IoT to overtake mobiles by 2018: Report

IoT to overtake mobiles by 2018: Report

The Internet of Things (IoT) is set to overtake mobile phones as the largest category of connected device by 2018, according to the latest edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report.

Between 2015 and 2021, the number of IoT connected devices is expected to grow 23 per cent annually, of which cellular IoT is forecast to have the highest growth rate. Of the 28 billion total devices that will be connected by 2021, nearly 16 bn will be IoT devices.

Western Europe will lead the way in adding IoT connections. The number of IoT devices in this market is projected to grow 400 per cent by 2021. This will principally be driven by regulatory requirements. The report said mobile data traffic in India would grow 15 times by 2021. India expanded the most in terms of net addition during the first quarter of 2016 (calendar year), adding 21 million, followed by Myanmar (5 mn) and Indonesia (5 mn).

For example, for intelligent utility meters, and a growing demand for connected cars including the European Union’s e-call directive to be implemented in 2018. E-call is an automatic emergency call system for motor vehicles.

Rima Qureshi, senior vice-president and chief strategy officer, Ericsson, says: “IoT is now accelerating as device costs fall and innovative applications emerge. From 2020, commercial deployment of 5G networks will provide additional capabilities that are critical for IoT, such as network slicing and the capacity to connect exponentially more devices than is possible today.”Read more.

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Airtel strikes gold with 4G girl Sasha Chetri

Sasha Chettri, Airtel’s 4G girl, is the ad world’s newest poster girl. Chettri has gone viral on social media, ever since Airtel kicked off its 4G campaign last July, and, in the process, has delivered for brand Airtel what no other campaign has - high recall value. With her unconventional and provocative approach, 21-year-old Chettri has firmly put brand Airtel on the country’s 4G landscape.

Today, 4G in India means Airtel just the way years ago Coca-Cola staked claim on the entire soft drinks category through its Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola campaign with Aamir Khan.

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Given that the next generation of mobile broadband, or 4G, is about speed, the television commercial showing two girls racing their phones on a terrace in Lucknow was an unusual way to break the clutter on television. Given that other telcos have not come up with such high-decibel campaigns, Chettri has become a shorthand for 4G as a category.

In advertising parlance, the success of a campaign is measured through top-of-the-mind awareness and Chettri has helped Airtel increase this score by 13 per cent compared to other campaigns such as Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hai.

It isn't just the brand recall value that has shot up, Airtel's revenue market-share touched a six-year high of 31.4 per cent in December 2015. In the five key data markets - Mumbai, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala - Airtel increased its marketshare by 140 basis points in the nine months ending December 2015. According to CLSA, Airtel is upping the ante on data offerings. On the ground, Bharti Airtel has stepped up its 4G data offering through a slew of industry firsts on product as well as distribution. The company has deployed long-term evolution, or LTE, using carrier aggregation in Kerala, enabling speeds of up to 135mbps on its 4G network.

The campaign has many firsts to its credit. For starters, Airtel went with an unknown face to launch a big shift in broadband technology and secondly, it showed the gumption to use a young woman for this.

Explains Chettri, “In India, women are still used to endorsing soaps and shampoos but not technology as stereotypes still exist.” Agnello Dias, chairman and co-founder of Taproot, the agency behind the campaign, says: “Sasha is right and she is both loved and trolled at the same time for breaking stereotypes, but there is little doubt that the campaign has embedded Airtel's ownership of 4G in the public consciousness. While the campaign has resonated strongly right through several SECs, it has allowed the brand to own 4G like no one else.”Read More.

Great casual cricket

Great casual cricket

It's the T20 season. First the World Cup, now IPL. And when you see your chosen team slog it out in the field, your hands are bound to itch for a grip on the willow. Whether you manage to actually knock around a ball or not, you can always grip your smartphone and take a few bowlers for a ride if you have the right app handy. Circle of Cricket is a good option. In fact, if you have a powerful enough phone, spare memory and the battery on your side, this is a great option.

The 108MB game can be downloaded for free from the Google Play Store, while its in-app purchases range between Rs 60 and Rs 300. The game offers a Twenty20 tournament mode, quick match mode and a one-day mode. Its focus however is on the T20 format, wherein lies its best experience.

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First, do not go hunting for a Cricket Captain experience. You don't find one here, and you don't need one. Keeping that in mind, the graphics are good. Players look quite similar to their real-world counterparts. The range of shots is varied enough to keep the runs coming. Bowlers, are a tad bit prone to no-balls, but once you get the hang of it, wickets aren't a problem. Overall detailing is pleasing.

The Game, thankfully, lets you use swipe gestures to play the shots instead of complicated key combinations, making it easier to master. Drag longer for hits, and take small swipes for defence. However, the gameplay is challenging and tough enough to keep you glued for that hour-and-a-half-long Metro ride, and winning matches won't come easy.Read More.

#LoveTwitter: The big hits and misses of 10 years of Twitter

Micro-blogging site Twitter turns 10 on Monday.

With the hashtag "#LoveTwitter" trending and inviting people to celebrate Twitter's first decade, Twitter's official handle thanked all its users for "10 incredible years".

The site's official blog kicked off the celebration on Monday afternoon and said: "On March 21, ten years ago, it began with a single Tweet. Since then, every moment of every day, people connect about the things they care about most — all over the world."

The Tweet in question, posted by founder Jack Dorsey, said "just setting up my twttr" on March 21, 2006. 

Of course, since then, Twitter has come a long way. From amassing 300 million users to going public.

User growth:

According to online statistics portal Statista, as of the fourth quarter of 2015, the micro-blogging service averaged at 305 million monthly active users.

In the beginning of 2015, India alone had 22.2 million users on Twitter. According to a 2015 report by the Huffingtonpost, Twitter clocked double digit growth in India  with the site accounting for 17% of the total social network users in one of the world's largest Internet market. The article cited a report by market research firm eMarketer and said that India was only second to Japan (26 million) in terms of the size of its Twitter population.

However, according to a New York Times report, in February this year, after many quarters of slowing user growth, Twitter said its monthly visitors in the fourth quarter totalled 320 million. The figure had not budged from the one the company reported in the previous quarter.

Over the years the social networking site took its simple theory - express yourself in 140 characters or fewer - and took the cyber, and real, world by storm.

Trai may issue fresh paper on WhatsApp, Skype

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is contemplating issuing a fresh consultation paper for regulation of over-the-top (OTT) messaging services like WhatsApp and Skype in accordance with recently announced net neutrality principles.

"The issues have changed over the past year when the consultation paper was first announced. We have to look at the OTT industry together with net neutrality as many aspects are interlinked," a Trai official told Business Standard. No decision has yet been taken on whether there should be a fresh paper on the issue. "It is in the very initial stages," the official said. Mobile users can access OTT services via the Internet but these ride on telecom networks and are not bound by any regulations.

The availability of affordable Smartphones has led to the growth of OTT services, which in turn increases data volumes for telecom companies. But for increased traffic, telecom companies need to invest in upgrading their networks.

The Trai paper was issued in March 2015 and comments were received under the earlier chairman Rahul Khullar. Khullar retired in mid-May and the regulator got a new chairman, RS Sharma, in August 2015. But final recommendations are yet to be announced.

The major contention in the OTT paper is voice calls offered by WhatsApp,Skype and others, which telecom operators allege is eating into their revenue. Voice calls on telecom networks are 12.5 times more expensive than those through OTT services; in the case of messages, the difference is 16 times. A one-minute phone call costs 50 paise, while a one-minute call made through the Internet costs 4 paise, according to Trai.

"Technology can't be stopped. We can't kill innovation but we need to address the regulatory arbitrage between telecom operators and OTT players. One is under a licensing regime, while the other is not. No doubt OTT is driving the data revenue of telecom players, but one has to look at the security aspect as well," another Trai official added.

Flipkart opposes entry tax by states: Why it is a fight to the finish

The products you buy online are likely to get costlier if state governments have their way. Uttarakhand government has imposed an entry tax of 10 per cent on goods purchased from e-commerce firms. Bihar and Assam have already imposedan entry tax, which is now likely to be imposed by several other states.

An entry tax is a tax that a state government imposes on goods coming in from other states.

Naturally the e-commerce industry is crying foul as it increases the cost of the goods for its customer. Flipkart has already moved the Uttarakhand High Court (HC) against the 10 per cent entry tax. In a petition filed with the court in February, Flipkart argued that the state’s move to impose such a high entry tax was discriminatory.

This is a classic case of fight between two parties, both claiming to be victims.

It is an established fact that aggressive pricing by e-commerce companies has not only hurt the brick and mortar retail setup but has also affected the companies themselves who follow such predatory pricing. Most of the e-commerce companies operating in India are making losses as they fight for market share under-pricing each other, in many cases below the cost of purchase. In the process the mom-and-pop retailer shop, are also taking a hit. Madhya Pradesh’s finance minister is on record saying that 20-30 per cent of the state’s commerce has shifted online.

From the e-tailers point of view, imposition of entry tax is an additional barrier and goes against the spirit of free access to market. It is a case of the honest taxpayer getting taxed twice. Taxes are imposed at the point of sale and then again when it enters a new state (entry tax). E-tailers are complaining against this double taxation which is increasing the cost of goods for the final customer.

State governments have a point when they say that e-commerce companies have impacted their tax collections. Sales tax revenue has fallen as shops in the states have either closed down or have posted lower sales. These governments want their pound of flesh in tax collection from the goods that are sold in their state without paying any taxes as well as want to protect their local industry, which in many non-producing states are these small retailers.

We can draw a parallel between the actions of the state governments with that of the centre who decided to impose high level of taxes (import duties) on steel imports. Cheap steel was destroying the domestic industry leading to closure and loss of jobs. Similarly cheap goods from e-commerce companies who have the benefit of bulk purchase and are not the manufacturers themselves, has been destroying the state’s industry, employment and government’s revenue. In order to safeguard these, the entry tax seems to be a solution, however crude it may appear.

Motorola's newest instalment in the premium segment, the Moto X Force, boasts of a screen so strong that it just won't shatter no matter how much you drop it. A challenge, I gladly accepted.

At first glance, the Force seemed very chunky but to my surprise it was pretty lightweight. Motorola has not given beauty a preference as the phone looks quite ordinary. It has a 5.4-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 1,440 x 2,560p, which provides for sharp and vibrant colours. The display is akin to other premium smartphones.

Under the hood, it houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor along with 3GB of RAM which is sufficient. Playing games on the Force was a breeze. Surprisingly, it didn't heat up much even when used at a stretch. It comes with a 3,760-mAh battery and it lasted me a good two days on heavy usage. The device runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop but an upgrade to Marshmallow is likely in the foreseeable future.

At Rs 49,999, the Moto X Force delivers more than enough. Most people are very careful with their premium phones - one of my colleagues wraps her iPhone 6 in a soft pillow-like case. With the Force, one has the option to roughhouse the phone as much as they like.

The Force comes with a Moto app that registers gestures such as a twist to launch the camera. The camera app, however, is slow to load which is quite frustrating. It has a 21-megapixel (MP) primary camera which delivers good-quality images but only in conditions with good lighting. If you try to click a picture in low light, the resultant output is disappointing. The 5MP secondary camera is good enough for selfies.

The star of the show is the Force's screen. It has two touchscreen layers beneath the scratch-resistant layer. I was a bit apprehensive while undertaking drop tests. I feared the worst when I dropped it the first time.

Galaxy S7 edge: An all-round performer

The tension is hard to describe. It's like the feeling you had the day the results were to be declared. You'd already done everything you should have done and there's no way you could change anything.

The delay in getting review units for the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge just added to the tension. I had liked what I saw at the preview; they'd brought back water-proofing and a microSD slot, both significant misses in the Samsung Galaxy S6.