Nokia bets on Asha series phones to regain market share

It's been a year since Nokia's Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop launched the Asha series of feature phones targeting millions of Indians in the low-cost mobile phone market. Since then, Asha has become one of the best-selling handset series in the country. But has it helped the Finnish handset maker regain its popularity among the masses? Probably not.

"In terms of market share, I don't think they have come back," Gartner's principal research analyst Anshul Gupta says. "However, with successful launch of Asha series devices, Nokia has been able to stabilize its share in recent past," he adds.

Gupta says Asha is a very good device in the Rs 4,000-Rs 6,000 price point with touch user interface and some apps that are found in smartphones. "From that perspective, it is getting competitive and getting market share. But Nokia is still being challenged in the overall market," he says.

During the first six months of the year, Nokia managed to get the largest share of shipments, more than 22 per cent share of 102.43 million mobile phones coming into India, CyberMedia Research said in a report last month. Samsung and Micromax followed with 13 per cent and 5.5 per cent share, respectively.

But this has only helped Nokia arrest its fall in the market, not regain the market share it lost to Samsung, BlackBerry and local players such as Micromax and Karbonn in both the high-end and low-end of Rs 31,000-cr handset market in recent years.

Sari Harju, Nokia's head of mobile phones in India, says the Asha range has been very well received in India, and its most popular model, Asha 305, is sold out at all retail outlets. "That's a very good situation to be in. We're pleased with the development and traction we've got from customers in India," she says.

On Monday, the company introduced a new Asha 205 with a feature called 'Slam' that allows users to share any kind of data on Bluetooth without using internet data. The device along with the Nokia 206 will be available next month for under Rs 3,000.

Nokia sold 6.5 million Asha devices in the July-September quarter across the world.

NOKIA'S BIGGEST HOPE

Clearly, Asha is what gives hope to Nokia. Under Asha, Nokia offers full touch devices that offer a smartphone-like experience, complete with a capable web browser, exchange email support and gaming.

Vaibhav Sharma, founding editor of The Handheld Blog that specialises in covering Nokia devices, says the Asha lineup has been a huge pillar of strength for Nokia with increasing sales that go against the international trend of people moving away from feature phones.

Nokia's initial focus was to plug the QWERTY and dual-SIM gap in its portfolio and offer feature-rich devices at low prices points. However, the move away from Symbian and the cost of making Windows Phone devices meant that Nokia needed something in the low-mid end segment to fight off competition from low-cost touch-based phones, he says. That's how Asha happened.

Faisal Kawoosa, lead analyst at CMR Telecom Practice, says, "In a way Asha has really become the 'asha' of Nokia."

Google announces new Nexus tablets, smartphone

Google announced lots of new hardware today via blog post, after an event in New York was canceled in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy. The big items:

• The Nexus 4 smartphone, developed with LG. It features a quad-core processor, a 4.2-inch display, and a wireless charging feature that lets you power the phone by setting it down on a charging service. It runs Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) and a feature called Photo Sphere for creating 360-degree panoramas. The phone goes on sale Nov. 13 for $299.

• The Nexus 7 now comes in new Wi-Fi models that are 16GB (for $199) and 32GB (for $249). Google also is making a version available with an HSPA+ cellular connection -- 32GB for $299. It's on sale Nov. 13.

• The Nexus 10 tablet, developed with Samsung, offers what Google calls the highest-resolution screen in the tablet marketplace at 300 pixels per square inch. That 2560 by 1600 pixel display will still get nine hours of video playback, Google says. And it has an account-switching feature that lets multiple users share the tablet more easily. The 16GB model goes for for $399; the 32GB model costs for $499. It's available Nov. 14.

Google also announced an update to Google Now, its predictive-search feature that presents information on a series of cards without the user having to search. In addition to weather and traffic information, cards will now display flight information, restaurant reservations, hotel confirmations and shipping details, the company said.

Windows 8 marks record downloads

Microsoft India chairman Bhaskar Pramanik said on Wednesday that 4 million downloads of Windows 8 had been recorded globally in the first three days of its launch, the fastest compared to previous operating systems. Windows 8 was launched on October 26.

While that figure looks impressive, some analysts noted that Apple's Mac OS X 10.8, called Mountain Lion, launched in July had sold 3 million downloads in its first four days. Considering that Windows has an over 90% market share, compared to about 7% for Mac OS, a significantly smaller proportion of Windows users have chosen to upgrade in the first few days.

Windows 8, launched in Bangalore on Wednesday, has a new screen interface that is touch-enabled. Pramanik said the new cloud-connected operating system has been devised for the new-age digital consumer who has multiple devices, and email and social networking accounts, is mobile and connected.

Amrish Goyal, director for the Windows Business Group, said across India, over 250 Windows 8-enabled devices, including 23 touch-enabled ones, are available.

With a single Microsoft account, users will be able to sync all their data including emails, contacts, photos, videos etc across all devices. Windows 8 Enterprise users can carry the entire operating system, along with settings, files and apps in a USB stick called 'Windows To Go', allowing them to plug it into any device and carry on working.

Many analysts say there will be less enthusiasm for Windows 8 compared to its previous versions. The reason is that customers today increasingly prefer mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones, where OSes such as Apple's iOS and Google's Andriod dominate, to traditional PCs, where Windows has been dominant for decades.

Apple Said to Plan Smaller IPad to Vie With Google Nexus

Apple Inc. (AAPL) plans to debut a smaller, cheaper iPad by year-end, two people with knowledge of the plans said, to help maintain dominance of the tablet market as Google Inc. (GOOG) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) prepare competing handheld devices.
The new model will have a screen that’s 7 inches to 8 inches diagonally, less than the current 9.7-inch version, said the people, who asked not to be identified because Apple hasn’t made its plans public. The product, which Apple may announce by October, won’t have the high-definition screen featured on the iPad that was released in March, one of the people said.
A smaller, less expensive iPad could undercut the ambitions of Google, Microsoft and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) to gain traction in the advancing tablet market, said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. The new device will probably have a price closer to Google’s Nexus 7 tablet and Amazon’s Kindle Fire, both of which have 7-inch screens and cost $199.
“It would be the competitors’ worst nightmare,” Wu said in an interview. “The ball is in Apple’s court.”
Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, declined to comment yesterday.
Since the iPad went on sale in April 2010, Apple has dominated the tablet market, which is predicted by DisplaySearch to reach $66.4 billion this year. Apple has 61 percent of the market, according to Gartner Inc.
Apple’s rivals are eager to gain a toehold. Google said on June 27 that it will sell a tablet-style device called the Nexus 7. Earlier in the month, Microsoft announced a tablet called Surface that will have a similar screen size as the current iPad. Amazon’s Kindle Fire was released last year.

Google Strategy

The entrants’ best chance of success has been to focus on markets where Apple had no toehold, said Jan Dawson, an analyst at Ovum Ltd. The Surface comes in two models that are most likely to appeal to buyers who want to continue using Microsoft’s Windows software, Dawson said. While Microsoft has not disclosed pricing or timing for either, the higher-end version will probably be pricier than the iPad and targeted more at an emerging class of laptop PCs called Ultrabooks, he said. The latest iPad ranges in price from $499 to $829.
Google’s Nexus 7 could stack up well against Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which went on sale in November. The Nexus 7, manufactured by Asustek Computer Inc. (2357), has a faster processor and better battery life than the Kindle Fire, as well as a front-facing camera.
Still, competing with a lower-priced iPad will be more challenging, Wu said. Apple benefits from having more than 225,000 apps that have been tailored specifically for the current iPad.

Apple Retail

The company also boasts more than 360 retail stores where the device can be purchased and tested by consumers. Google said the Nexus 7 will be available only from its online store, while Microsoft will sell its tablets online and at its smaller chain of 20 stores.
Apple has considered introducing a smaller tablet since the original iPad was released, one person said. That approach has worked for Apple’s iPod, which is the world’s top music player and comes in various sizes and colors.
Yet Apple co-founder Steve Jobs spoke skeptically of smaller tablets before his death in October. He said in 2010 that the iPad’s current size was the minimum required to ensure a good user-experience and enable attractive software applications.
The screen of the small model will have the same number of pixels as those in the iPad before it was upgraded to the so- called Retina Display earlier this year, one person said.

Fatter Margins

Apple also may be at an advantage profit-wise. The gross margin on the latest iPad is about 37 percent, according to Wu. Apple could earn a similar profit on a smaller iPad because it will probably use the cheaper screen, Wu said. Apple can also charge more for the device without sacrificing sales, he said.
“This isn’t like the old days, when it cost thousands of dollars more to buy an Apple product,” Wu said. “Fifty or a hundred bucks wouldn’t be enough to make someone switch.”
Amazon, by contrast, loses money on every Kindle Fire it sells, with the aim of profiting from sales of books and other digital media. At the $199 price of the Nexus 7, Google’s plan should be to break even on the hardware, in exchange for the opportunity to win advertising and related revenue, said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner Inc.
Apple’s plans to release a smaller sized iPad were reported previously in blogs, including DigiTimes.

Microsoft’s Stakes

The stakes are high for Microsoft and Google to succeed at hardware sales. Both companies have risked alienating long-time hardware partners, such as Samsung Electronics Co., by selling their own tablets, Gartenberg said.
“How does Samsung make money in tablets, when Google is partnering with Asus to make a product that makes no money?” he asked.
A failure to gain traction with the Nexus 7 and Surface, respectively, might also undermine the credibility of Google’s Android strategy and of Microsoft’s introduction of the next version of the Windows operating system, Wu said. If Google and Microsoft can’t make a must-have product around their own software, consumers may be harder to convince that hardware manufacturers could do it, he said.
“They’re really sticking their necks out this time, putting their own brands on this front and center,” Wu said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Peter Burrows in San Francisco at pburrows@bloomberg.net; Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net

A neighbourhood-friendly App in Nokia phones

Want to know the nearest restaurant or transport facility available in your neighbourhood?

The City Lens augmented reality browser on Nokia’s Lumia (Microsoft Windows) and Belle (Symbian) devices are a guide to everyday needs. It allows the user to explore options in food, hotel, shopping, landmarks, transport and entertainment.

Available at Nokia Beta Labs, the App has data from 196 countries, including India, and for nearly 2,000 cities and towns in India. The user has to choose from the options: food, hotel and landmarks, and point the device in the direction of search. A list of the places available in the direction comes on the screen with details of distance. When the specific place is chosen, the address, photos, reviews, and directions to reach the place are available. There are multiple sources for data collection in each city for this feature, apart from the Nokia points of interest.

Another feature available on Lumia phones is public transport. The feature is available for 11 Indian cities now. Only the schedules of public transport are available. In other countries, real-time update of the transport service is available. For instance, when details of the destination and the current location are entered, a point-to-point information on public transport is available. It also provides different modes of public transport and real-time update of the schedule.

(The correspondent was at Nokia’s design studio in Helsinki recently on invitation by the company).

Samsung may unveil Galaxy Note successor in August

It's been likened to a piece of toast, a device for elephants and a throwback to the 1980s-style brick phone.

And yet, despite all the sniggering, Samsung Electronics has sold over 5 million of the phone/tablet Galaxy Note.

More than a freak hit, consumer and design experts believe the surprise success of the "phablet" marks a deeper shift in the fast-paced world of mobile devices.

The most obvious thing about the Note is its size. Its 5.3 inch (13.5 cm) screen is almost as wide as the iPhone's screen is long. And then there's the stylus.

Where Apple's co-founder, the late Steve Jobs famously ridiculed the idea of using a pen to interact with a screen, Samsung has partnered with Japan's Wacom Co Ltd, a market leader in digital pen technology, to come up with something less clunky.

There's good news for Samsung Galaxy Note fans. Fresh reports quote sources "familiar with the matter" that the Note 2 may be unveiled in late August at this year's IFA in Berlin, with an October launch date.

The rumoured specs include a 5.5-inch display, a quad-core processor, a 12+ megapixel camera and, of course, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Malware threat: How to avoid losing Internet access tomorrow

About a quarter-million computer users around the world are at risk of losing Internet access on Monday because of malicious software at the heart of a hacking scam that US authorities shut down last November.
The software found its way into thousands of computers worldwide last year. It redirect users away from trusted websites, towards spoof websites in a bid to steal financial and personal information. When the attack was noticed, the FBI routed infected machines through its server to stop the attacks.
But the servers will be taken down 9 July. When this happens, computers still infected are likely to lose their internet connection without warning. Warnings about the problem have been splashed across Facebook and Google, and the FBI has set up a special website.
So how to tell if you’re computer is infected and how to fix it ? Here are few must-take steps. For details you can click here. The DCWG or DNS Changer Working Group is working to ensure that those who were infected don’t lose access to the Internet on Monday.
So how can you check if your computer is infected? For Windows 7 users, there are few simple steps they can follow:
• Go to the “Start” icon and type cmd, which is the DOS Command prompt.
• Type ipconfig /allcompartments /all and hit enter. In some cases ipconfig /all should also work, but might not list all the routing compartments if you have a VPN setup in Windows 7.
The output will be very long, since Windows7 by default has support for IPv6. Look for the IPv4 information under the section entitled Ethernet adapter. Check out DNS Servers line, and write down these numbers. There may be two IP addresses listed there.
• The DCWG site has a list of infected DNS numbers on their site at this page. If they match up then, it means your computer has been infected. If not, then you needn’t take any steps as you won’t be affected by DNS change servers shutting down.
What to do in case you computer is infected?
• The DCWG site recommends that you make a back up of all your important files.
• The site has a list of “self help” malware clean up guides which will remove the malware. For more links you can click here.
• Some sites you can access are: Hitman Pro (32bit and 64bit versions), Kaspersky Labs TDSSKiller, McAfee Stinger,   Microsoft Windows Defender Offline.
The DCWG site warns that Changing DNS is only one of the functions of the malware kits. The malware could have been used for capturing keystrokes or acting as a proxy for traffic to sensitive sites like bank accounts or social media. It would be a good idea to check your bank statements and credit reports as well as change passwords on any online accounts especially saved passwords from your applications or web browsers.