India Business

India-based game retailer Game4u has begun accepting pre-orders for Sony’s next generation console PlayStation 4. The console can be pre-ordered from either Game4u’s brick-and-mortar stores or from the company’s website. Consumers looking to place the pre-order will have to deposit an amount of Rs. 3000. After the console will realise its official launch in the country(which is expected quite soon), these buyers can receive the device and pay the remaining amount at that point of time. Ironically, Game4u hasn’t pointed out the fact that Sony itself hasn’t officially unveiled an official pricing for the PS4. Sony had announced that the PlayStation 4 will be launched in November and will cost $399 (Rs 23,300 approx) in the US, which is $100 less than rival Microsoft’s console, the Xbox One, which is priced at $499 (Rs 28,900 approx). The company will allow owners to trade their PS4 game discs, allowing gamers to buy cheaper pre-owned games, and players don’t have to sign in online to play. Sony has not revealed the price of PS4 in India but it would be between Rs.20,000 and Rs.30,000 if the announced price ($399) is anything to go by. It was earlier reported that the gaming console would be priced between $400 and $500 upon release and would be available in India in the first quarter of 2014 at around Rs.25,000. The new gaming console is powered by single-chip custom processor and x86-64 AMD “Jaguar” 8 Cores. It features 18 “compute units” capable of cranking out 1.84 TFLOPS and AMD next generation Radeon based graphics engine. The console will also have a memory of 8GB GDDR5 RAM capable of 176GB/sec of bandwidth. Sony has fired its salvo in the right direction. Comparisons are made when it comes to hardware, but Sony has the better hand when it comes to pricing and market strategies adopted with respect to world markets. I don’t think one can predict the winner even before the consoles are launched. The history of the games industry is littered with consoles that should have won but didn’t; where all the signs pointed in their direction, but turned out to be wildly misleading. You can pre-order the PS4 from here. Source | Tech2 Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Google India has launched a ‘Start Searching India‘ campaign aimed at simplifying Internet usage for it’s users. “The objective of the campaign is to help simplify the Web for Indian users, showing how they can get instant answers to their most common queries,” Sandeep Menon, Director, Marketing, Google India, said. The campaign aims to share interesting tips about search with Indian netizens, to be available online at g.co/startsearchingindia. The aim is to help simplify the web for users, showing how they can get instant answers to their most-common queries. You can get instant Google Now-like carded responses within Google Search for queries like weather information, restaurants, ATMs, flight information and more. Specific categories can be chosen for the type of information desired. Menon said, “For the first two decades of its existence, Google Search largely relied on matching keywords. Now we are finally moving towards our vision of the perfect search engine: one that understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you need. A perfect assistant should be able to help you with the information you need right at a moment’s notice. We’re working towards a search experience where Google can give you relevant information right at your fingertips.” The initiative by Google is appreciated, especially as more and more people from towns and villages are jumping onto the Internet daily. I believe this campaign will enable them to effectively gather answers to queries that they can relate to in their daily life. The project will definitely have positive results. the company is moving towards its primary aim: to provide meaningful solutions to people regarding what information they want. And it seems to be following this principle since years now. Google also introduced Project Loon, an initiative from Google X Labs to bring affordable Internet access to remote places by means of giant balloons last weekend. Website: g.co/startsearchingindia Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Skype’s free video messaging service has exited beta and landed on Windows 8, Mac, iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. Skype’s video messaging feature lets you record and share a 3 minute personal video and send it to people on their contacts list if they are offline. The recipients will be able to watch the video message when they sign-in next time. Skype is calling the feature as a video voicemail. “Want to say goodnight to your kids while traveling, but you’ll be up in the air? Need to wish your dad a happy birthday, but can’t seem to catch up? Skype can help you connect with the special people in your life—even when your schedules conflict,” Skype said in a blog post. Skype’s new service looks simple and intuitive, thanks to a minimal UI with just a few options. Just tap the video message button and then press record to start shooting.   Once you are ready to send your video message, click on the envelope icon. Prior to the launch, Skype Video Messages were available in beta form to paid subscribers in US and UK. You can now send unlimited video messages to your Skype contacts on all the major platforms except Windows Phone 8. This is quiet surprising since Microsoft owns Skype. Check out the video: Earlier in May, Microsoft integrated Skype into its email client Outlook.com. The firm also shut down its Windows Messenger chat tool in most countries and urged users to switch over to Skype. There is too much happening around videos these days. Recently, Vine shares exceeded that of Instagram on Twitter.  Also, it is rumored that Facebook will add video sharing feature on Instagram on June 20 event. The video message feature is now part of the regular Skype app. You can download it here.  Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Airtel’s Direct To Home (DTH) arm Airtel Digital TV & BrizzTV Media Lab Pvt Ltd have entered into a partnership that will offer  freemium model based movie streaming straight to Television. Subscribers to Airtel’s DTH service will soon have the option of enjoying premium movies without traditional commercial ad-breaks. By managing the screen space, the company has found a unique solution that will offer content merged with advertisement. But what is interesting is the way BrizzTV juggles both the aspects simultaneously & yet manages to offer a break-free TV watching experience. What is the duo offering? Airtel DTH will essentially offer a channel (No. 155) via which content from BrizzTV will be broadcast. BrizzTV is actually a digital media startup that brings web content onto the television screen without internet connectivity. The company has an ad-supported platform called Freemium TV. This platform offers ‘Reduced Screen’ Content Playback. In other words, content like premium movies will play without any dedicated ad-breaks continuously, but on a curtailed area of the screen. In the present state, viewers can continue to watch the movie & ads will play on the remaining portion of the screen. The ads have been designed to ensure the viewing experience is not hindered. However, viewers can choose to do away with the ads completely & have a full-screen movie playing experience by paying either a monthly subscription charge or even ‘Pay-if-you-want’ model where subscriber can opt to pay & watch a single movie. The ad revenue generated from the Freemium model will be shared by BrizzTV & Airtel. A while ago YouTube & others had thought of a very similar concept wherein it would broadcast content via a dedicated TV Channel. While the video-aggregation site manages to earn by inserting audio-visual ads, before, during & after a video, BrizzTV has chosen to place the same alongside the actual content. Do you think such a model will be accepted by the TV watching audience? Image Courtesy |   dreamdth Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

In what seems to be a bid to get more users to adopt its  mobile Internet services, Vodafone India has announced that it has started slashing 2G data charges by 80%  in select regions. The previous rate for 2G data was 10p/10kb which is now down to 2p/10kb on a ‘pay as you go’ basis. The changed rates are now applicable in Karnataka, UP West, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh circles. The operator plans to roll out the revised data rates nationally in phases. These new rates are applicable to both pre-paid and post-paid subscribers in these regions. The data packs and bonus packs that the company offers will not change in terms of pricing as of now. This move is meant to get users with limited usage to get access to affordable internet connections on their mobile Vivek Mathur, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone India said, “The overall internet penetration in India is low while the mobile penetration is several times higher. Most consumers will discover the power of the internet via the mobile. We, at Vodafone, want to accelerate mobile internet adoption through penetration, consumption and value addition. This 80% reduction in data charges for customers using 2G network is an important step in this direction and we are confident that this move will facilitate in faster adoption and better usage.”  As the Internet becomes an important utility in the country in the days to comes, telcos can no longer ignore mobile usage and the scale of usage in the country. Affordable pricing means more users who access more of the Internet. Not many people get off once they get hooked to the Internet and thus this move will ultimately help Vodafone and the other telcos who are revising their rates to consolidate their position as mobile Internet providers. The cut in Roaming rates will affect telcos financially, something they were wary about. Mobile Internet and value added services will end up becoming good revenue funnels for these companies and thus all operators are looking to strengthen their data services and remove the barrier to entry for users in smaller cities and rural areas. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Here is another example of social media’s impact on our lives. ‘Tweet’ no longer means only chirping of birds. The word tweet now has a second definition and is now an officially part of the English language. Tweet now also means “To make a posting on the social networking service Twitter. Also: to use Twitter regularly or habitually”, John Simpson, chief editor of the OED, announced the new addition in a June update. “The noun and verb tweet (in the social-networking sense) has just been added to the OED,” Simpson wrote. The dictionary acknowledges that it is breaking its own rule that a word must be “current for ten years” before it can be included into the dictionary, by expanding the definition of “tweet.”  According to OED’s blog, “There has been, for example, a threefold increase in instances of the word tweet between 2006 and 2007 (when Twitter began), and by 2012, this had increased to 50 times.” However, oddly, the word “retweet”, or the act of reposting a message posted by another Twitter user, was added to the OED back in 2011. Editors did not give an explanation as to why retweet was added first. The online version of the dictionary has new entries added to it by editors every three months. An increasing number of technology based words have made their ways into the dictionary in this quarter including words like “live-blogging,” crowdsourcing”, “big data”, “e-reader”, “stream” “re-direct”, “geekery”, “flash mob”, “mouseover”. More than 1,200 new or revised words were added in the latest version of the Oxford English Dictionary. Other words or phrases that have made the cut in the past include “OMG” and “LOL,” both of which were added to the dictionary in 2011. You can check out more words here. Image Courtesy |   allthingsd Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Gaana, Times Internet’s music streaming service has updated its Android app with  Gaana 2.0 and Gaana+. Gaana 2.0 updates the app with a new interface for My Zone and adds feature like multi-bit rate streaming which enables users to choose the streaming rate based on your data connection strength. Furthermore, 2.0 is more intuitive  and allows better search, creation and editing a playlist  in MyZone. It also lets users choose the quality of playback based on their connection speed. In April this year, Times Internet had unveiled Gaana+ premium service for iOS devices. Now, it is introducing the service for Android devices too.  The ads free service will give listeners the ability to sync their offline playlists across multiple devices thus allowing you to listen to music even when you have no network connection. Gaana+ is available for free for a 14 day trial, after which subscriptions cost $2.99 (Rs 175) a month (India) or $3.99 (Rs 236) a month (rest of world). Last week Gaana launched a Karaoke Web App SingAlong that allows users to sing their favourite songs along with scrolling lyrics and music. Gaana recently launched a Windows Phone App and is now present across all major platforms like iOS, Android, Java, BB, BB10, J2ME. You can download the updated Android app here. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Yes, there are some mistakes which the carmakers commits, and at times they prove costly as well. But however, on the other hand we get a chance to do the sneak peak for some of their upcoming model plates in between that duration. This time it is the turn of Swift, which is the heartthrob of Indian auto fraternity. As learnt, the Belgium wing of Suzuki had by mistakenly posted the images of 2014 Swift on internet which stood there for enough of a time that any person can copy it in his hard disk and get the maximum extracts. By that way we got a chance to see what the facelift version of Swift will look like in the future. And but obviously the makers had now removed it from their official page. But we then got it posted on our blog for you to view it in all the galore. Looking at the images it can be said, most of the cues are borrowed from new Hyundai i20. Bits like daytime running LED lights infused in the fog lamps clog, signal indicators engulfed in the ORVMs, and the significantly noticeable golden brown paint job, makes this hatchback more attractive than before. However, no changes expected in the technical specifications, will stay same with the 1.2 litre K-Series 4 cylinder petrol engine producing 94 bhp at its best, and the diesel variant of 1.3 litre DDIS churning out 74 bhp at max. These much tweaks are almost not enough against the expectations of our new Swift innings; but as it will be received at 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show in September the feedbacks from automotive masters will definitely put it in the place to dig more gravely into the matters. And we hope India will be the first to receive it in the latest, because a major part of its sales comes from our homeland itself.

The time is here when every marketer knows that the Digital Medium is a force to be reckoned with. Internet usage and the corresponding digital media consumption (especially mobile) are growing at a rapid pace and it has done so in a very short amount of time, taking many a marketer by surprise. Those who saw the signs adapted to it and are now in a good position to leverage the vast opportunities that the medium offers for their brands. For those who want to start learning about Digital Marketing, there is an easy way out. Afaqs runs an initiative called Afaqs Campus which is dedicated to educating marketers to tackle the digital medium and use it successfully. A by-product of this initiative is the book series called ‘The Curious Digital Marketer’.  They have recently launched the second edition which contains within it knowledge and good digital practices coming from the minds of 12 seasoned digital marketing professionals like Kapil Ohri, Vishal Jacob, Pritam Venkky and others. The broad topics covered in this book include Display Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, Facebook Marketing, Mobile Marketing and Web Analytics. All these areas form the backbone of the Digital and Social Media Marketing and whose working knowledge will give a marketer a very good edge when it comes to conceptualizing and executing meaningful digital campaigns. The Curious Digital Marketer 2.0 is available to buy online at Infibeam and Flipkart. You can read a preview here. Website | Curious Digital Marketer   Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency

Already boasting a cool German family, Porsche finally launched Cayman S in India at Rs. 93.99 lakh ex showroom Delhi. It produces 321bhp and 37.7kgm of torque from 3.4 litre flat-six engine that sends all the power to rear wheels and operates shifts via a seven-speed PDK transmission. It has the stretching top whack of 281kmph, whereas the 0-100kmph sprint is completed in 5.38 seconds. 19-inch wheels are standard. On inside one can get the optional 7-inch touchscreen, whilst of the Burmester sound system and bi-colour leather packages amongst others. And this time, Mumbai-kars can rejoice over Delhi-ites in terms of pricing, as the automaker had marked it a bit lower in the financial capital of India which just stood brilliantly for Rs. 92.27 lakh ex showroom (Mumbai).