Category: Software

MUMBAI: The Geneva-headquartered STMicroelectronics, the supplier of silicon chips for set-top boxes (STBs), and Dahua Technology Ltd, China‘s cable and IPTV dual-mode STB provider, have announced that they have successfully designed and manufactured a highly integrated digital-cable and IP set-top box, making ST the first silicon supplier to provide single-chip dual-mode digital set-top-box solutions for the China market.

The box, which begins deployment in Hangzhou Province in August 2006, will enable consumers to enjoy a new three-in-one digital media experience including digital-cable TV, video-on-demand, and web browsing for a wider choice of information services and broadcast programs, informs an official release.

At the heart of Dahua‘s design is a dedicated chip belonging to ST‘s STi7100 family of Advanced Video Codecs (AVC). This system-on-chip (SoC) solution integrates support for advanced high-definition H.264/MPEG4 AVC and MPEG4 P2 standard definition (SD) in addition to MPEG2 encoded video signals. These innovative single-chip HD/SD devices are the industry‘s first to enable the next generation consumer video systems and broadcast services.

The STi7100‘s integration combines all STB functions and multi-standard decoding circuitry onto a single piece of silicon minimizing both design and production costs for STB makers. Produced using ST‘s state-of-the-art 90nm process technology, the STi7100 family devices provides a more cost-optimized HD/SD Cable/IP dual-mode interactive box in a single-chip design, paving the way for support of H.264 HD/SD streams with advanced codecs, the release adds.

Compared with traditional TV delivery, IP set-top boxes provide an exciting interactive experience including VoD (Video on Demand) services that puts the audience in charge of selecting their favorite content according to their preferences, regardless of the program schedule. With Dahua‘s STBs, consumers enjoy a wide variety of services including interactive games, SMS, e-commerce, VoIP, and video phone calls.

“Leveraging its experience in this sector, ST will continue to offer a wide range of products that provide high flexibility, faster time-to-market, low cost, and high-quality solutions to our partners,” says Robert Krysiak, STMicroelectronics‘ Corporate VP and GM for Greater China. “The cooperation with Dahua is the first volume deployment in China of our latest H.264 single chip, which is capable of both MPEG4 and MPEG 2 decoding, and it will further enhance Dahua‘s competitive advantage in the rapidly growing new Cable and IPTV market where Dahua is a leader right now.”

Dahua‘s chairman and GM Zhu Giang Ming says, “ST‘s cost- optimized single-chip solution, which includes a reference design with software kit coupled to their dedicated engineering support, have given us a unique solution and faster time-to-market.”

Dahua is China‘s major volume Cable and IP dual-mode STB provider for operators that provide VoD service for MPEG4 video and audio content. Operators will provide content through deployment of its dual-mode (Cable and IPTV) STBs enabled by the chip from ST.

So far 360 million households boast TV sets in China, where target audiences exceed 1.1 billion, including 114.7 million cable subscribers. The number of customers is also exploding in both broadband and wireless markets, giving China a huge potential market for IPTV. With further extension of its broadband IP network and continuous improvement in communication technology, China is expected to become the largest IPTV market worldwide over the next few years, the release further adds.

BANGALORE: Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and the Government of Andhra Pradesh have renewed their July-2000 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the application of satellite based communication. A Bhaskaranarayana, director, Satellite Communication Programme of Isro and T V Parthasarathi, director, IT and Communication Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh, signed the renewal of MOU in Hyderabad.

Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Dr Y S Rajashekara Reddy and chairman, Isro Dr G Madhavan Nair were present during the signing ceremony.

Under the renewed MOU, which also includes new applications, Andhra Pradesh will use Insat capacity for satellite based communication in the areas of distance education, telemedicine, agricultural extension, self-help groups, etc. While Isro provides the transponder capacity on board its Insat and the technical support, Andhra Pradesh Government operates the satellite communication network for these applications, states an official release.

Soon after the signing of the original MOU in July 2000, experimental transmissions had started in November 2000 from Isro‘s Master Control Facility at Hassan and subsequently, in April 2002, a satellite Hub station was established at Dr B R Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad. Following this, a satellite based “Andhra Pradesh Net” was set up in March 2003. At present, a full-fledged Mana-TV is operational with a state-of-the-art studio. Mana-TV has over 2,000 terminals and has 5 television channels and one data channel catering to the requirements of educational institutions like schools and colleges (including engineering colleges). It is used for both formal and non-formal educational training.

Mana TV is now being upgraded to include more interactive terminals as part of Edusat. In the recent years, under the Edusat programme, an exclusive network has been established connecting top fifty technical institutions/engineering colleges in India under Indo-US cooperation for transmitting lectures by invited US experts delivered from Amrita Viswa Vidyapeetam, Coimbatore. Four of these colleges are located in Andhra Pradesh, the release adds.

In the field of telemedicine, the first pilot project was started in Andhra Pradesh in 2000 connecting Apollo Hospitals at Chennai and Aragonda village and Isro‘s hospital at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, Sriharikota, in Nellore District. The telemedicine network will now be extended to eight more hospitals.

Andhra Pradesh is also one of the foremost in the utilisation of remote sensing technology for management of land and water resources and disaster management. For example, remote sensing technology is used for watershed management in drought prone districts of Adilabad, Ananthapur, Kurnool, Mahaboobnagar, Nizamabad and Ranga Reddy. Management plans for major irrigation projects like Srirama Sagara and Nagarjuna Sagara have been planned using remote sensing data. More than 35,000 bore wells have been drilled using remote sensing data with better than 90 percent success rate.

As part of M S Swaminathan Research Foundation Network, a Village Resource Centre (VRC) has been set up at Adakkal, Moosapet with an Expert Centre located at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). Another 16 locations have been identified for setting up of VRCs to connect the Expert Centre through Byraju Foundation.

Thus, Andhra Pradesh has been extensively using Isro satellites for societal applications and today‘s renewal of MOU reiterates its commitment to extend these applications with Isro‘s help.

MUMBAI: MySpace.com founder Brad Greenspan has announced that he has launched and provided initial funding for BroadWebAsia (BWA), a new company that partners with and powers social networking, entertainment and Internet search properties across Asia.

BWA has already signed agreements to invest in and partner with more than 20 rapidly growing Chinese Internet companies. Combined, these companies have more than 20 million unique visitors and approximately one billion page views per month, with tremendous opportunity for growth, informs an official release.

“The launch of BroadWebAsia will allow me to implement my proven US internet strategy in China, where there are more than 120 million Internet users, making the country second only to the US in terms of online users,” said Greenspan. “With less than 10 percent of the Chinese population online, there is vast potential for growth. By partnering with early leaders and working with local management, we will dramatically increase traffic and revenue potential for our emerging online Chinese partners.”

BWA‘s first portfolio company, BBMAO.com, is the first meta-search engine focused on China. BBMAO was just named one of the 100 “most promising companies in all of Asia” by Red Herring Asia magazine. Greenspan helped the founders of BBMAO strategize and launch the Web site more than nine months ago. Today, BBMAO has over 70,000 unique users a day and is continuing to grow quickly while rolling out new features.

BWA is also seeking to raise up to $50 million dollars for other acquisitions, investments and transactions in the Chinese internet marketplace. Greenspan serves as BWA‘s chairman of the board, the release adds.

Greenspan previously served as founder, CEO, and chairman of eUniverse (later renamed Intermix Media), where he led the creation and launch of MySpace in August 2003. eUniverse owned 100 per cent of MySpace — and Greenspan through his ownership of eUniverse — owned approximately 30 per cent of MySpace, effectively making him the largest historical
individual shareholder of MySpace. At MySpace‘s inception and launch, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson were eUniverse employees that managed MySpace under the direction of Greenspan.

MUMBAI: Worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 229 million units in the second quarter of 2006, a 18.3 per cent increase from the same period last year, according to Gartner Inc. This compared to a 23.8 per cent increase in the first quarter.

Gartner said it had expected the slight slowdown compared to quarter one and that its mobile phone sales forecast is still on track to reach 960 million units in 2006, with 238 million units in the third quarter of 2006.

“While mobile operators in the mature markets of Western Europe and North America struggled to maintain the customer acquisition growth levels seen in previous quarters, but mobile operators in emerging markets continued to sign new customers driving handsets sales,” said Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner, based in Egham.

Leading vendors Nokia and Motorola both grew their market share and accounted for more than half of the worldwide mobile phone sales in the second quarter of 2006.

Nokia maintained its number one position with a 33.6 per cent market share, gaining two per centage points compared to the same period last year. Gartner stated that as Nokia starts to ship more feature-rich phones (such as the N72 and N73) in the third quarter of 2006, it needs to ensure that it can also cater for users who put fashion ahead of functionality and are looking for thin products, states an official release.

“Motorola is the big winner this quarter,” said Milanesi. The company achieved a market share of 21.9 per cent, growing its market share by 4.2 per cent year on year, the highest growth this quarter. Motorola maintained its lead in North America and Latin America and its second position in other markets. With the Morofone, KRZR and RIZR mobile phones due to ship from the third quarter of this year, Gartner said Motorola should be able to continue to gain market share in both emerging and mature markets, informs an official release.

Samsung retained its third position but lost market share compared to the top two players. Sales reached 25.5 million units in the second quarter, approximately half of Motorola’s total sales this quarter. Lower sales in the home market coupled with weaker than expected demand in some key markets in Asia Pacific explained Samsung’s weaker performance. To grow market share in mature markets such as Western Europe and North America, Gartner said Samsung needs to match its high feature set with a more distinctive design.

Sony Ericsson regained the fourth position with sales reaching 15.3 million units. “Sony Ericsson’s bet on music and imaging continued to pay back. 25 per cent of their sales came from the Walkman branded devices and the first Cybershot phone k800 was also well received by consumers,” said Milanesi.

Despite the success of the KG800 Chocolate phone, LG lost 0.4 per cent market share year on year and slipped into fifth place. “Although The Chocolate phone sold very well and helped to increase LG’s brand awareness globally, ‘one swallow does not make summer’. LG needs to bring to market more products from the Black Label series including a 3G offering, to win back and hold the fourth position,” added Milanesi.

MUMBAI: Tegic Communications, a unit of AOL’s wireless division, has launched its XT9 Mobile interface in India. The XT9 Mobile interface integrates popular T9 software for the phone keypad, as well as hard and soft QWERTY keyboard, with handwriting recognition capabilities using a stylus.

By making it simpler to type words and phrases, XT9 makes it easier to enjoy popular content and wireless services such as mobile web browsing, search and messaging, states an official release.

“With mobile and SMS usage growing at such a rapid pace in India, we feel this is the perfect time to add XT9 to our list of available products in such an important market,” says Tegic SVP emerging markets Ray Tsuchiyama.

“By offering XT9 in India, we are furthering our goal of making text input on mobile phones simple and fast, regardless of whether a user is typing text on a keypad or using a stylus to enter words.”

SXT9 Mobile Interface Features Include:

Next Word Prediction: XT9 recognizes words often used in a defined sequence and can suggest the next word the moment a user keys the first word.

Support for Any Input Method: XT9 works for any key layout, including hard and soft keys, and even handwriting. Each of these input modes are able to work together to compose emails, text messages, and more.

Regional Error Correction: XT9 helps ensure a better messaging experience by compensating for users tapping incorrect keys. For example, if a user inadvertently types or writes “m-o-o-b,” XT9 will present “moon” since the “b” is just one key away from the “n,” and the word “moon” is a more likely choice.

Word Order Preference: XT9 is able to predict multiple words of the same key sequence, such as good, home and gone, any of which can be selected by pressing the “next” key. However, if a user texts “home” more often than “good”, XT9 learns quickly and will show “home” as the first option, making it faster for the user to get to the word they are most likely typing. This functionality works for all input modes.

Smart Punctuation and Auto-Accenting: XT9 offers smart punctuation for words such as I‘ll or we‘ll. In order to use punctuation, a user simply has to press “1” and the XT9 software will know where and how to use punctuation. Additionally, XT9 will predict which words require accents and will automatically add them. For instance, if the user inputs “espanol,” XT9 will present “espa?ol”.

User Database: The XT9 user database gives mobile phone users the freedom to add any word to their phone’s language database from any input mode.

Availability:

The XT9 Mobile Interface is now available for manufacturers of mobile and electronic devices to license and integrate into upcoming models. For more information about the XT9 Mobile Interface, visit www.tegic.com

MUMBAI: Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL) has significantly reduced prices for its international bandwidth products – international private leased circuits (IPLC) and internet leased lines (ILL).

IPLC prices in India will be reduced by up to 25 per cent with effect from 1 September. ILL tariffs will also fall by up to 40 per cent. These products are offered in India using VSNL‘s global network that spans over 200,000 route km, connecting 200 countries.

Demand for international connectivity has been rapidly growing with several Indian companies including Tata Group investing overseas and India emerging as a favourite destination for foreign investors. International connectivity is also an important driver for the growth of the fast growing IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) sectors. The market for international and internet bandwidth is expected to expand as the reduced prices will encourage demand from new customer segments like SMEs, smaller ISPs and academic institutions.

VSNL also intends to build two new submarine cable systems, one between India and Europe and the other intra-Asia, in partnership with leading carriers in the respective regions. These multi-terabit capacity systems, incorporating state of the art technologies, would interconnect with VSNL‘s existing global network that has over 20 terabits of capacity. The India-Europe cable would also provide connectivity to the Gulf region and the African continent, and supplement the Company‘s existing bandwidth capacity in several consortium cables in the region. The intra-Asia cable between Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan would enhance the link between the Company‘s Tata Indicom Cable (Chennai – Singapore) and TGN Pacific (Japan – USA). The overall build cost of these two cable systems is expected to be in the region of $600 million.

“VSNL has always taken the lead in growing the internet and international bandwidth market in India. We have invested over Rs 25 billion in expanding our global presence and connectivity in the last 2 years. We have regularly passed on the benefits of improved cost efficiencies and service quality to our customers,” says VSNL executive director N Srinath. “The new cables would enhance VSNL‘s global network in two of the fastest growing regions in the world,” he adds.

IPLCs are point to point, international private circuits, mainly used by large Indian corporates and multinationals to connect to their regional and global locations. Internet Leased Lines are dedicated high speed connections to access the Internet, used by enterprises and small / medium ISPs.

VSNL acquired Tyco Global Network (TGN) last year to own undersea cable bandwidth. Early this year it also acquired Teleglobe to become a large international wholesale voice carrier with about 17 billion minutes of traffic annually.

MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel today announced the signing of an estimated $ 1 billion network expansion contract with Swedish telecommunications equipment manufacturer Ericsson.

The contract will enable Bharti Airtel to rapidly expand its mobile services footprint further and reach out to all towns and cities in 15 telecom circles in the country. The three-year service contract with Ericsson is towards the design, planning, supply and installation commissioning of Airtel networks in these circles.

Ericsson will also upgrade the network with mobile softswitch (Media Gateway and MSC Servers), the solution that paves the way to an all-IP network. Bharti Airtel will be able to reduce the operational costs and introduce new services in a cost-efficient way.

The scope of the agreement extends to 15 Airtel circles of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, UP (West), Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, UP (East), Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East.

Manoj Kohli, president, Bharti Airtel said, “At Bharti, it has been our endeavor to find innovative business models to deliver better customer experience. Our partnership with Ericsson is testament to this belief as it allows us to focus on delivering better customer experience even as we leverage the world class expertise of our partners to roll out our networks across all census towns by March 2007. In addition, we are also sourcing next generation products that will allow us to deliver innovative products & services to our customers.”

This partnership will enable Airtel to channel its resources and expertise to its core areas of product innovation, value added services, marketing, branding & pricing, while simultaneously providing world class mobile services by leveraging Ericsson‘s world class expertise in network management.

“Our partnership with Bharti Airtel resulted in the first managed services contract in the industry. Speed of roll-outs plays an extremely important role in large expansions of this nature. Ericsson has demonstrated expertise in this area. We are honoured and pleased that Bharti Airtel has chosen to partner with us to expand their footprint across India” said Mats Granryd, managing director, Ericsson India.

MUMBAI: Vu, a luxury technology brand which researches, develops and manufactures high-end computers, LCD displays and digital homes has forayed into the Indian market. The company has set base in Mumbai by the promoters of Zenith Computers Ltd.

Based in California, Vu has opened its flagship store in Mumbai at the CR2 Mall, Nariman Point. The store carries Vu branded systems and displays and has the world‘s first ‘Gadget bar‘ that sells the latest in luxury technology within a unique retail experience.

Vu Technologies CEO Devita Saraf said, “We believe that the world of technology can be very exciting and purchasing high-end technology should be retail therapy for the guys. Our products are the outcome of our NPD (New product development) lab – cutting-edge innovation, sleek product design and unparallel customer service. Its an experience unlike any other that you have been previously exposed to – Vu will be a very uncommon offer.”

On the other hand, Vu‘s Digital Home will be a combination of computers, communication and consumer electronics that has been created with a simple user interface and design. This will be priced at Rs 100,000.

Vu also retails LCD displays from 7″ to 47″, skype products, Bluetooth-based products and a range of Apple products. Vu will bring the latest in luxury technologies from across the world to the store, and plans to open 30 stores across India by the December 2007.

BANGALORE: Spice Telecom (Spice) has launched its Kannada Wap portal Kannada Kasturi.com. Times Internet (TIL) supplies content to the portal.

On offer is a collection of polytones, pruetones, singtones, MP3 Tones, videos, animations, wallpapers, videotones and theme downloads in Kannada. Value added services including WAP. IVR, SMS, USSD and MyTunes (CRBT) will also be offered on KK.

Spice CEO Navin Kaul is optimistic about doubling the existing subscriber base of 500,000 in Karnataka in the next 10 months. Spice is present in two circles – Punjab and Karnataka – with an overall subscriber base of 2 million, states an official release. Kaul also revealed Spice‘ Karnataka plan to increase the presence from the current 80 towns and cities to another 150.

On a national scale, Spice proposes to bid for all the circles. Spice has now moved ahead of Tata Indicom in Karnataka, up from the last place to number five with the addition of around 150,000 subscribers over the last 5 to 6 months, claimed Kaul during a discussion with this reporter on the sidelines of the press conference.

TIL Mobile Entertainment business head Neeraj Sharma claims that TIL owns rights to over 50000 picture (wall papers) and sound titles from India and around 10000 from across the world, a major portion of which is English. Times of India Director Sanjiv Sethi claims that TIL owns rights to a major portion – almost one third of the almost 2000-3000 titles of Kannada content.

Plans are afoot to create awareness of KK. Spice Karnataka spends around Rs 180-200 million towards its media campaign. National TV ads have been a recent addition in the Spice campaign. A few moths ago spice roped in Bollywood diva Priyanka Chopra as its brand ambassador. JWT looks after the creative business.

MUMBAI: Samsung India is aiming to achieve a 70 per cent growth in its digital media business this year. The digital media business, which is a new thrust area within the company‘s audio video portfolio, includes products like digital still cameras, digital camcorders, digital audio players (MP3 players) and DVD players.

“We plan to grow our digital media business by launching wow, aspirational products like the NV Series as well as by creating new product segments like the 6-in-1 multifunction camcorders within the digital camcorder segment,” said Samsung India deputy managing director R. Zutshi.

(L to R) Samsung India general manager audio – video business Rajiv Kenue; director sales Pradeep Tognatta; model Kamal Siddhu; deputy managing director R Zutshi at NV -Series digital camera launch

The Samsung ‘NV‘ series in digital still cameras launched today comprises NV10: the world‘s first 10 mega pixel digital still camera (DSC); NV7: slim camera with 7x zoom; and NV3: world‘s first camera with MP3 and stereo speaker in-built functionality.

In addition to the NV Series, Samsung has also launched three more products in the DSC category — Digimax i6: the world‘s first camera with portable media player feature in a digicam; Digimax L-85: the world‘s first HDMI camera and Digimax L60: a six mega pixel camera with MPEG4 VGA recording (30fps movie clip).

With the introduction of the new DSC range, Samsung has 11 DSC models priced in the range between Rs 8,990 and Rs 49,990.

“Our strategy to grow our DSC business is to help the existing analogue consumers to upgrade to Digital Still Cameras on the strength of our aspirational products and attractive pricing. We will also be enhancing our channel presence for this category by tapping both the existing CE Channel as well as strengthening our presence in the photographic channel,” said Samsung India director sales Pradeep Tognatta.

Samsung is targeting a 400 per cent volume growth in its DSC business this year.

Samsung India also announced its foray into the fast growing DVD camcorder category by launching its VP-DC 163i and VP-DC 565wi DVD camcorders with optical zoom.

MS-11, the ultra compact memory player from Samsung represents a new segment within the existing digital camcorder category with its 6-in-1 functionality – webcam, storage, camcorder, digital still camera, MP3 player and voice recording functions.

Samsung India has priced its VP-D363i Digital camcorder model at an introductory price of Rs 17,990. With the introduction of the new digital camcorder range, Samsung has eight digital camcorder models priced in the range between Rs 17,990 to Rs 39,990. Samsung is targeting a 200 per cent growth in its camcorder business this year.

The company is also strengthening its Plasma lineup by launching its Q7 series of Plasma TVs in 106 cm (42″) and 127 cm (50″) screen size segments. These HD ready Plasma TVs are differentiated on account of their FilterBright technology for sharper, deeper and brighter display in any lighting condition; Smooth Motion Driver for clear and smooth image even in fast moving scenes and their 13-bit processing capability for an amazing display of 549 billion colours.

With the launch of these new Plasma models, Samsung now has a lineup of four Plasma models in 42″ (2 models), 50″, and 63″ screen sizes, priced in the range between Rs 99,000 – Rs 700,000.

Samsung India is expecting to grow its audio video business (AV) by 50 per cent in the July – December 2006 period based on its range enhancement in key AV product categories like flat panel TVs and digital media products, enhanced channel presence and awareness creation through Samsung Dream Home Roadshows.

Zutshi added, “Our considerably enhanced sales infrastructure coupled with our new product launches should help us successfully optimize our festival sales in the second half of this year.”