Category: Software

MUMBAI: Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) is gearing up to launch AsiaSat 7, the new communications satellite, on 26 November.

The satellite will be launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan by an ILS Proton Breeze M launch vehicle.

AsiaSat 7 is a new generation satellite designed to replace AsiaSat 3S at the orbital location of 105.5 degrees East. Based on the Space Systems/Loral 1300 platform, AsiaSat 7 will support a broad range of applications for the Asia-Pacific region, including television broadcast and VSAT networks.

AsiaSat 7 will carry 28 C-band and 17 Ku-band transponders, and a Ka-band payload. Its region-wide high power C-band beam covers Asia, the Middle East, Australasia and Central Asia, with Ku-band beams serving East Asia, South Asia and a steerable Ku beam.

AsiaSat 3S, one of AsiaSat‘s flagship satellites, is operating at the orbital location of 105.5 degrees E. 
 
“The launch of AsiaSat 7, well ahead of the planned date for AsiaSat 3S‘s replacement, is a testament to AsiaSat‘s continued commitment to quality, reliability and uninterrupted services,” the company said in a statement.

Asiasat 3S is expected to reach its end of life in 2014.

MUMBAI: The smartphone Motorola RAZR has been launched in the country by Motorola Mobility India.

Users get 1GB of Ram hooks up with a dual-core 1.2GHz processor and Android 2.3 to get a user interface and the power to multi-task. The smartphone allows users to rock their playlists while checking email, breeze through photos-all at the same time, without delay.

Motorola RAZR comes preloaded with the Motorola MotoCast app, giving the user the power to stream or download content from PC straight to his/her device so that personal content is always within reach. Users can also watch movies on a screen that sports a wider range of colors than most LCD HDTVs.
 
The product also has a front-facing 720p HD video camera and 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p HD video capture to create ones own movies- all with image-stabilisation technology.

Motorola Mobility business country head-sales and operations, India and South West Asia mobile devices Rajan Chawla said, “One of the best-selling mobile phones of all time, the original Motorola RAZR redefined what a mobile phone was as people worldwide proudly flaunted their fashion items. With the new Motorola RAZR smartphone we‘re bringing sexy back in a stylish and sleek body with the power to create experiences you won‘t find in any other smartphone. We expect style-conscious and technology-savvy people in India will be eager to get their hands on this new fashion icon.” 
 
The product also has Smart Actions a preloaded app on Motorola RAZR that that lets the user automate everyday tasks and enable better battery life. Smart Actions can turn down the ringer when you step into work, change the Bluetooth and GPS settings when you get home to save battery, or send a text to someone if a call is missed.

MUMBAI: As the holiday season approaches, Apple appears to be the consumer electronics brand to beat. A recent Nielsen survey shows kids‘ holiday gaming and electronics appetites are whet by a number of top-selling Apple devices – with the iPad leading the pack.

Consistent with US kids‘ 2010 wish lists, the Apple iPad is the most desired consumer electronic among kids ages 6-12 for holiday 2011. In fact, the iPad increases its stronghold, with nearly half (44 per cent) of kids expressing interest in the product, up from 31 per cent in 2010. Two other popular Apple devices – iPod Touch (30 per cent) and iPhone (27 per cent) – round out kids‘ top three, with computers and other tablet brands each appealing to a quarter of younger consumers.
 
Many kids will also ask for gaming devices this year, with two products that offer unique gaming technologies – Nintendo 3DS (25 per cent) and Kinect for Xbox 360 (23 per cent) – leading the way. Given the 3DS‘ spring 2011 release date and the surge in Kinect interest versus last year (up from 14 per cent), parents can expect both devices to be frequently requested this holiday season. Beyond these, older Nintendo DS models continue to resonate with young gamers (22 per cent), while the PlayStation 3 (17 per cent) and Xbox 360 (16 per cent) edge out the Nintendo Wii (11 per cent) as the most desired gaming consoles.

Among consumers ages 13 and older, appeal for the iPad (24 per cent) has also broadened relative to last year (18 per cent), and exceeds that of computers (18 per cent), 2010‘s top item. Further, it appears the iPad has successfully paved the way for other tablet offerings, as a notable 17 per cent of adults/teens also express interest in non-Apple tablets.
 
E-Readers (18 per cent) also exhibit heightened appeal among teens and adults compared to last year (15 per cent), while gaming devices on the whole are somewhat less likely to be of interest to the 13+ crowd. The exception is Kinect for Xbox 360, which appeals to 12 per cent of those ages 13+, compared to eight percent in 2010; though, notably, last year‘s data was collected prior to the product‘s well-supported, large-scale launch on November 4, 2010.
With so many products to choose from across both existing and emerging technologies, electronics are well-positioned to find their way onto shoppers‘ lists again this season – and parents will clearly have some tough decisions to make as they weigh kids‘ wants against their holiday budgets.

MUMBAI: In the US, the amount of time spent streaming videos online is growing at a much faster rate than the number of video viewers, according to Nielsen.

Over the last three years, time spent watching video from home and work computers has more than doubled while the number of unique viewers increased 26 percent over the same period.

Nielsen senior VP, client research initiatives Jo Holz said, “The greater increase in time spent viewing compared to the number of unique viewers is likely due to an increase in the amount of video content available for viewers to watch, especially long-form content like movies and TV shows on sites like Netflix and Hulu.”
 
During August 2011, viewers aged 18-34 accounted for nearly 40 percent of total streaming time, with males 18-34 contributing 23 per cent. Video viewers aged 35-49 made up 26 per cent of total steaming time during the month, followed by viewers over the age of 50 – the largest segment of the online video population – who spent over nine billion minutes watching, 22 per cent of total streaming time from home and work computers. 

MUMBAI: Viacom18‘s International entertainment channel Vh1 has clocked a record 500,000 members on its Facebook page, which it claims is a first for any niche channel in the country.

The broadcaster says that the content on the page helps get 30 per cent of the fan base to engage with the brand every month with an average of 11 million impressions every week.

Vh1 India also conducts contests giving away merchandise and “life-changing opportunities” to winners. The ‘Ticket to Ride‘ contests have culminated in winners attending the Grammy Awards, watching Shakira Live at the GrandPrix in Singapore, partying Vh1 style at The Playboy Mansion in LA with over 1000 playmates. 
 
Some winners also get concert tickets, meet and greet opportunities with international artists amongst other merchandise like guitars, t-shirts and lots more. The Facebook page was also the first medium in the country to launch Coldplay‘s latest album Mylo Xyloto way before the album hit stores, thus giving members an exclusive sneak-peak to the new release.

Vh1 India channel head Ferzad Palia said, “Getting half a million hits on our Facebook page speaks a lot about the brand and its pioneering initiatives in the social media domain in this genre. The youth today has moved to an evolved lifestyle and Vh1 India re-affirms the endeavour to provide its fans with cult entertainment of their choice, which is latest and in keeping with the times. To give you a number, the average weekly reach of the page is over 390,000 unique users and I am delighted by the support we have got from our Facebook fans. This just goes to prove that Vh1 does have a vibrant parallel universe beyond television. A big Thank You to all our fans… Keep clicking!”
 
Through its Facebook fan page Vh1 aims to also entice members to participate with mediums such as the ‘Make your Mix tab with Manchester United‘. This tab gives Vh1 fans a chance to showcase their bartending skills and make drinks for their friends and loved ones. Apart from providing activities and celeb web chats with the likes of stand-up comedian Russell Peters and Canadian band Simple Plan, Vh1 drove their entire pro-socio campaign ‘Vh1 Spread the Music‘ through Facebook. Through this application, fans can help underprivileged children experience the joy of learning music.

Vh1 India‘s Facebook Page has marked the beginning of its ambitious plans by revolving around its fan‘s passion points and penetrating into various facets of ‘music‘. This goes to show India‘s youth moving towards a global, evolved lifestyle.

MUMBAI: After a long time Google has finally got into the online music business by launching a service. However if it is to make a mark in Indian then it will have to adapt to a market that offers diversity. There is a fragmentation of music content ownership here. There is a long tail of content owners. At the same time search, social and curated functions have to be combined for any online music service to succeed.

This was point that came out during a session at Nokia Music Connects Summit called Internet/Mobile Radio and Streaming Services. The moderator was Tag Strategic managing partner Ted Cohen. The panelists were The Orchard VP, GM Prashant Bahadur, EMI Music India MD T Suresh, music composer Raju Singh, Spice Digital head – business development and alliances ShehzadAzad, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment COO – Consumer Business and Allied Services Siddhartha Roy, Shemaroo Entertainment director Jai Maroo and Aircel head Vas Pradeep Rao.

Maroo noted the diversity challenge for overseas players looking to enter the music space here. At the same time it is easier to experiment now than it was four years ago. Today content owners with a large library would look at online services in an open way and try to figure out where it might be two to four years down the road.

ShehzadAzad noted the fact that India is a price sensitive market. According to him it took Android five years to reach critical mass here. The iPhone has not impacted India due to the price.

Bahadur noted that the challenge for international online music services looking at India is not licensing. It is about consumer experience. iTunes experience is similar in most markets apart from maybe Japan. If it wants to make an impact in India then it will have to change its approach from the point of view of genre, language perspective.

Orchard is a digital distributor of music and he says that transparency is one of the things he looks at in doing deals and looking at business models. Transparency makes it easier to license ones catalogue. His aim is not to capture a percentage of the revenue pie but to grow it. He also noted that searchability in streaming helps niche music. If you are subscribing for five bucks then it doesn‘t cost much to experiment. The problem is that search engine functionality is poor in many online music streaming services. That is because they are not as data driven as Google. The social nature of a service can also help drive revenue and business. Recommendation is another critical part of the business.
 
ShehzadAzad noted that his company has been running a music streaming service for five years now. With even a basic mobile phone one can access the service even if he/she is in a remoter area. The challenges are how to communicate to the last mile as well as falling Arpus. At the moment the restrictions in GSM means that the quality of a song is at time limited. His company has enabled search through SMS. 10 songs are sent to a customer who is searching for something. One just has to hit the access code. This enables ease of use which is important.

It was noted pull is the sustainable model. Streaming services will make content discovery easy. They can find the long tail content that they are looking for.

Roy noted that while smartphones are not there in India in the future an ecosystem will be there for smartphones at an entry level. Also as broadband penetration and levels grow for the PCA and tablet increased selection and depth of content is coming into play.
Singh noted that music streaming allows him to reach areas where his albums are not available. Services can also be used as a demo pad. ShehzadAzad added that for somebody like Singh a streaming service can be used as promotional tool at a regional level. His service offers interactivity which allows the composer to get feedback from consumers.

At the session it also emerged that while non film music is not as big as Bollywood, it has a sticky fan base. For non film music to succeed one needs a large repository of music in one place. This would allow for recommendations. It was noted that consumption is happening in tier two, three, four towns. There is network seeding happening but the infrastructure is not there to give enough bandwith. The situation is expected to change by 2014. The important thing is that when a consumer goes to a buy a mobile phone he/she expects to be able to consumer video and audio content. That was not the case a few years back. Maroo noted that video consumption is going up on the mobile. That is significant given the fact that music gets there first in terms of benefitting from the mobile.

NEW DELHI: The Government has decided to own and operate a countrywide broadband network with an optical fibre base through which different operators could provide a range of services, Minister of State for Communications and Information and Technology Milind Deora said.

Inaugurating the 8th Broadband Tech India Conference organised by Bharat Exhibitions, the Minister said: “Keeping future users of this network in mind, this will to be a non-discriminatory access to all types of information and services.”

“This network would be the way governance will be delivered to the whole nation” reaching out to the last village, he added. The Minister recalled how several countries were supporting optical fibre and wireless broadband networks to reach out to everyone. The Minister termed this project as “unprecedented” in its reach and its vision.
 
The money for setting up this network would come from the Universal Service Fund to which all telecom operators are contributing a part of their revenues. This would be a high speed network in which Government would partner with telecom industry to plan an entire eco system “that will really transform the country”.

The Minister also released a book on NGN (New Generation Networks) written by telecom professional SN Gupta. The book gives all details about the new generation of telecom networks based on IP technology that can accommodate delivery of different services even when the technology has changed. Many operators are changing to this concept in their network.

BSNL which will implement this plan expects approximately 50 to 60 per cent of government services in the country to be conducted through broadband and mobile services, according to its chairman and managing director RK Upadhyay.
The National Broadband Policy projects broadband on demand by 2015 and get 600 million people using the service by 2020. Roll out of 3G telecom services would lead to additional revenue of about Rs 90 billion to over 2010-2015 for the IT and BPO industry, he added.
 
Giving a broad view of what fixed line and wireless broadband (3G) could do, Upadhyay told the conference that revenue from 3G related data services for other VAS value chain players would reach Rs 36 billion in 2015. Equipment manufacturers would have a market of Rs 165 billion by 2015 growing at a huge CAGR of 72 per cent. However content development and lower prices of 3G enabled handsets would be crucial in achieving these expectations.

“Broadband revolution has not only helped in creating a niche for India globally but is now also going to transform the hinterland of the country,” Upadhyay contented. “As a better networked and informed society sooner than later India could become “an invincible leader and eventually a super IT power of the world”.

For broadband revolution to happen, government intervention and support is critical, said industry analyst and Analysys Mason India MD Kunal Bajaj. Such support would push the reach to 50 to 60 per cent of urban users and only then would it be viable for the economy of use to kick in. “After that you could move into rural areas.”
In broadband roll out Bajaj suggested USO fund to help fill the viability gap for the industry. End user subsidy and financial incentive for broadening access were needed to realise the full potential of national broadband revolution.

MUMBAI: Audience and ad measurement platform ViziSense recently conducted a research on the online behavior of youth in India. The dipstick study involved an online survey among 500 young users from within the online ViziSense India panel.

According to the research, Internet is a preferred medium compared to television for youngsters in India. 56 per cent of them spend more than two hours on the internet during the weekday as against just 44 per cent of them spending even more than one hour watching television. The engagement with internet further increases on weekends with 69 per cent youngsters spending more than two hours as compared to 35 per cent spending more than three hours watching television.

An interesting highlight of the study was that youngsters prefer to visit Facebook and social media pages of companies rather than their websites for information around companies and their products/offerings. 
 
According to the research, almost all youngsters (15-24 years) rely on the internet when it comes to mobiles, computers and car purchases. The term computer broadly includes tablets and laptops.

Close to 2/3rd of the youngsters online have been actively using the internet for more than two years making them ‘mature‘ users of the medium. Their confidence in the medium is also reflected by the fact that 81 per cent of users are comfortable sharing personal information online.

The usage of Internet by youngsters further extends to mobile with 50 per cent of them accessing the web daily through their mobile phones. Apart from checking mails and social networking which is done by 79 per cent and 67 per cent of mobile web users respectively, it is seen that they are warming up to mobile e-commerce with 23 per cent of them using mobile to make online payments.

ViziSense GM Amit Bhartiya said, “Online is now entrenched in the daily lives of youth in India, more than any other medium. They show high dependence on the use of the Internet for almost all their commerce, entertainment and other content consumption and this should only reinforce the importance of this medium for marketers. The other strong message that came out through the research is that youth prefer online to other media is because it facilitates two-way interaction and engagement with brands and companies vs. any other media”.

MUMBAI: Motorola Mobility Holdings has announced that at the company‘s Special Meeting of Stockholders, the stockholders voted overwhelmingly to approve the proposed merger with Google.

Approximately 99 per cent of the shares voting at the Special Meeting of Stockholders voted in favor of the adoption of the merger agreement, which represented approximately 74 per cent of Motorola Mobility‘s total outstanding shares of common stock as of the 11 October, 2011 record date for the Special Meeting.

Motorola Mobility chairman and CEO Sanjay Jha said, “We are pleased and gratified by the strong support we have received from our stockholders, with more than 99 per cent of the voting shares in support of the transaction. We look forward to working with Google to realise the significant value this combination will bring to our stockholders and all the new opportunities it will provide our dedicated employees, customers, and partners.”
 
As previously announced on 15 August, 2011, Motorola Mobility and Google entered into a definitive agreement for Google to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. The company previously disclosed that it expected the merger to close by the end of 2011 or early 2012. While the company continues to work to complete the transaction as expeditiously as possible, given the schedule of regulatory filings, it currently believes that the close is expected to occur in early 2012.

It is important to note however, that the merger is subject to various closing conditions, and it is possible that the failure to timely meet such conditions or other factors outside of the company‘s control could delay or prevent the company from completing the merger altogether.

MUMBAI: Global satellite operator SES has signed a capacity agreement with High TV 3D, a worldwide 3D general entertainment channel, primarily for cable distribution.

High TV 3D will be distributed via the Astra 23.5 degrees East orbital position (11778.00 MHz, vertical), benefiting from its optimal European footprint coverage and household reach. Astra 23.5 degrees East is the home of various international 3D channels such as Brava 3D, Penthouse 3D and the Astra 3D demo channel.

The 3D programming of High TV 3D ranges from entertainment news and travel programmes to drama, comedy, fitness and movies as well as a slate of in-house productions such as reality shows. High TV 3D will broadcast 400 hours of native 3D content during its first year and is creating more than 500 hours of 3D content for each year to come.
 
High TV 3D CEO Eric Klein said, “For us as an international 3D channel, it is a major milestone to be present on Europe‘s leading satellite platform, with an excellent reach and high quality performance. We are excited to bring the very best in lifestyle and entertainment programming to an audience that embraces entertainment as the very essence of their culture.”

SES chief commercial officer Ferdinand Kayser said, “The sale of 3D enabled TV sets is expected to significantly grow over the next few years. The availability of compelling, high quality 3D content is of key importance to further drive the development of 3D. High TV 3D is a very valuable addition to our growing 3D line-up, and we look very much forward to a successful cooperation.”