271-HD70

iBall has launched another Dual SIM tablet Slide 3G 7271-HD70, which offers 3G network support in one of the SIM slots and also supports video calling. It has a 7-inch (1024 x 600 pixels) capacitive touch screen display, powered by a 1.3 GHz dual-core Cortex A7 processor and runs on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean), similar to the HD7 tablet. It comes with a 2-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a VGA front-facing camera. It has dual SIM support, voice calling and wireless FM Radio. This dual-SIM configuration supporting tablet is powered with a 3000 mAh battery. Major difference of this tablet from its predecessor is 1GB RAM and 8 GB of internal memory, instead of 512MB RAM and 4GB of internal memory in the Slide 3G 7271-HD7. The iBall Slide 3G 7271 HD70 comes in silver color and is priced at an MOP of Rs. 8,299, while the MRP is Rs. 8,999.

Karbonn announces Smartphone with Android KitKat

Karbonn and MediaTek have announced a strategic partnership in smartphone business. This major partnership integrates MediaTek’s innovative product engineering roadmap into Karbonn’s new portfolio of ‘true’ octa-core &hexa-core processor based smartphone range. Priced at Rs. 16990/-(MOP) for the Karbonn Titanium Hexa, Rs. 14490/-(MOP) for the Titanium Octane and Rs. 17990/-(MOP) for the Titanium Octane Plus, the devices will be ready for shipping from the last week of April 2014.

Through this collaboration, Karbonn has introduced a new portfolio of smartphones including Titanium Hexa, Titanium Octane and Titanium Octane Plus. Speaking about the partnership, Pardeep Jain, Managing Director, Karbonn says, “This collaboration with M e d i aTe k w h i c h enables advanced multi-tasking and better performance is our endeavour to introduce devices which can answer every emerging need in the industry.”

Dr. Finbarr Moynihan, General Manager, International Sales & Marketing, Mediatek Inc. says, “True to MediaTek’s DNA, we have set another benchmark in technological innovations by developing the MT6591, the Hexa-core platform that now completes the loop of multi-core processor offerings by MediaTek.”

V oice-controlled smartwatches that track heart rates and connect

to phones and tablets will debut later this year as Google Inc partners with electronics, technology and fashion companies to take consumers to the next promised frontier in computing.

Google has unveiled plans to help develop the watches and other wearable computers based on its Android mobile operating system, which already runs more than three out of four smartphones sold worldwide.The Android Wear project is open to software makers to create apps for the watches, putting Google at the forefront of efforts to jumpstart the nascent wearable computing market.

The news comes as speculation swirls around iPhone-maker Apple Inc’s plans for wearable computers, including a smartwatch of its own. Apple Chief Executive Tim

Cook has promised new “product categories” later this year.A video posted on Google’s blog on Tuesday showed people speaking into their watches to check sports scores, control music, send replies to text messages and even open their home garages.

By aligning itself with a broad spectrum of partners to develop the smartwatches, Google is hoping to replicate the success that helped make its free Android software the most popular smartphone operating system, analysts said. Juniper Research expects more than 130 million smart wearable devices will ship by 2018. Moreover, global shipments of wearable “smart glasses” alone will reach 10 million each year by 2018, compared with an estimated 87,000 in 2013, according to the research firm.


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Modi Infosol Betting Big on Mobility

Modi Infosol Pvt Ltd. (formerly Modi

Peripherals Pvt Ltd), founded in 1987,

is a customer-oriented IT products and solutions

distribution company providing a range of products

and expert services. Modi Group have their Head

Office in Nehru Place, New Delhi, Registered Office

in Mumbai and Branch Offices in Madhya Pradesh,

Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and

Punjab and the recently opened branch office in

Bangalore. Currently they have a turnover of over

Rs 200 crores (Rs 2000 Million).

Modi Group is an established distributor of

software, PCs, laptops, smartphones & tablets,

servers, printers, multi-function machines/

photocopiers, video projection systems, storage

and networking products to develop customized

IT solutions. Modi Infosol also undertakes

maintenance of servers PCs & peripherals and other

IT-related hardware on an Annual Maintenance

Contract (AMC) basis.

The vendors or providers for mobile devices

with whom Modi is associated include several top

notch companies like HP, Lenovo, Acer, Samsung,

Simmtronics and ASUS, among others.

According to Shyam Sunder Modi, Director,

Modi Infosol, “We are expanding our pan-India

network. In this regard, we are in the process of

setting up more offices in all major cities. So far our

presence has been strong in North and West India,

but now we are expanding to South and East India.

Recently we opened our branch office in Bangalore

and plan to open one in the East soon.”

Regarding mobile gadgets market, Modi

says, “In spite of downturn in the market, our

smartphone and tablet business has grown by over

100%,which forms roughly 30% of our revenues,

though for other IT products the growth remains

low at around 10%.”

Modi Launched their Own Brand iJab for Mobile Accessories.

Modi group has recently launched their own

brand iJab for mobile accessories. Speaking in this

regard, Modi reveals, “We launched iJab only 2

months back starting with laptop battery, laptop

adaptor and laptop bag, but soon we will expand to

accessories for smartphones and tablets. Have our

own strong and established distribution network

is special advantage for promoting our own brand

and soon we will establish iJab as strong brand in

the market.”

Marketing Strategy

Every company has its own marketing strategy.

As a distributor Modi details, “We promote via TV

shows, roadshows, retailing and our own online

portal. However, online sales volume is nominal. We

have a workforce of over 100 staff which we want to

gradually increase. We are mainly present in North

India and West India. In South India we recently

opened office Bangalore, and also we want to open

an office in East India in the coming months. Our

main sales bases are big cities, but gradually we want

to expand to Tier-2 and 3 cities—it will take time.

We work closely with our downline partners. As

far as partners are concerned, some of our partners

for mobile devices sell exclusively mobile devices

whereas some are common for mobile devices and

other IT products.”

Future Plans

Regarding future plans, Modi states, “As already

mentioned, we are expanding our pan India

network. We are waiting for the new government

after 2014 general elections. Depending upon

the new government’s policies and budget,

we will redraft our strategy. We want a stabile

government, preferably headed by Narendra Modi

who can propel the development of IT industry

and the market as well. We want to increase our

revenues from the present Rs 200 crores to Rs 500

crores in the next 3 to 4 years. For mobility segment

in particulars we are entering into new tie-ups and

signing up with new partners. We want to establish

our newly started mobile accessory brand iJab.”

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Channel Focus

Company is planning

aggressive expansion into

Smarphones & Tablets

Segments. They have also

launched their Own Mobile

Accessory Brand iJab

Shyam Sunder Modi, Director, Modi Infosol

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Cover Story

Powering Mobiles and Smart Devices

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The number of electronics

applications that have become

portable in the last 20 years has

risen dramatically with the evolution

of battery technologies.

The portable power battery

market has grown significantly during

this same timeframe across a variety of

consumer and industrial application

areas. While this sector was initially

constrained by supply-side limitations,

the market has matured and is showing

steady growth.

A report from Pike Research

forecasts that the portable power sector

will continue expanding at a healthy

rate over the next few years, rising

from $25.3 billion in global revenues

in 2012 to $30.5 billion by 2015.

TEJAS SETHDirector, Asia Powercom

The cleantech market intelligence

firm estimates that portable power

represents 55% of the global battery

industry, with the stationary and

motive battery sectors accounting

for the balance of the market. The

firm’s analysis indicates that portable

power’s compound annual growth

rate (CAGR) of 8.5% will outpace

growth in the other two sectors.

Advanced battery technologies

hold the potential to have a major

impact on how portable devices are

used in a variety of consumer and

industrial markets. However, batteries

are governed and constrained by

a set of electrochemical laws that

prevent them from achieving the

kinds of advancements we have

seen in the electronics industry.

There is no Moore’s Law for battery

technology, but a large number of

innovators are actively seeking ways to

significantly improve the performance

of batteries.

Pike Research forecasts that the

largest market growth will continue

to be in batteries for laptop computers

and mobile phones, driven largely by

ongoing increases in unit shipments.

Other major growth categories will

include portable navigation, military

applications, medical devices, power

tools, and instrumentation/sensing.

A few application segments, such as

batteries for portable AV/music and

digital photography, will experience

flat to negative growth between 2010

and 2015.

Power Bank Strategy in India

According to Rajesh Doshi,

Director - Purchase & Marketing,

Topnotch Infortronix India, the

company always looking forward to

engaging with its set of customers in

interesting ways and power bank is

surely an emerging segment.

“We always strive hard to offer

the consumers quality products at

reasonable price. We have a range

of power banks in Zebronics called

Power Grid. Our products in this

range are very competitively priced

and come with one year warranty,

so one can buy and use them with

peace of mind. Mobiles and tablets are

very fast growing market segments.

As these mobile devices gets more

processing power and better displays,

the battery requirement also goes

up. There is lots of scope for power

banks, in this segment. We are very

confident of capturing a good portion

of this market with good quality VFM

products,” he adds on.

According to Sudip De, Vice

President, ADATA Technology India,

“ADATA India’ main product line

being storage, recently we forayed into

mobile power segment with 2 new

products. One a mobile power bank

ADATA PV100 and second a wireless

charger for mobile phone supporting

wireless charging model CE700. With

these 2 news products, we are going

full throttle with our distribution

network in creating awareness on

the products, its USPs, technological

benefits over the competitive products

to the front ending sales team and

channel partners alike. Apart from our

distribution setup, we are also working

very closely with a chosen set of

partners have specialization in mobile

segment to create awareness amongst

the mobile channel partners. On the

other front, we are also working along

with leading ecommerce portals to

create awareness amongst the end

users directly,” he informs.

As per the v iews of Rajan Sharma, VP Sales – DIGILITE, “We have recently launched DIGILITE powerbank series with 3 models with 5200mAH & 6600mAH power. Our products come with Samsung battery, LED charging indicators, LED torch, overcharge short circuit protection & over Discharge Protection. We are looking customers who are quality conscious & need higher batter back-up,” he adds on.

He is quick to add that as more

and more people carry portable

electronic devices like - laptops,

phones, smartphones, tablet PC,

digital cameras, camcorders etc to

enjoy the benefit technology brings

us the power bank requirements

are shooting up. “We expect market

size to be almost equal to atleast

50% of current MID,Smartphone

market. We are working closely

with our IT & TELECOM channel

across India through our distribution

partners Ingram Micro, Redington

& Supertron Electronics. With their

reach & consistent business in IT as

well as Telecom channel in selling

MID products from SAMSUNG,

APPLE,DIGITAB etc, we have opened

up excellent opportunity of customers

& users to experience our DIGILITE

Powerbanks,” he explains.

According to Sundeep Popli, COO

at LAPCARE, the company started

power banks about six months ago

and it will be its prime focus product

for the coming future.

“We have introduced complete

range starting from 2200 mAh to

15600 mAh. Currently we have been

selling power banks through our

channel partners across the country

but going forward our strategy for

power bank is to maximize our

presence in Multi brand outlets and

Mobile segment. Our key strategy

would be to leverage our strength of

Lapcare brand is the battery &

adaptor segment. As Smartphones

and mobile devices are gaining more

popularity in India, there is also

increased demand for the mobile

accessories. According to industry

estimates, the size of the market for

mobile accessories is about 1,500

crore. Mobile power banks are making

their way into the ‘a must have’ among

the most popular accessories like

“As the market is increasing and in demand, it is very diffi cult to judge how big the market will be. But we think there is more than 50% connect ratio for all small phones being sold. The competition is from all angles. It varies from branded ones to unbranded Chi-nese powerbanks but in general it depends mainly on what segment one operates,”

Cover Story

Powering Mobiles and Smart Devices

“We always strive hard to offer the consumers quality products at rea-sonable price. We have a range of power banks in Ze-bronics called Pow-er Grid. Our prod-ucts in this range are very competi-tively priced and come with one year warranty, so one can buy and use them with peace of mind. Mobiles and tablets are very fast growing mar-ket segments.”

RAJESH DOSHIDirector - Purchase & Marketing, Topnotch Infortronix India


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Mobility April 2014

Cover Story

LAVA 520 5200mAh Power Bank-cum-Wireless Router is an attractive buy for charging smartphones and tablets (via a USB por t) and connecting to Internet, while on the go. It creates a Wi-Fi hotspot from your 3G dongles or Ethernet connection, and supports up to 32 users access to Internet. W520 has a massive inner battery of 5200mAh, which allows up to 8

hours of continuous use and up to 10 hours of standby time. The W520 has two access modes: 3G wireless access (via WCDMA, EVDO and TD-WCDMA) and cable access (via WAN or LAN por ts). This wireless router-cum-power bank has a a maximum bandwidth of up to 150 Mbps. The maximum transmission distance of this device is 50 meters outdoors and 30 meters indoors. Charging this Lava power bank is facilitated by the availability of multiple charging options like via a PC or laptop USB por t, power adapter and mobile charger. W520 comes with an MRP Rs 2999 and MOP approx Rs 1950. Lava W520’s Rj45 por t is covered which protects it from dust, water, par ticles, etc.

LAVA W880 mini por table power bank is potential accessory for Smar tphones and tablets for peace of mind during long outings. LAVA W880 has a massive 8800mAh battery, enough for three full charges of most smar t phones and one full charge for most tablet devices. Battery Charging time is 6-8 hrs. LAVA W880 comes with an MRP Rs 2999 and MOP approx Rs 2500.

protective cases and covers. We will continue seeing

mobile Powerbanks to dominate for few more years

in the market,” he adds.

According to Tejas Seth, Director at Asia

Powercom, the company has tie-ups with the

LFRs, mobile distributors, retail stores to increase

its presence in the retail chain that target the

powerbank segments.

“As the market is growing, it is very difficult to

judge how big the market will be. But we think there

is more than 50% connect ratio for all small phones

being sold. The competition is from all angles. It

varies from branded ones to unbranded Chinese

powerbanks but in general it depends mainly on

what segment one operates,” he adds on.

As per Arun Ghosh, Managing Director,

CyberPower “Today the main expectations of the

consumers, who are more aware of

technology and other aspects than

ever before, are looking for features

such as quality, reliability, green

performance, etc. when making

products-related decisions. Mobile

Power Bank is the ideal design

for charging and powering USB-

powered devices ANYWHERE

and ANYTIME, including cell

phones, MP3/IPODs, PDAs,

handheld gaming systems and

cameras. We serve all Geographical

and demographical segmented

buyers who have common needs

or characteristics of buying Power

Bank Products. Our strategy is to

create awareness through regular

BTL activities, Schemes, Print

Media, Social Media, Events etc.

Young generations and working

class are fond of electronic products and thus

growth of sales is high in these market segments,”

he adds.

Competitive Scenario

Speaking about the competition in India,

Rajesh Doshi says that the market is evolving at a

very fast pace and so, the technology. “There are

many branded and non branded products available

in this segment, where the competition among

these is also high. We have a team of engineers,

working on power banks to provide best products

by adding new features and making them tiny and

lighter. Zebronics Power Grid range of products

is unique in design and steady in build quality.

Power Grid products are also well appreciated by

the media and critics and we have got many good

reviews on it,” he adds on.

As being put forward by Sudip De, since the

market is wide open and un-fragmented, there are

many players foraying into the market. “Also with

the segment being new, there are many regional

brands and players who are also present. As of

now, this is a wide open market and many non-IT

players are also jumping into bandwagon as not

much technical know-how and expertise is required

from the players,” he explains.

Speaking about the competitive landscape,

Rajan Sharma says that this market is currently

driven by sub-standard imports, which needs to

be checked. “We are one of the few established

companies to bring DIGILITE powerbank with

proper specifications, IQC & post sales network,”

he adds.

LAVA 520 (5200mAh) & LAVA W880 (8800mAh) Power Banks, The Right Companions for Your Smartphones and Tablets

“ADATA India’ main product line being storage, recently we forayed in mobile power segment with 2 new products. One a mobile power bank as ADATA PV100 and secondly a wireless charger for mobile phone supporting wireless charging with a model as CE700. With these 2 news products, we are going full throttle with our distribution network in creating awareness on the products, its USPs, technological benefits over the competitive products to the front ending sales team and channel partners alike. Apart from our distribution setup, we are also working very closely

with a chosen set of partners that have specialization in mobile segment to create awareness amongst the mobile channel partners.”

SUDIP DEVice President, ADATA Technology India


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Mobile phones are no longer just for talking as they now serve as users’ personal assistants and enter tainment centers.

This trend has largely altered the landscape of the global mobile phone market. As for smar tphones, Apple, Samsung, and HTC are the three giants in the industry, and the competition between them has been heating up over the recent years. Cellular battery, as the main electricity source of mobile phone, is redefined by the rise of smar tphones. In order to cater to smar tphones’ slim sizes, smar tphones’ batteries are built-in, which in turn emphasizes the impor tance of supplementary power.

Smartphone Market Ruled by Two GiantsIn terms of the total shipments, Samsung’s self-supply of the

key components allows it to replace Nokia as the number one in the industry. Samsung started to develop entry-level cell phones as early as 2000 and officially became number one in North-American sales in 2008. Due to the climbing demand, Samsung has been increasing the smar tphone por tion in its production.

As of 2011, Samsung’s self-owned smar tphones accounted for 45% of the total production, and it will fur ther go up to 65% in 2013. Unlike HTC and Apple’s sole dedication to smar tphone, Samsung stably increases its share in the traditional cell phone market. Thus, the users of Samsung’s traditional cell phones may later switch to using Samsung’s smar tphones.

Apple and HTC targets the smar tphone market from the get-go, so their strategy is to acquire high-end users first and then low-end users. Continuous improvement and innovations is the key to remaining the top-dog in the high-end market. Apple’s business sees stable growth due to its continuous innovations. On the other hand, HTC still pales in comparison with Apple. HTC’s target market overlaps with that of Apple, and on top of that, Samsung has carved up a chunk of the smar tphone market. As a result, HTC is facing a fierce challenge in the mid and high-end smar tphone market.

Smartphone Propels Built-In Battery GrowthIn the past, cell phones usually used standard batteries

(replaceable batteries) in order to cut costs. However, due to smar tphones’ requirements for product designs and slim sizes, a fair amount of smar tphones use built-in batteries.

All Apple products use built-in batteries as Apple emphasizes on the product design and portability. All Apple products’ batteries and packaging are tailor-made in order to optimize the products. As for Samsung’s smartphones, some use standard batteries and some polymer batteries. Samsung’s 4-inch and 5-inch products use standard batteries in order to have better battery lives. HTC’s strategy is similar to that of Samsung, but the portion of built-in batteries starts to rise since 2012, expected to reach above 30% by the year end (15% in 2011).

Affected by Smartphone’s booming popularity, many components have undergone certain drastic changes. For example, battery is crucial to smartphone due to its high electricity consumption, and therefore, battery life becomes a pressing issue. That and the demand for trendy design make built-in battery more and more popular.

The biggest advantage of built-in batteries is that it is compatible with the slim and trendy product design. Most high-end smartphones use polymer batteries, which are difficult for users to replace. Most smartphones with built-in batteries can be recharged through USB port or wireless charger; the former is the most common solution for most products. Power bank is another solution that supplies the products with electricity through electric socket. Wireless charger is still a relatively new solution and is currently only for high-end users.

Although there are several solutions, they can basically be categorized into two kinds: power recharge and supplementary power. The edges of power recharge solution are low cost and high applicability, which makes it the mainstream solution for the time being. As for supplementary powers, although backup battery is the more popular choice now, it has its weak points. Backup power might make a better choice under cer tain circumstances.

Global Cellular Battery Trends

“ W e h a v e i n t r o d u c e d complete range s t a r t i n g f r om 2200 mAh t o 1 5 6 0 0 m A h . Currently we have been selling power banks through our channel partners across the country but going forward our strategy for power bank is to maximize our presence in Multi brand outlets and Mobile segment. Our key strategy would be to leverage our strength of Lapcare brand in the battery & adaptor segment.

Tejas Seth says that Asia Powercom

has three SKU’s for this, AP-2600C the

unique powerbank with LED torch in

it, AP-5200C the high capacity Lithium

rechargeable battery with double USB

port and AP-4000A India`s slimmest

Powerbank.

“Our strategy remains the same as to

gel with the market with new innovations

& feel of the products. Meeting the

demands of the customer by providing

them with the new products, feature

rich, well designed and all at affordable

price. With the introduction of 4G, the

Smartphones and Tablets are the segment

where we can expect the high growths. The

rapid growth in internet, digitalization

and increase in mobile internet users are

some of the trends reshaping the growth

in smartphones as well as powerbanks

sectors,” he adds on.

According to Arun Ghosh, Managing

Director, CyberPower, nearly 60% of

Accessories market is Unorganized

and 40% of the accessories market is

organized. Customers today are much

aware of the products and are willing to

buy the branded products rather than

the cheap local brands with poor quality

products. Competition is adhering to

the product that has innovative features,

quality, price and reach. Major Players in

this segment is Sony, Samsung, etc. which

are considered as our major competitors.

We provide reliable computer battery

backup systems, power management

applications, and series of computer

accessories for desktop, workstation,

and network equipment. We have wide

range of solutions for all kind of Power

Needs that are, Line Interactive UPS,

Online UPS, Emergency Power Systems,

Power Distribution Unit, Solar Inverter /

Chargers, Power Inverter, Mobile Battery

Pack, USB Car Chargers & Inverters,

USB Hubs, Cables, 3G Wi-Fi Dongle etc.

In Portable battery bank categories we

Cover Story

SUNDEEP POPLICOO, LAPCARE India


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Mobility April 2014

Cover Storyhave launched four products, viz. CPBC2200 /

CPBC4400 / CPBC5200T / CPBC10400. These USB

Battery Pack products are a rechargeable lithium-

ion battery designed for powering mobile devices

including phones, MP3 players, cameras, and

handheld gaming devices while away from other

power sources. CyberPower’s CPBC5200 Series

USB Battery Pack Received World’s First Power

Bank Product Certification from UL. Designed to

be applicable to power bank products worldwide,

the new safety evaluation standard conducted by

UL specifies the requirements intended to reduce

risks of personal injury from fire, electric shock

or other hazards. Therefore, equipment complied

with this standard could be deemed as certified

safe hence the significant recognition for users and

potential customers. CyberPower, the professional

solution provider in power industry, always designs

and manufactures products with care and attention

to fine detail,” he adds on.

Power Bank Products and Solutions

“We don’t consider the low brand competition as customers today are much aware of the products and are willing to buy the branded products rather than the cheap local brands with poor quality products. Competition is adhering to the product that has innovative features, qua l i t y, p r i c e and reach.”

ARUN GHOSHManaging Director, CyberPower

“We have recently launched DIGILITE powerbank series with 3 models with 5200mAH & 6600mAH power. Our products come with Samsung battery, LED charging indicators, LED torch, overcharge short circuit protection & over Discharge Protection. We are looking customers who are quality conscious & need higher batter back-up, We expect market size to be almost equal to atleast 50% of current MID,Smartphone market.”

RAJAN SHARMAVP Sales – DIGILITE

Talking about the various offerings of the

company, Rajesh Doshi from Infortronix says

that, “We have named our power bank products

as Power Grid. We have 3 models currently,

ZEB-PG2400, ZEB-PG4800 and ZEB-PG7200

with 2400mah, 4800mah and 7200mah capacity

respectively. The ZEBPG2400 comes with built

in torch for additional convenience. The ZEB-

PG4800 and ZEB-PG7200 comes with dual output

of 1A and 2A. All the 3 products are easy to use,

light weight and tiny in nature. All the necessary

cables and adapters are bundled with the power

banks.

Speaking about Adata products, Sudip de says

that, “as of now we have introduced 2 products,

Powerbank PV100 and Powerbank PC500. Apart

from this another product introduced by ADATA

is CE700 – a wireless mobile charger. Some of the

key features that we have are to keep users priceless

gadgets free from damaging are, overcharge

protection, over discharge protection, short circuit

protection, over voltage protection, over current

protection and over temperature protection. These

features have been developed by in-house R&D

team and surely going to be leading the path for

growth for ADATA in this segment,” he adds on.

He also adds that at present, Adata is working

very closely with its existing distributors and

regional distributors and their channel partners.

“Apart from this we are also exploring the

mobile segment, which eventually will be one of

the key drivers for the growth. To create awareness

in the market, we will be doing road shows and

channel meets specifically in the mobile segments

and highlighting the products USP to the partners.

Apart from this, with Internet penetration increasing

manifolds, we are also working closely on reaching out

to end users through this medium. With the usage of

smartphones and tablets increasing manifolds and

the power situation not improving immediately in

India, power banks are going to play a pivotal role to

keep people connected. Upcountry markets will lead

the path for this segment in terms of growth in the

coming quarters. The demand will be for not only

higher capacities but people looking in for features

to safeguard their devices,” he explains.

Speaking about the competition in this market

segment, Sandeep Popli from Lapcare says that,

“Broadly we have two types of competition.

One is from brands that compete on their value

proposition and other competition is from China

brand which can offer anything for price. We try

not to compete on price. Our products have unique

values and offerings,” he explains.

Power Bank Trends

As per the views of Rajesh Doshi, in today’s world, everyone wants to stay connected, no matter where they are. Mobile devices are helping people for faster and stable communication. “As these devices are getting more powerful and better, they are utilizing more battery for its processing and multitasking abilities. Power banks enable the users to maintain their communication for longer hours

and help them on the move. As more and more people are shifting to Smartphone and tablets for computing needs, accessories segment for these devices will also grow,” he explains.

According to Sudip De, usage of smart phone, tablets, digital cameras, portable gaming consoles being on the increase, power bank segment is one that is surely to keep rising in the coming quarters and give partners an ample opportunity for growth.

As per the views of Sandeep Popli, “Our focus is on high end products. We keep in mind the aesthetic values of the products and also the value proposition. Our product offering starts from 2200 mAh power bank and goes up to 12000 mAh. We will soon be launching power banks as high as 30,000 mAh capacities. Our unique solution is that we offer in built cables for all kind of mobile phone models. Our go to market strategy depends on the market which we plan to address. For IT and Retail market we are distributing products through RX Infotech P Limited. For markets like Gujarat and Maharashtra, we have set of Regional Distributors who are distributing the products in the market. Beginning from March we will be appointing Mobile accessories & mobile phone distributors as our RDs for power banks & other mobile related products. With the high growth on smart phones & also with a strong base of smart phones already in India, this market is going to grow many folds this year.” He adds on.


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Special Story

Eight thousand towns,

630,000 villages, over

eight million stores and

1.2 billion people! In such a diverse

consumer universe, how do you

measure demand, where is it strongest?

North vs. South, the metros vs. Rural

- the choices are endless. Despite

current inflationary environment,

tier II and tier III towns are showing

strong momentum with an improved

demand appetite as far as mobiles and

smartphones are concerned.

We take a closer look at how the

smaller Indian towns are leading the

demand surge in the mobiles and

smartphone segment shopping like

metros.

In a year where consumer

confidence generally took a beating

with the European crises, high

interest rates, inflation, and political

uncertainty, the Indian FMCG market

managed to clock a respectable growth

rate of 15 percent in 2011 over the

previous year in value terms. While

some argue this signifies a worrisome

slowdown relative to the growth rates

of almost 19 percent witnessed in

the previous year, 2011 was still a

significant year for the Indian small

town consumer.

As we dissect the reasons behind

the 15 percent value growth and

identify where consumer demand

resides in India, for the first time

we find that the charge is led by the

tier II and tier III towns. The metros

have carried India for the last decade;

now smaller towns have taken on the

demand baton.

What are small-town Indian consumers demanding?

T h e s m a l l - t o w n d e m a n d

opportunity runs deep and wide.

From an FMCG perspective, within

the same year (Q4 over Q1 2011), we

found that 42 out of 83 categories in

Middle India grew at least 10 percent

or more in same-store sales; in smaller

towns (rest of urban, population of <1

lakh) this was even more broad-based

with 53 out of 83 categories clocking

at least a 10 percent growth in same-

store sales.

When we evaluate some of the

fastest growing categories from a

pure consumer pull perspective, we

find that many specialty and evolved

categories like pre-post wash, hair

conditioners, air fresheners, prickly

heat powder and cheese stack up on

the top of the list.

Decoding the Middle India consumer

Mobile telephony

Mobile phones have a stronghold

in Middle India. More than 94 percent

of the population claims to own a

phone for personal or office use.

Factors like affordability of handsets

and cheap call rates are driving the

growth of mobiles phones in these

regions. Consumers, especially youth,

are more open to experimenting with

handsets, and are excited about newer

technologies. If service providers offer

better mobile internet services in small

towns at affordable rates, it is likely

that a wave of consumers will skip the

computer-led internet access phase

and unlock the power of the web

through mobile devices. However, this

is possible only if telecom companies

make internet usage appealing,

affordable, and relevant to the Middle

India population.

The Upcountry Scenario

Arvind. R. Vohra, India Head

- Gionee Smartphones & Director,

Syntech Technology Pvt. Ltd. says that

Gionee’s marketing spends for Yr 2013

was Rs 45 crore and the brand plans

to spend about Rs 90 crore in 2014.

Upcountry Goes MobileRise of the Small Town India

Upcountry Goes MobileRise of the Small Town India


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Mobility April 2014

Special Story

Gionee India has also achieved close

to 2% market share by value since

its India entry in early 2013. Gionee

plans to open 250 Brand stores in 2014

across India along with increasing it’s

In shop promoters from 2000 in 2013

to 4000+ in 2014 and also increase

presence in over 2500 shop-in-shops.

As a company we firmly believe in

Depth of Distribution (DOD) and

we are touching 60% of upcountry

locations pan India,’ he adds on.

As per the views of Hitesh Shah,

Director, Channel Sales, BlackBerry

India, according to IDC, India is

slated to become the third largest

smartphone market by 2017, with

burgeoning demand from tier II

and tier III cities, apart from the

urban areas. Increased literacy, better

incomes, improved internet and

telecom connectivity coupled with

a 24X7 digitally connected young

population; is fuelling smartphone

adoption in the upcountry markets

of India. Realizing the potential that

these markets offer, we at BlackBerry

have introduced products and services

that are apt for consumers in these

areas, which include the BB OS7

devices that have seen great traction

amongst users in these markets.

“ T h a t s a i d , we h ave a l s o

launched our premium products

on the BlackBerry 10 OS such

as BlackBerry Q5,-bundled with

aggressive promotional campaigns

and EMI schemes during various

festive occasions. As a part of our

marketing outreach, we have tied up

with CCD outlets, colleges across the

country, etc to bring our products

and services closer to the young

consumers in these markets. We have

also deployed multiple channels to

reach out to customers in tier II/III

towns with large format retail stories,

BlackBerry exclusive stores and online

portals such as Flipkart. Today we

have around 4000 retail outlets and

100 service centers across 190 towns,

catering to our consumers,’ he adds.

According to Amit Saxena,

Director, Marketing, ZTE India,

ZTE believes that upcountry market

holds immense potential for the

Smartphone vendors including us.

‘We believe that the next growth wave

for the smartphone segment also lies

in the upcountry market. We also

have a definite strategy to reach out

to the upcountry market through our

innovative portfolio. When a vendor

is targeting the upcountry market,

it’s of paramount importance to keep

in consideration the local consumer

demands. We at ZTE, are committed

to understanding and innovating in

this direction. For instance, we have

introduced the global smartphones

in the Indian market in their dual-

sim and high camera quality versions,

just so that we meet the Indian

customer’s needs in the best possible

way. Our handsets are also multi-

lingual supporting multiple Indian

languages. We are soon introducing

this feature in our smartphone range

as well. Our branding and marketing

communications also have a regional

flavor. For instance, when we reach out

to customers in Maharashtra or say in

Gujarat, we essentially communicate

to them in their own language,’ he

adds on.

The Upcountry Potential

According to Arvind Vohra from

Gionee, Indian smartphone market

has witnessed a growth of 85% in 2013

with over 900 smartphones launched

across brands. The growth is likely

to witness upto 200% increase in the

Indian market by 2015.

”Recent report suggests that

consumers are more liable to get

attracted to brands that can offer the

best integration of features and yet

provide value for money. Smarthphone

category has witnessed unprecedented

growth over last 2 years in India

with over 85% increase compared to

previous years and will continue to

see the growth . Large screens, High

performing processors, Increasing use

of camera features due to rise in Social

media reach, multimedia content will

be the major factors and reason for the

rapid rise in this category. Gionee’s

primary focus has been to provide

the best quality hardware integrated

with best optimization of the software

for a great user experience. Since

our inception we have offered the

finest quality of smarthphones for

Indian consumers yet providing

value for money across our range. We

currently have 15 handsets ready in the

Indian market and we plan to launch

around 10 more smartphones in 2014.

Also with the help of 5 renowned

distributors we have mapped our

entire marketing and distribution

network. Gionee Smartphones plans

to further strengthen its Authorized

service center network by setting

up 500 + new Service centers across

India in 2014. The Authorized service

centers will further be increased to

750+ by 2015 to reach length and

breadth of India,’ he explains.

As Hitesh Shah puts it, ‘’At

the moment, if we go by industry

estimates, India still remains one of

the biggest markets for feature phones.

Only 10% of the population in the

upcountry is using smartphones as

opposed to feature phones. However,

as the price gap continues to narrow

between feature and smartphones,

we are seeing a lot of uptake for

smartphones. If the numbers are

any indication, smartphones are all

set to outmaneuver feature phones

within the next few years. According

to IDC, the smartphone market in

India grew by 229% in 2013, while the

share of feature phones continued to

slide further to make 81% of the total

mobile market in India. We expect

this number to go up significantly

as cited in industry reports that

imply a spike in the usage patterns

of smartphones in the age bracket of

16 and above years, where numbers

have gone from 5% in 2012 to 22%

this year, a four-fold increase. The

willingness to stay connected through

IMs, emails social network and apps

within these age groups is what is

driving the smartphone adoption

in these markets. They are the true

‘mobile first’ markets where people are

experiencing the power of the Internet

and its social culture for the first

time by using their mobile phones.

And therefore the opportunities the

“Gionee’s marketing spends for Yr 2013 was Rs 45 crore and the brand plans to spend about Rs 90 crore in 2014. Gionee India has also achieved close to 2% market share by value since its India entry in early 2013. Gionee plans to open 250 Brand stores in 2014 across India along with increasing it’s In shop promoters from 2000 in 2013 to 4000+ in 2014 and also increase presence in over 2500 shop-in-shops. As a company we firmly believe in Depth of Distribution (DOD) and we are touching 60% of upcountry locations pan India,”

ARVIND. R. VOHRAIndia Head - Gionee Smartphones & Director, Syntech Technology Pvt. Ltd.

“We have also launched our premium products on the BlackBerry 10 OS such as BlackBerry Q5,-bundled with aggressive promotional campaigns and EMI schemes during various festive occasions. As a part of our marketing outreach, we have tied up with CCD outlets, colleges across the country, etc to bring our products and services closer to the young consumers in these markets. We have also deployed multiple channels to reach out to customers in tier II/III towns with large format retail stories, BlackBerry exclusive stores and online portals such as Flipkart.”

HITESH SHAHChannel Sales, BlackBerry India


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“We entered the Indian market announcing our entry level devices which are primarily in the affordable segment. These are specially designed to meet the mass market needs of the customers in metros and also upcountry. Very soon we will be expanding our portfolio announcing high end devices to meet the needs of premium customer segment. We also have an ambitious partner focused regional expansion plan which will help us ensure the best reach to the upcountry market. We also boast of one of the widest service network, with 214 service centers across the country.” AMIT SAXENA

Director, Marketing, ZTE India

Special Story

upcountry markets offer are immense

and hard to ignore for any smartphone

brand!,” he adds on.

Amit Saxena from ZTE says

that, although ZTE has a rich global

pedigree of innovating with latest

technology, when we forayed in the

Indian open market our strategy

was different. ‘We entered the Indian

market announcing our entry level

devices which are primarily in the

affordable segment. These are specially

designed to meet the mass market

needs of the customers in metros and

also upcountry. Very soon we will be

expanding our portfolio announcing

high end devices to meet the needs of

premium customer segment. We also

have an ambitious partner focused

regional expansion plan which will

help us ensure the best reach to the

upcountry market. We also boast of

one of the widest service network,

with 214 service centers across the

country. Today ZTE is one of the

top five mobile equipment brands

in the world, the reputation we have

painstakingly built over the years.

We are sure that our products, which

have industry leading standards, will

very soon create ripples in the Indian

market, including the upcountry,” he

adds on.

Challenges Ahead

Talking about the challenges,

Hitesh Shah from BackBerry says

that ‘As a part of our Go-to-Market

strategy, we are focused on building

and fortifying new and existing

relat ionship with our channel

and distribution partners. Having

developed our strong presence in

top 80 cities we looked at expanding

our reach to 190 cities and towns, as

these cities will drive the next phase

of growth for the industry. India

is a vast country and therefore the

challenges could sometime emerge

from the fact that the products need

to reach the customers in tier II/III

towns, along with competent support

facilities. Realizing this, we have been

working on our channel strategy

and have succeeded in establishing

the right kinds of distribution

channels and service networks. We

have identified the right distributors

who have optimum reach in the

upcountry markets and retain them by

providing apt levels of service support

to ensure that they get their return on

investment,’ he explains.

Speaking about the challenges,

Arvind Vohra says that the mobile

phone market is currently going

through a major upheaval as hundreds

of millions of users in India and

around the world upgrade from

cheaper and less-capable feature

phones to smartphones.

‘The biggest barrier for us is

the ability to convince users that

cheaper phones compromise on

user experience which includes

smartphone performance, speed and

hardware quality but good quality

is must for a great user experience.

Gionee over the years has believed in

keeping Innovation as its Core Value

Proposition which has helped the

company’s growth over the last decade.

. With our own R&D, Manufacturing

and Design centres Gionee ensure

that they provide excellent hardware

integrated smartphones along with

best software optimization for

exceptional user experience. 33%

of our revenues comes from the

smartphone sale in .the upcountry

locations,’’ he explains.

Upcountry Plans

Gionee plans to open 250 Brand

stores in 2014 across India along with

increasing its In shop promoters from

2000 in 2013 to 4000+ in 2014 and

also increase presence in over 2500

shop-in-shops.

‘We will be offering close to 15

phones in India this year including 10

smartphones and 5 feature phones.

Through our well laid distribution

channel and various marketing

initiatives in 2014 we plan to increase

the sales and recall PAN India in the

coming year. The brand plans to spend

about 90cr in 2014 for its marketing

initiatives double than its first year of

operation in 2013,’ Arvind Vohra from

Gionee adds on.

Expressing his views n Backberry,

Hitesh Shah says that, BlackBerry has

been and continues to innovate itself

as an iconic brand. Over the years,

BlackBerry has shown significant

movement and has evolved from being

just a smartphone to a versatile and

ubiquitous brand.

‘We position our products in

the market by doing some distinct

marketing activities across the country.

This helps us to drive awareness and

highlight the aspirational value of

our products and services and create

a deeper level of engagement with

the audiences. We will continue to

offer consumers a rich smartphone

experience that enriches their daily

habits providing seamless access to

content, information, productivity

and entertainment needs. We are

focussed to roll out new services and

software bundled with our devices to

differentiate ourselves in the market,

and drive profitable growth,’ he

explains.

Big Distributors for Backberry

Redington and Ingram Micro are

Blackberry’s major distributors in

India. “We currently are focusing on

the market with 4000 retail outlets

which include 500 stores in Large

Format Retail. Apart from these, we

also have 20 exclusive stores as well as

100 service centres across 190 towns

in India to ensure we deliver the right

experience to our customers. Since the

Indian smartphone market is largely

driven by retail channels, it becomes

important to enhance the retail

experience to our target consumers.

A unique initiative that we have

undertaken is to set up BlackBerry

Experience Zones which are based on

the store-in-store concept nationally,”

Hitesh Shah adds on.

Big Distributors for Gionee

Gionee has partnered with United

Telecoms Ltd, United Teleservices, UT

Electronics, Vishal Video & Appliances,

Priyanka Communications & Trust

Marketing that ensures its reach across

the 4 zones of the country.


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Mobility April 2014

Mobility Interaction

Mediaman Targets Growing Smartphone Sector for Storage Market

of the new one. That is the trend today.”

On the indispensable nature of memory

products in the present day, technology-

dominated life, Dushyant explains, “Memory

storage products have huge opportunity. You

cannot always depend on the Cloud for essential

information; you need to have it handy. For that

you need storage devices with you, at office or at

home. So far we have seen micro SD, SD cards

and USB but now there is a new innovation

called dual USB card which can be used in

both laptops and smartphones. New and more

efficient apps are appearing every now and then

for different purposes. The existing memory is

unable to meet the needs, so new innovations,

that will remarkable increase the memory

capacity, are bound appear increasingly in the

coming few years.”

Market strategy of Mediaman and Future

Trends

Regarding the mission and goals of

Mediaman, Dushyant adds, “We will tie-up with

large integrators. Per year smartphone market

is growing at the rate of 30% 40%. Our target

market for storage will be smartphones and the

allied areas. Soon innovative memory cards for

smartphones will appear which will be used for

many purposes—buying, transacting and so on.

We will be present in this market and will try

to gain maximum mileage. We are promoting

the memory products of SanDisk, Toshiba,

Transcend, etc wherever appropriate.

Now the trend is memory with added

solutions. Storage business has a great scope

in countries such as India and China where

populations are more and people’s disposable

incomes are steadily rising. This great

opportunity will be there for at least 5 more years.”

Main challenge the vendors and distributors

face is educating the channel since technology

is changing fast. In this regard, Dushyant

concludes, “Educating the channel is everybody’s

business—vendors’ as well distributors’. Earlier

people had to search for big files in the racks

and then carry big bundles of files. Now you

just need a pendrive—you can copy and carry

without affecting original files. Social media

and the Internet have become very important

platforms to the spread of technology. Whenever

there is a new innovation, we are ready to

promote it.”

Mediaman Infotech (P) Limited

was first founded in 1987 as

Mediaman by Mr. Dushyant

Mehta, and later incorporated as Mediaman

Infotech (P) Limited in 1996. Today, Mediaman,

with its headquarters in Mumbai and 40 sales

offices & stock locations (and growing) spread

across the country, is among the 15 largest

Information Technology distributors in India.

Current trends of memory market

Sharing his views on the present memory

market in India, Dushyant Mehta says, “Earlier

innovations used to survive for nearly 10 years

and the transition to new technology was rather

low. Today, new innovations are coming up after

every year and sometimes after 6 months—

both in software and hardware.” Today storage

technology has advanced a lot and data storage

needs have increased enormously, both in

size and quality. Every six months gadgets are

appearing with many new features added which

were unimaginable a decade ago. Dushyant

adds, “Today, you should learn a new thing

comes into the market, unlearn (or forget) what

you have learnt earlier and relearn on the lines

The growing market of smartphone in India offers huge scope for vendors who caters

to memery products. And Dushyant Mehta Chairman & CEO of Mediaman Infotech (P) Ltd. predicts that

this opportunity will be there for atleast next

5years.

Dushyant Mehta, Chairman & CEO,

Mediaman Infotech (P) Ltd.


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LTE - The True Future for Mobile

Broadband

Driving the evolution of wireless broadband technology is c u s t o m e r s ’ i n c r e a s i n g

expectations for speed, bandwidth, and global access. Customers want more information, such as business and consumer applications, and entertainment available through their mobile devices, but with greater speeds. For wireless carriers to achieve greater speeds and pervasive connectedness, their networks need to start behaving more like landline IP-based networks.

This line of thinking represents a fundamental shift in perspective—

from mobile services to broadband connections—for customers and service providers alike. Enter the fourth-generation (4G) wireless network. Unlike earlier wireless standards, 4G technology is based on TCP/IP, the core protocol of the Internet. TCP/IP enables wireless networks to deliver higher-level services, such as video and multimedia, while supporting the devices and applications of the future.

The Benefits of LTE (Long Term Evolution)• Provides a global ecosystemwith

inherent mobility

• Offers easier access andusewithgreater security and privacy

• Dramatically improves speed andlatency

• Delivers enhanced real-timevideoand multimedia for a better overall experience

• Enableshigh-performancemobilecomputing

• Supportsreal-timeapplicationsdueto its low latency

• Creates a platform uponwhichto build and deploy the products

and services of today and those of tomorrow

• Reduces cost per bit throughimproved spectral efficiency

Wireless technologies enable one or more devices to communicate without an actual wired connection. Radio frequency is used to transmit the data. Such technologies are rapidly evolving to meet a variety of communications needs, from simple to complex.

Wireless communications needs can all be classified in one of three ways, based on the distance they are

Tech Story


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Mobility April 2014

Tech Storymeant to cover. These include: wireless personal area networks (WPAN), wireless local area networks (WLAN), and wireless wide area networks (WWAN). Wireless networks form the transport mechanism between devices and traditional wired networks. WPANs are limited to distances under about 10 meters and include technologies such as infrared (IR), Bluetooth® technology, and ultra-wideband (UWB). WLANs cover a local area with distances of individual access points reaching to about 100 meters, and include technologies such as Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n). WWANs cover even larger areas, using cellular data networks.

This section discusses some of the most popular and widely used wireless technologies to provide readers with a point of reference for the use of 3G technology.

WPAN

WPANs typically provide ad hoc network connections designed to dynamically connect devices to other devices within close range of each other. These connections are termed ad hoc because they do not generally need to connect to any network infrastructure to operate. They can simply connect to each other and perform necessary communications without the need of any access network devices, such as access points or base stations.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth has emerged as the most widely used WPAN network standard. The Bluetooth standard is an industry specification that describes how mobile phones, headsets, computers, handhelds, peripherals, and other computing devices should interconnect with each other. Bluetooth network applications include wireless headsets, hands-free operation, wireless synchronization, wireless printing, advanced stereo audio, dial-up networking, file transfer, and image exchange, to name a few.

WLAN

WLANs provide connections designed to connect devices to wired networks. Unlike a wired LAN, a WLAN does not require cabling to connect the device to a switch or router. Devices connect wirelessly to nearby wireless access points that are attached to the local network using an Ethernet connection. A single access point communicates with nearby WLAN devices in a coverage area of about 100 meters. This coverage area allows users to move freely within

range of an access point with their notebook computers, handhelds, or other network devices. Multiple access points can be coordinated together by a network WLAN switch to allow users to hand off between access points.

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi (or IEEE 802.11) is the set of standards established to define wireless LANs. A number of different protocols are defined in the 802.11 family of standards, addressing var ious operat ing frequencies and maximum throughputs. The 802.11g standard is currently the predominant protocol deployed in WLAN implementations.

WWAN

WWANs provide broadband data networks with a far greater range, using cellular technologies such as GPRS, HSPA, UMTS, 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO, and LTE. Wireless data devices connect to a wireless broadband network through a commercial carrier’s data network, allowing broadband performance without the need for a cabled connection to a network infrastructure (much like a WLAN), while providing end users with far greater mobility. These WWANs typically incorporate sophisticated user identification techniques to ensure that only authorized users are accessing the network. Multiple base stations are coordinated by base station controllers to allow users to hand off between base stations (cell sites).

LTE

As mentioned previously in this paper, LTE is a 4G wireless technology that Verizon Wireless and numerous leading wireless carriers have chosen as their upgrade path beyond 3G technologies.

Global System for Mobi le Communications (GSM) is 2G technology that offers both voice and data capabilities. GSM differs from 1G by using digital cellular technology and time division multiple access (TDMA) transmission methods, rather than CDMA. GSM offers data transmission rates of up to 9.6 Kbps, while enabling such services as short messaging service (SMS) or text messaging, as it is more commonly known, and international roaming.

W-CDMA

Wi d e b a n d Co d e D iv i s i o n Multiple Access (W-CDMA) brings GSM into 3G. W-CDMA is a type of 3G cellular network and is a high-

speed transmission protocol used in Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). UMTS offers packet-based transmission for text, digitized voice, video, and multimedia content.

HSPA

High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is a mobile telephony protocol that helps improve the performance of UMTS. HSPA uses improved modulation schemes, while refining the protocols that mobile devices and base stations use to communicate. These processes improve radio bandwidth utilization provided by UMTS.

LTE Overview and Development Background

Various technology standards bodies began to explore options for their 4G wireless technology offerings. Two groups, the Third Generation Pa r t n e r s h i p Pro j e c t ( 3 G P P ) , representing the family of networks generally referred to as GSM, and the Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), representing the family of networks generally referred to as CDMA, are working together to lay the foundation for LTE.

Established in 1998, 3GPP i s a co l l ab or a t ive ag re ement that brought together multiple telecommunications standards bodies known as Organizational Partners. This group initiated the 3GPP LTE standards project to improve the UMTS mobile phone standard and to better meet future wireless technology needs. UMTS is one of the many 3G wireless technologies in use today. The most common form of UMTS uses W-CDMA as its underlying air interface and represents the European answer to the ITU IMT-2000 requirements for 3G cellular radio systems.

3 G P P 2 r e p r e s e n t s a collaboration between the numerous telecommunications associations that helped develop CDMA standards for 3G. LTE is a global 4G standard, with researchers and development engineers throughout the world part icipat ing in the joint-LTE radio access standardization effort, involving more than 60 operators, vendors, and research institutes. This is the same standards body that researched and established the GSM, GPRS, W-CDMA, and HSPA wireless standards. The LTE standard is tightly integrated with GPRS/UMTS networks and represents an evolution of radio access technologies and networks for UMTS.

LTE Standards Evolution

The 3GPP body began its initial investigation of the LTE standard as a viable technology in 2004. In March 2005, 3GPP began a feasibility study whose key goals were to agree on network architecture and a multiple access method, in terms of the functional split between the radio access and the core network. The study concluded September 2006 when 3GPP finalized selection of the multiple access and basic radio access network architecture. 3GPP decided to use OFDMA in the downlink direction and use SC-FDMA in the uplink direction.

The specifications for the LTE standard were approved by 3GPP in January 2007. The specifications are now under change control, leading to their inclusion in 3GPP Release 8. While the LTE requirements are finalized, the standard is not fully completed. LTE Release 8 was completed by late 2008.

LTE Performance Estimates and Technical Attributes

Once fu l ly deployed, LTE technology offers a number of distinct advantages over other wireless technologies. These advantages include increased performance attributes, such as high peak data rates and low latency, and greater efficiencies in using the wireless spectrum. Improved performance and increased spectral efficiency will allow wireless carriers using LTE as their 4G technology to offer higher quality services and products for their customers.

B e n e f i t s e x p e c te d f rom LT E technology:• High peak speeds: 100 Mbps

downlink (20 MHz, 2x2 MIMO)—both indoors and outdoors—50 Mbps uplink (20 MHz, 1x2)

• At least 200 active voice users inevery 5 MHz (i.e., can support up to 200 active phone calls)

• Low latency: < 5ms user planelatency for small IP packets (user equipment to radio access network [RAN] edge)

< 100 ms camped to active

< 50 ms dormant to active

• Scalable bandwidth: The 4Gchannel offers four times more bandwidth than current 3G systems and is scalable. So, while 20 MHz ––channels may not be available everywhere, 4G systems will offer channel sizes down to 5 MHz, in increments of 1.5 MHz.

• Improved spectrum efficiency:Spectrum efficiency refers to how limited bandwidth is used by the access layer of a wireless network.


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Improved – spectrum efficiency allows more information to be transmitted in a given bandwidth, while increasing the number of users and services the network can support.

Two to four times more information can be transmitted versus the previous benchmark, HSPA Release 6.

• Improvedcelledgedatarates:Notonly does spectral efficiency improve near cell towers, it also improves at the coverage area or cell edge.

Data rates improve two to three times at the cell edge over the previous benchmark, HSPA Release 6.

• Packetdomainonly

• Enhanced support for end-to-end quality of service: Reducing handover latency and packet loss is key to delivering a quality service. This reduction is considerably ––more challenging with mobile broadband than with fixed-line broadband. The time variability and unpredictability of the channel become more acute. Additional complications arise from the need to hand over sessions from one cell to another as users cross coverage boundaries. These handover sessions require seamless coordination of radio resources across multiple cells.

Testing and Deployment

Many of the major global wireless carriers have lined up to support LTE as the foundation for their 4G network deployments. These global carriers include Verizon Wireless, as well as Vodafone, China Mobile, AT&T, China Telecom, KDDI, MetroPCS, NTT DoCoMo, and T-Mobile—plan to deploy LTE at some point in the future. Verizon Wireless and its European partner Vodafone have been among the most aggressive carriers in terms of LTE deployment timelines. Verizon Wireless has spent the past few years working with 3GPP standards in an effort to ensure interoperability between LTE and its current CDMA EV-DO Rev. A wireless broadband network. LTE field demonstrations in realistic urban scenarios were conducted starting in December 2007. These field trials proved that future LTE-based wireless networks can operate using existing base station sites. Also in 2007, LTE test calls were completed between infrastructure and device vendors using mobile prototypes. These calls were the first test of multi-vendor, over-the-air LTE interoperability.

In April 2008, the first public

announcements of LTE being demonstrated at high vehicular speeds were made with download speeds of 50 Mbps in a moving vehicle at 110 Kmph. Live 2x2 LTE solutions in 20 MHz were demonstrated at both Mobile World Congress 2008 and CTIA Wireless 2008. Among the new applications demonstrated on LTE networks (at various bands, including the new 1.7/2.1 GHz AWS band) were high-definition video blogging, high-definition video on demand and video streaming, multi-user video collaboration, video surveillance, and online mobile gaming. A handover between CDMA and LTE was also demonstrated, showcasing migration poss ibi l i t ies between the two generations of wireless technologies. Beginning third quarter 2008, UMTS/HSPA base stations were upgradable to LTE. Many bands are supported by these base stations, including the 1.7/2.1 GHz AWS band and the recently auctioned 700 MHz bands by the FCC in the United States.

Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, and China Mobile conducted laboratory and over-the-air tests of LTE in early 2008, followed by successful field tests in northern New Jersey; Columbus, Ohio; and Minneapolis, Minnesota. The final phase of LTE testing began in the second quarter of 2009, and 700 MHz tests commenced in June 2009 after the Digital Television (DTV) transition. Verizon Wireless will continue LTE testing throughout most of 2009, and will offer service in some 30 markets in 2010.

LTE Supporting Technologies

The fol lowing information describes the various supporting technologies that make up LTE.

MIMO

Multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) employs multiple transmit and receive antennas to substantially enhance the air interface. It uses space-time coding of the same data stream mapped onto multiple transmit antennas.

OFDM

In the downlink, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) was selected as the air interface for LTE. OFDM is a particular form of multicarrier modulation (MCM). In general, MCM is a parallel transmission method that divides a radio frequency channel into several, more narrow-bandwidth subcarriers and transmits data simultaneously on each subcarrier.

OFDM is well suited for high

data rate systems that operate in multipath environments because of its robustness to delay spread. The cyclic extension enables an OFDM system to operate in multipath channels without the need for a complex.

Decision Feedback Equalizer (DFE) or Maximum Likelihood Sequence Est imat ion (MLSE) equalizer. As such, it is straightforward to exploit frequency selectivity of the multipath channel with low-complexity receivers. This allows frequency-selective scheduling, as well as frequency-diverse scheduling and frequency reuse one-deployments.

Furthermore, due to its frequency domain nature, OFDM enables fl exible bandwidth operation with low complexity.

Smart antenna technologies are also easier to support with OFDM, because each subcarrier becomes fl at faded and the antenna weights can be optimized on a per-subcarrier or block of subcarriers basis. In addition, OFDM enables broadcast services on a synchronized single frequency network (SFN) with appropriate cyclic prefi x design. This allows broadcast signals from diff erent cells to combine over the air, thus signifi cantly increasing the received signal power and supportable data rates for broadcast services.

SC-FDMA

Single-carr ier FDMA (SC-FDMA) was chosen to reduce Peak to Average Ratio (PAR), which has been identified as a critical issue for use of OFDMA in the uplink where power-efficient amplifiers are required in mobile devices. Another important requirement was to maximize the coverage. For each time interval, the base station scheduler assigns a unique time-frequency interval to a terminal for the transmission of user data, thereby ensuring intracell orthogonality. Slow power control, for compensating path loss and shadow fading, is sufficient as no near-far problem is present due to the orthogonal uplink transmissions. Transmission parameters, coding, and modulation are similar to the downlink transmission.

The chosen SC-FDMA solution is based on using a cyclic prefix to allow high-performance and low-complexity receiver implementation in the eNodeB. As such, the receiver requirements are more complex than in the case of OFDMA for similar link performance, but this is not considered to be a problem in the base station. The terminal is only assigned with contiguous spectrum blocks in the frequency domain to maintain the

single-carrier properties and thereby ensure power-efficient transmission. This approach is often referred to as blocked or localized SC-FDMA.

Why LTE

Higher data rates and lower latency make LTE connections more responsive, enabling real-time multicast applications, such as online gaming and video conferencing.

LTE network results in a longer range from the base station, compared with systems operating at 2.5 GHz or 3.5 GHz. In addition, using the 700 MHz frequency allows for better in-building penetration and coverage by wireless signals, helping to improve network conditions. LTE also offers mobile users better coverage as they travel by providing seamless handover and roaming for true mobility.

LTE is better suited for global adoption than WiMAX. Although 2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz, and 5.8 GHz bands are allotted in many regions of the world, many growth markets require new allocations to service their populations. Given the diverse requirements and regulations of various governments, it will be a challenge for WiMAX to achieve global harmonization.

LTE has strong and widespread support from the mobile industry, including support from a majority of the industry’s key players. Many vendors will enable operator transition to LTE in a progressive, scalable, and cost-effective way—protecting investments in existing technologies made by today’s GSM and CDMA carriers. GSM is the most popular mobile communications standard currently in use.

Carriers on the GSM standard predominate around the globe and will use LTE as their wireless network upgrade pathway. According to an April 2008 report from Gartner Inc., the GSM family will account for 89% of the global market in 2011. In addition, LTE figures to enjoy widespread device support as most major device vendors have publicly announced the development of products to take advantage of LTE.

• LTE enjoys strong, widespreadsupport from the mobile industry, both from wireless carriers and vendors alike.

• Multiple vendors, operators, andresearch institutes are participating in standardizing LTE. This provides a good base for creating a healthy technological ecosystem.

• TheVerizonWireless IMS/AIMScore network is access-technology agnostic and supports LTE.

Tech Story


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Mobility April 2014

Mobility Personality

“Intel is partnering with Indian OEMs to launch innovative devices”

What is the broad strategy that Intel is having towards the tablet segment in India as well as globally?

Tablets represent a big, growth

market and we are targeting to ship

40Mu this year, globally. Based on the

success of Bay Trail as well as the product

and customer agreements we have

announced at Mobile World Congress,

we have a rich pipeline of tablet and

phablet design wins, which put us on a

path to meet our goal. In India, we are

also engaged with a few local OEMs to

bring Intel powered tablets to market.

What kind of market share does ‘Intel Inside’ driven tablets have today, when compared with Android or Apple driven tablets?

As a company policy we do not

comment on figures pertaining to

market share. At the same time, I

would like to clarify that today our

customers are shipping tablets based

on Intel Architecture running both

Android as well as Windows.

Please share your strategy to garner more market share in this space?

In 2014, Intel has increased its

focus on the tablet space globally.

Locally Intel is partnering with select

local OEMs such as Micromax to

launch innovative new devices in

the mobility segment. This is part of

our overall strategy to increase our

market share in the country. Key to

success here is design wins and we

are committed to bringing innovating

form factors at attractive price points,

offered by multinational as well as

local OEMs.

In India, we will not only focus

on the consumers, but also the

education segment as well as the large

government tender deals.

In the coming months and quarters, how does Intel look at this segment of converging segment of tablets -- more and more technologies are getting packed inside one device and many vendors are jumping on the bandwagon today? Your comments please.

As the tablet market matures,

vendors are trying to cater to different

consumer preferences in terms of

price, screen size, OS, calling features

and so on. And as you see the market

evolving, we are also going to see the

mainstream players bringing a great

experience at really good price points

in the market. Case in point is Dell that

recently launched their Venue range

of tablets powered by Intel which is

available in the market for less than

`10,000.

At present how many brands support Intel platform for tablets on global scale? What is Intel doing to increase the effort here?

At the MWC, several of our

customers announced new products

based on our processors and modems,

including ASUS’ new Fonepad with

Intel LTE, and the HP ElitePad 1000

and HP ProPad 600, the first 64-

bit Windows tablets with BayTrail.

Intel also announced a multi-year

agreement with Lenovo to introduce

new Intel-based mobile devices across a

variety of smartphone and tablet form

factors spanning value to performance

market segments. Foxconn and Intel

are teaming up to drive the broader,

global availability of high-quality,

affordable Intel-based Android tablets.

Intel will provide Atom processors

and communications platforms for a

range of Foxconn products beginning

this year. Apart from these, we already

have Dell and Acer that have their

Intel powered tablets running on Intel

available in the Indian market.

In our interactions with the channel community, it has come out that channel partners are becoming more comfortable and eager to sell tablets / phablets and hence sales of traditional PC or laptop is coming down heavily. What is your opinion on this?

Channels business run on volumes

and the growing tablet/phablet gives

them an opportunity to sell more to

the consumers. Tablets are definitely

hot right now, but PC has its own

relevance and in my opinion, both will

continue to co-exist in a consumer’s

home. In fact, if you look at smaller

cities, there is a very healthy desktop

demand that channels cater to.

Intel is largely seen as a traditional PC and Laptop powering company and not a tablet or phablet organization do you agree on this?

Intel continues to maintain its

position as the global leader when it

comes to processors for traditional

PCs. With changing market realities,

we are focusing on Mobility as a

growth business for us and making

the necessary investments in our

development, in market expansion,

sales and marketing to win share.

And we are making good progress on

the product front. At Mobile World

Congress 2014, Intel announced:

• Two new 64-bit ready Intel®

Atom™ processors – the dual

core Merrifield and the quad

core Moorefield, which offer an

ideal combination of fast, smart

performance and long battery life

for mainstream and performance

Android smar t phones and

tablets.

• Intel officially introduced the

new Intel® XMM™ 7260 – a

power-efficient, small footprint

communications processor with

compet i t ive LTE-Advanced

f e a t u re s i n c lu d i n g c a r r i e r

aggregation, CAT6 speeds and

support for TD-LTE and TD-

SCDMA.

• Customeragreementsanddesign

wins that expand the availability of

Intel-based mobile devices:

• In te l announced a mul t i -

year agreement with Lenovo

to introduce new Intel-based

mobile devices across a variety of

smartphone and tablet form factors

spanning value to performance

market segments.

• ASUSwilldeliverabroadportfolio

of Intel-based smartphones and

tablets. At MWC, ASUS unveiled

t h e A S U S Fon ep a d 7 LT E

–featuring an Intel Atom processor

and Intel LTE connectivity.

• Foxconn and Intel are teaming

up to drive the broader, global

availabil ity of high-quality,

affordable Intel-based Android

tablets. Intel will provide Atom

processors and communications

platforms for a range of Foxconn

products beginning this year.

• HPannouncedthefirst64-bitBay

Trail tablets - the HP ElitePad 1000

and the HP ProPad 600.

Af t e r h a v i n g f o c u s e d heavily towards garnering big marketshare in the

tablets and mobility space, India is a big market for Intel today and the company is going after mobility products driven local brands such as Micromax in order to make big inroads in the local market. Sandeep Aurora, Director, Marketing and Market Development, Intel South Asia shares his thoughts on the company’s strategy for India and the road ahead.

Sandeep Aurora, Director, Marketing and Market Development, Intel South Asia


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Special Report

Gionee Presents Special and Slimmest Smartphone – Elife S5.5

Gionee is very overwhelmed by its unprecedented success with ELIFE series within

a year of operations in India. In an another grand launch after E7 event which was held at Buddha Internation Circuit Noida. Gionee had invited people from all over India in a destination launch event of Elife 5.5 in Goa. In the guest list they have included their dealers, distributors, bloggers, media people and many important company heads and employees from China.

For this mega event they have also organized various cultural activities with some great bollywood personalities.

Speaking on the occasion Gionee India Head Mr. Arvind Vohra said that the firm has seen a rise in popularity and company shipped 24 million phones in 2013 out of which 1 million phones were shipped to the Indian market. It has set a target of shipping 35 million units globally and 6 million phones in India, in 2014.Zone wise the company considers Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh West Bengal and Punjab as its top performers and now plans to strengthen its position in the metros. He also mentioned that Gionee India started operations in March 2013 and has done business of over Rs.500 crore and its next target is to touch a turnover of Rs.2,500 crore by the end of financial year 2014-15.

Gionee President William Lu said “Smartphones are treated both as

electronics and pie of art by consumers worldwide and that’s why we adapted a new approach with a focus in design. Smartphone is something that we carry on a daily basis, they are like a part of the human body, and there is zero distance between a user and their smartphones. This is similar to a piece of fashion clothing; it represents its user’s taste, personality, and even identity. The ELIFE S5.5 is crafted with a distinct metallic frame and Corning Gorillas Glass Uni-Body. It uses the world’s thinnest AMOLED Screen, thinnest PCB board with a 0.6MM and 0.4mm glass rear

cover. We are proud to bring in this unique innovation first time in the world and it will be our constant endeavor to continue bringing in the best always” We are launching this smartphone in 40 markets across the globe and India is the second market after China, which itself speaks about the importance of this country for us.

Firstlook of Gionee Elife S5.5:

This phone certainly got the tag of worlds slimmest smartphone, it beats Vivo X3 which is 5.75mm, also beats Huawei Ascend P6 and Sony Z

Ultra which measured 6.18 and 6.5 respectively. Gionee Elife S5.5 sports a sleek metal frame with a thickness of 5.5mm and weighs 130 grams. This ELIFE S series is a new product category from Gionee, targeted for those customers who desire for a slim and powerful smartphone to also act as a fashionable accessory. And at our first look we feel that it has that design and style element that will appeal many fashion oriented customers. And Elife S5.5 comes in Black, White, Pink, Blue so you can pick one of your kind of color that suits your personality. The phone features a 5-inch full-HD (1920 X 1080p) Super AMOLED Plus display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Powered by a 1.7GHz MediaTek MT6592 octa-core processor and 2GB RAM, Gionee S5.5 comes with 16GB internal storage and doesn’t include a microSD card slot. It sports a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP 95 degree ultra-wide angle front-facing camera. The single-sim phone runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with Gionee’s Amigo UI running on top. It has a 2,300mAh battery. Connectivity options include 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. Gionee Elife S5.5 comes in Black, White, Pink, Blue and Purple color variants. At a price of Rs 22,999. The smartphone will be available in the Indian market starting April 27.

• 5.0” Super AMOLED Plus display

• Octa- Core 1.7GHz CPU

• Single SIM

• 13.0MP AF +5.0MP AF Camera 95 Degree Ultra-Wide Angle

• AMIGO OS 2.0 (based on Android OS, V4.2)

• Memory: 16GB+2GB

• Ultra slim 145.1 x 70.2 x 5.55mm

• GSM-850/900/1800/1900MHz

• WCDMA-850/1900/2100MHz or 900/1900/2100MHz

• 3.5 mm Earphone Jack

• WIFI/GPS/BT4.0/FM/G-sensor

• Non-removable 2300mAh Battery

• OTG

ELIFE S5.5 Full Specifications

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Mobility Interview

BYOD and BYOS not a “zero-sum” game

In recent years, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Bring Your Own Service (BYOS) have

been at the forefront of empowering mobility among employees. According to an analyst report, Asian businesses are lagging behind in enterprise mobility opportunities due to a lack of understanding about mobility and

how this can create more value for enterprises.

CommunicAsia 2014 speaks to Foo Tiang Lim, Market Development, Asia Pacific at Evernote for his perspectives on the BYOD, BYOS and most recently, Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) phenomenon.

What are the challenges and op-portunities for companies to con-sider implementing BYOS?

Employers need to trust their

employees; otherwise, tech and IT

will always be built from a “restrictive”

view rather than a “permissive” one.

Also they have to trust the employee to

make the best productivity choices for

themselves in using tools and services

they are already familiar with. If they

do that the productivity gains are

bound to happen.

With the new generation of em-ployees expecting BYOD policies to be in place at enterprises they work for, what are the implications for businesses when employees also expect to be able to BYOS?

BYOD & BYOS are not passing fads

and are here to stay. For a business to

thrive in today’s economy and compete

on a global stage, a transformation to

more creative and high value added

output is needed, and knowledge

work is the crucial ingredient to do

that. A natural concern that rises

out of BYOD and BYOS would

be security and confidentiality of

company information. However, the

crux of the issue would be employees

having to deal with sub-optimal user

experiences that frustrate, causing

employees to use tech that they

prefer. Hence, businesses should

strive to provide the best tools to

equip its workforce to be able to fully

realise the potential of the company.

Instead of being concerned about

BYOS, companies should embrace

this trend as it could help to increase

productivity in the long run.

How can companies ensure the se-curity of sensitive corporate infor-mation?

A re-thinking of the role of the

IT department is needed. Currently,

a majority of IT departments play

the role of “enforcers” instead of

“facilitators”.

Too many discussions of the

BYOD/BYOS trend are framed as

a zero sum game, but that is not

true, as security does not have to be

compromised to enjoy the benefits of

BYOD/BYOS. The key thing is to apply

the right thinking in the right areas of

the business, at the right levels.

Additionally, the HR department

plays an active role in ensuring that

the right employees are hired. This,

coupled with an office culture of

transparency and trust, would help

in ensuring the security of sensitive

corporate innovation with the BYOD/

BYOS trend.

Now there is also CYOD, is this moving too fast for companies, es-pecially in Asia, to meet the expec-tations of the knowledge worker?

This is actually an encouraging

sign, and also an indication of

the shifting of the role of the IT

departments around the world. Again

the key thing is to work

together with your workforce to craft

a productivity IT strategy. CYOD

isn’t a fad if you think about what the

issue really is, and that is knowledge

workers deserve the best and most

productive experiences at work. The

question of whether BYOD/BYOS/

CYOD facilitates, should not be an

end in itself.

Focusing on the welfare of

employees is not just a courteous or

morally right thing to do, it’s a very

real business strategy. Productivity

cannot be forced out of knowledge

workers, the only way a company is

able to raise their productivity levels

is to ensure that the welfare of the

employees is taken care of. Like with

giving them the best experiences at

work also allow them to choose their

software & hardware.

CommunicAsia2014 Summit: Consumerisation of the Enterprise – BYOD vs. CYODThe CommunicAsia2014 Summit will address the implications, challenges and opportunities of BYOD and BYOS. Foowill be speaking at the ‘Consumerisation of the Enterprise – BYOD vs. CYOD’ session which takes place on Day 3 of the Summit, 19 June 2014.He will be talking about the following topics:

BYOD – Focus on your Employees’ Experience, Not the Device

• Why your people demand BYOD/BYOS: the discerning tastes of the modern knowledge worker

• What companies can do to embrace that and overcome it: the importance of creating “business-class” experiences for your team and teams

• What companies will need in the future: the augmented workforce


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Mobility April 2014

Product Feature

Nokia X Series – The Untrue Android

the smaller screen, as it would be

hard to hold something that small

and thin.

The screen doesn’t seem to suffer

either – the contrast is strong, helped

by the smorgasbord of colour on offer

from the live tiles.

There’s not a lot else on offer

here in terms of ports or anything –

the mandatory headphone jack and

camera (which is only a 3MP option

with no flash) are the only other items

in a sea of matte plastic.

But this isn’t meant to be a phone

that’s all about design – the Nokia X

is supposed to offer a differentiated

user experience from the rest of the

identikit Android phones on the

market.

To that end, I actually rather

liked what Finland’s top Microsoft

subsidiary is doing – there’s a nice

fusion of Android familiarity and

Windows Phone functionality.

The live tiles idea is really cool

– it’s essentially just a clever way of

� SleekUI

� Lowcost

� Lowstorage

� Chunkydesign

doing Android widgets, but while

other launchers can make things look

too complex, Nokia is doing things

its own way and making it all seem

a lot cooler.

For instance, there’s no ‘Apps’ key

that shows all the little bits of software

you’ve downloaded – now it’s all in

one long list that just endlessly scrolls.

To that end, it can get a bit messy, so

Nokia’s method of creating folders

is needed and something that wasn’t

possible on Windows Phone.

It’s nothing special, and you can’t

just drag and drop to create a folder,

instead needing to tap an icon. But

at least dragging the live tile icons

for each app will allow you to move

the order around automatically, and

some, such as the gallery, will expand

to show pictures in your album.

There’s even the chance to change

the colour of some apps to match your

theme – although the fact you can’t do

this to all of them means this feature

is slightly negated.

You can also see more notifications

on the lock screen than you might on

other Nokia phones - it’s a little boring

in terms of design, but works well

enough.

The other big change is Nokia’s

Fast Lane – it’s an odd change from

the notifications bar, as it’s essentially

the same thing but one long scrolling

page that can be accessed by swiping

right or left.

It’s cool in some respects, as it

allows you to dynamically control

things like the music player, and

always keeps your most-used apps

close at hand. However, there is still

the same pull-down bar as on other

Android handsets here, but it’s only

for changing settings.

Fast Lane isn’t the same as the multi-

tasking menu you’ll get on the likes of

most other Android phones - while long

pressing the icon will shut it down, the

app apparently still runs.

Design and interface

The Nokia X is the Finnish brand’s

big effort to make greater waves into

the low, low end of the smartphone

market – and it’s enlisted the help of

Android to make that happen.

The Nokia X is a phone that

comes with a fairly decent spec list for

a phone that’s coming in at €89 before

tax (around £75, $120, AU$135)

– we’re talking a dual-core 1GHz

processor from Qualcomm, 512MB

of RAM, a 4-inch WVGA screen and

a 1500mAh battery.

However, it’s important not to

compare to this to the likes of the

Moto G, as it’s not meant for the

more developed regions in terms

of smartphone use. This is for areas

where Android devices are sold at a

much lower average price, but still can

do the basic things that others can.

With that in mind, the Nokia X is

probably a little better than OK. The

polycarbonate body is fairly chunky,

but in the hand it dovetails well with


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Product Feature

Karbonn Titanium X – Remarkable Smartness

One of the most remarkable

t r e n d s i n t h e I n d i a n

mobile industry over the

past few months has been the rise

of smartphones sporting full-HD

screens. Although such devices used

to cost a lot of money in the past,

a number of companies are now

releasing more wallet-friendly models.

The trend in the country might have

been set by global brands, but Indian

domestic handset makers are not far

behind.

Micromax was the first Indian

brand to join the full-HD bandwagon

with its Canvas Turbo launched last

year. Now, after a period of relative

quiet, Karbonn has marked its return

to the Indian market with its first

smartphone with full-HD display, the

Karbonn Titanium X.

Karbonn is clearly in the mood

to win significant market share, and

it’s back with a vengeance in terms of

both specifications and price. But does

company’s first full-HD smartphone,

the Titanium X, pack enough punch

to overcome more established players

such as Samsung, Micromax, HTC,

LG and Xolo? We take a closer look at

this smartphone.

Look and feel

The Titanium X is a departure

from the company’s usual Android

smartphone design, and it looks like

a lot of time was spent on the design

stage. The Karbonn Titanium X is

definitely light at 143 grams, and

sports rounded edges. It is sturdy, but

it might be a little too wide for single-

handed operation, and those blessed

with smaller palms will find it tiring

to carry the device around. The 5.0-

inch full-HD display takes up most

of the space in the front with a silver

lining around the edges. Like most

other smartphones, the ambient light

and proximity sensors are lined up on

top alongside the earpiece and front-

facing camera. We were amazed to see

the 5-megapixel front-facing camera

accompanied by an LED flash at the

� GoodDesign

� Lowcost

� Lowbatterybackup

� Camerahandling

top. We assume that it’s meant to be

helpful for taking selfies. Beneath the

display one can find the Home,

Display

The screen of a smartphone is

a critical aspect to consider when

making a purchase decision, and of

late, smartphones such as the Spice

Pinnacle FHD, Wicked Leak Wammy

Passion Z Plus and Micromax Canvas

Turbo have hit the market, all with

full-HD displays and all priced under

Rs. 20,000. The Karbonn Titanium

X now joins the same club. An HD

screen might not make a difference to

many people, but when you hold one

of these phones up next to a device

with a low-resolution screen, you can

see the difference.

The Titanium X features a 5.0-

inch IPS full-HD (1080x1920 pixels)

screen with pixel density of 441ppi.

The panel attracts a lot of smudges,

but nothing that cannot be wiped

away quickly. The screen has decent

viewing angles and though colour

reproduction is not the best, it gets

the job done.

Camera

In terms of photographic ability,

Karbonn has equipped the mid-range

Titanium X with a 13-megapixel

autofocus rear camera accompanied

by a dual-LED flash. The rear camera

offers 4x digital zoom, HD (1080p)

video recording, touch to focus and

a panorama mode. The Titanium X

also includes HDR mode for video

recording, which has been seen on

some high-end Android smartphones.

Other features seen in the camera app

include portrait retouch, self-timer,

self-portrait voice guide, smile shutter,

focus mode, and ISO and exposure

value adjustment. The rear camera can

click images at a maximum resolution

of 4128x3096 pixels.

Software/ Interface

At a time when the world is

waiting for Android 4.4.2 KitKat to

arrive on its handsets, Karbonn has

used Android 4.2 Jelly Bean for the

Titanium X, which is disappointing.

The Karbonn Titanium X ships

with Android 4.2.2 out of the box.

It might not be the most up-to-date,

but it’s the most popular version of

Android on mid-range smartphones

in India at the moment. We are yet to

hear any details about Karbonn’s plans

to update the Titanium X.

Performance/ Battery Life

The Karbonn Titanium X is

powered by a quad-core MediaTek

chipset (MT6589T) clocked at 1.5GHz

along with 1GB of RAM and PowerVR

SGX544 GPU. MediaTek’s updated

MT6589T processor was launched

last year, so it should perform quite

decently. Unfortunately, this didn’t

translate to real-world performance.

We found that the Titanium X

lagged when launching some apps.

Admittedly, the lag is not consistent

but considering that this is a quad-core

processor, it is quite disappointing.

It came as no surprise that the

benchmark scores were not impressive

at all. As expected, the Karbonn

Titanium X barely made it through

our synthetic benchmarks. The

CPU performance scores were not

impressive: the phone scored 14,930

in AnTuTu and 5,701 in Quadrant.

On the graphics front, it only managed

to push 3.4 frames per second in the

GFXbench test, while it scored 1735

in the 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme

runthrough.

Verdict

The Karbonn Titanium X is a

mix of good and greateness in it.

The 5.0-inch full-HD display is no

doubt the USP of the device and is

great for watching videos on, but

colour reproduction can be a bit of

a damper. The Karbonn Titanium X

is not a perfect phone by any means,

but when you consider its price tag, it

is not a bad performer at all.


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Mobility April 2014

Product Feature

Lava Xtron+ (Plus) Tablet – Affordably Yours

Lava Xtron Plus Tab is one of the best affordable tablet which comes at

decent price price and specifications for multimedia and good gaming

experience.

Lava Xtron+ (Plus) Tablet is a 7 Inch capacitive touch screen and runs

on 1.5 GHz Dual Core Cortex-A9 Processor and 1 Gb DDR3 RAM and Mali

400 Quad Core GPU which makes it a decent performer on the gaming and

performance front, however the camera you get on rear is 2 MP Fixed Focus

and 1.3 Fixed Focus on the front as well but you cant expect everything thing

to be good at the price at which tablet comes, one major hardware change is

that it has mini HDMI port to connect the tablet to TV or external monitor.

Lava Xtron Plus Tab Quick Specs

• Display Size: 7 inch capacitive touch screenwith1024x 600pixels

resolution

• Processor:1.5GHzDualCoreCortexA9

• RAM:1GbDDR3

• SoftwareVersion:Android4.2.2(JellyBean)OS

• Camera:2MPFFcamera.

• SecondaryCamera:1.3MPfront-facingcameraFF[FixedFocus]

• InternalStorage:8GBwith5GBapproxuseravailable

• ExternalStorage:Expandableupto32GB

• Battery:3700mAhbatteryLithiumIon

• Connectivity:Wi-Fi802.11b/g/n,aGPS,3.5mmaudiojack,HDMI

� SleekInterface

� Lowcost

� Lowondesign

� Size

Box Contents

Tablet, Screen guard pre installed, Circular thin pin charger, Edukart

Gift, Bigflix coupon etc, warranty card and user manual, OTG Cable, but no

MicroUSB Cable in the package, you will have to buy it on your own.

Build Quality, Design and Form Factor

The build quality of this tablet is good, it has a aluminum metal back

cover and the weight of the tablet is around 360 grams, design is good feels

solid and looks premium in hands. The form factor is good, tablet is around

11.9 mm in thickness which makes it easy to go into a bag but you may not

be able to fit this tablet in a normal size jeans pocket and carry case would be

a better choice.

Display, Memory and Battery Backup

It has 7 inch capacitive touch screen with 1024 x 600 pixels resolution is

a quite good in terms of pixels density but the viewing angles on the display

are not too good. The in built memory is another good thing about this tablet

as you get 5 Gb approx free storage so that you can install more games and

apps on without SD card required. But when the free storage is exhausted you

wont be able to install apps on SD card but you can move apps from device

internal memory to SD Card. The battery backup is around 3-4 hours with

moderate usage.

Software, Benchmarks and Gaming

The software UI is mostly stock android with no customizations,

the benchmarks scores are mentioned below and device is capable

of playing most of the graphic intensive and casual games.

Camera Performance

Both 2 MP rear camera and 1.3 MP Front camera is average

in terms of performance, you can check out the camera samples

below.

Sound, Video and Navigation

The sound quality from the loudspeaker is good and loud

enough but slightly has more noise than bass. It can also play HD

videos at both 720p and 1080p but the videos will not get played

in full screen because of the touch capacitive navigation buttons

which take away some part of the screen. It can also be used for

Navigation with the help of assisted GPS.

Conclusion and Price

Lava Xtron Plus tablet is a great tablet offered at a basic price

point at Rs. 6999 INR, it does come up with the right hardware

which suits the gaming needs of the most of the casual gamers

out there and on the top it can run some graphic intensive games

as well.


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Product Feature

HP Slate 7 Voicetab - The Impressive Tab

HP’s primary business is in

desktop PCs and laptops. But

it makes tablets too, and in

a market that’s becoming ever more

congested HP has launched the HP

Slate 7 Voicetab and Slate 6 Voicetab.

They are fairly low cost phone-tablet

hybrids.

Aside from a 1-inch screen size

difference they are almost identical,

but I’ll be focusing on the Slate 7

� SuperDesign

� AffordableCost� Processingpower

Voicetab as this one has already been

confirmed for the Indian market.

HP Slate 7 Voicetab – Design and Features

From a glance the HP Slate 7

Voicetab looks metallic. It is actually

plastic, but feels robust. There are

some small areas where the joins

aren’t quite as tight as they could be,

but I’ve seen much worse from pre-

production models and these small

issues should be resolved before it

hits shelves.

The HP Slate 7 Voicetab is light

and reasonably compact for a 7-inch

tablet. It doesn’t have as much blank

space above and below the screen as

the Nexus 7, even though it has stereo

front-facing speakers.

The tablet has a removable

backplate, which hides a microSD

slot and dual SIM slots – one micro

and one full-size. These SIM slots let

the HP Slate 7 Voicetab act like a big

phone. You’ll look stupid holding it

up to your face to take a call but HP

thinks it’s a worthwhile feature, and

suggests those put off by the size can

use a Bluetooth headset. I’m not keen

on the idea of using a 7-inch tablet

to make calls, but the second SIM

provides a truly useful feature - free

3G data.

Unlike the iPad mini Retina or

Nexus 7 you don’t

have to pay extra

for 3G capability.

The baseline model

includes the SIM

slots and you even

get free mobile data

allowance.

A 1.2GHz quad-

core processor with

1GB RAM (of as yet

unknown origin)

powers the Slate

7 Voicetab and it

seems fast enough

to run Android 4.2

Jelly Bean smoothly.

Apps open quickly

and there was no

obvious lag when

scrolling through

h o m e p a g e s o r

menus.

H P ’ s l a t e s t

phone-tablet seems

carefully considered

and sensible. Its

stand-out feature

is a free data service

rather than flashy

hardware. This is a

solid product at a

competitive price,

and a very cost-

effect ive way of

getting an always

connected Android

tablet with some

data allowance.


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R.N.I. No. DELENG/2004/14198Postal Reg. No.: DL(S)-01/3442/2013-15

Date of Pub: 18 March 2014 | Postal Dt.: 27th & 28th of same Month/ Posted at NDPSO

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