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Tag: apps

  • Ram-Leela to sell offline apps at retail stores

    Ram-Leela to sell offline apps at retail stores

    MUMBAI: After Shotformat’s recently launched offline app store – Biscoot Aap Bazaar, Ram-Leela has become the first movie in the country to sell apps at the retail stores (Biscoot retail stores).

     

    Biscoot Aap Bazaar stocks movies, music, apps and games that will now be available at retail stores across India.

     

    Through Shotformats, one can watch Ram-Leela’s songs, video clips and the full-length movie right to consumers’ mobile screens through retails stores. Not only this, forthcoming films like R Rajkumar and Bullet Raja will also soon reach the 400 Biscoot retail outlets across Mumbai and 10, 000 retail outlets across India in a very short span after their launch.

     

    Through this offline app store, people can access games, apps, music and latest legal, HD quality and superior sound movies in just a few weeks of the release for dirt cheap prices between Rs 5 to Rs 30. The Biscoot stores are a chain of already existing retail stores selling mobile recharge, accessories etc. The stores will also soon make available digital music cassettes of movies for mobile on the day of the music release. This new distribution chain of entertainment content will also add an additional revenue stream for the entertainment industry.

  • Microsofts Xbox One aimed at greater linkage between PC and live TV

    Microsofts Xbox One aimed at greater linkage between PC and live TV

    NEW DELHI: Microsoft has created an extensive video walkthrough of the Xbox One dashboard, taking one through the general UI and how to access video games, apps and the new integration with live TV.

    The 12-minute tour by Microsoft’s Marc Whitten and Yusuf Mehdi is a thorough and accurate representation of the general Xbox One user experience. The pair show what is available on the Home tab, as well as how to save favourite content in the Pins area over on the left-hand edge.

    Visually, it does not look too different from the Xbox 360 but the customisation option and personalisation offered by the Xbox One appears impressive, says thewebnext.com. The dashboard will change automatically depending on who is signed in; the updated Kinect will identify who is in the room and then adjust the on-screen tiles and pins accordingly.

    It does not matter which console is being used as all preferences will carry over as soon as one logs in with an Xbox Live account. If multiple players are logged-in simultaneously, one can also switch between custom dashboards using the phrase: “Show my stuff”.

    App switching also looks snappy and responsive. Whitten calls out a series of oral commands to alternate between Hulu, Netflix, Internet Explorer and live TV, and the Xbox One appears to handle it all with only a minimal amount of lag.

    The video walkthrough also shows how notifications will be presented over live TV. One can be completely removed from the dashboard experience, but the Xbox One will give an alert whenever Skype or multiplayer requests come through on the system.

    Most of the focus and media coverage around the Xbox One has concerned its launch line-up, hardware specs and controversial DRM policies (all of which have now been reversed). As Microsoft ventures further into the casual market however, it’s increasingly important that the Xbox One offers an accessible, stress-free user experience. If owners are frustrated or confused by the new dashboard, the chances of them using their Xbox One as the default input for all of their games, streaming and live TV will be nil.

  • FICCI – MEBC 2013 to kick off on 29 October at Bengaluru

    FICCI – MEBC 2013 to kick off on 29 October at Bengaluru

    BENGALURU: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) annual Media and Entertainment Business Conclave (MEBC) will be held at the Garden City this year on 29 and 30 October. Previous editions of the conclave have been held in Chennai and Hyderabad.

     

    Some of the key sessions of MEBC 2013 include (1) Formulating and Implementing a viable Media and Entertainment policy for a State: The panel comprising of state government representatives and industry stake holders will discuss various scopes to develop infrastructure, local skills, technology and explore possibilities on how to develop the media & entertainment eco system for a State.

     

     (2) Emerging Technologies and the impact on Indian Cinema? The Indian film industry enters its next phase of production and distribution where digital technologies are taking very important roles. In this session we bring in experts from the field of creative industry and technology to understand what the future lies for Indian cinema.

     

    (3) The Broadcasting Ecosystem in the Digital Era: What are the experts thinking after the implementation of Digitization of Cable TV in India? In the era of convergence with integrated Apps, Broadband, wireless, VOD, pay TV and Multiplatform distribution how will the ecosystem look like. Let’s discuss.  

     

    (4) Session on Visual Effects (5) Emerging Trends of Indian IP in Animation & its exploitation (6) The War for News: Defining No. 1 in The Dizzying Newscape: Are there any winners in the plethora of news be it TV or Print, despite the TAM, NRS/IRS figures? Is it all the same content packaged in different formats which finally just confuses the viewer? What are our news media’s aiming for – Ratings or Pure Journalism? Can we learn anything from the international newsgathering model in content and standards?

     

    (7)  Reshaping Mobile entertainment in the era of Digital Revolution:  A session on display of the upcoming latest Apps in Mobile Entertainment, the transformation from 3G to 4G redefining mobile entertainment (8) Changing Trends in Regional TV: Ratings, Content, Formats: Regional TV programming are constantly evolving in terms of contents and formats keeping in mind the audience tastes and the cut throat competition with national televisions channels. In this session let’s listen to the stalwarts giving their perspectives from GEC to news following a peek into the state of the much-debated ratings systems.  

     

    (8) Marketing & Distribution of films in Multiplatform Ecosystem (9) Making movie through Crowd funding – The case study of Lucia:  A case study on the Kannada Film Lucia will be conducted by Film Director Pawan Kumar. Lucia is the first crowd funded film in India. The case study will emphasise on how best new script and ideas can receive funds through social networking sites without depending on producers for fund (11) The Emerging Gaming Industry in southern India.

    Among the speakers  at the concvlave include Kamal Haasan, Chairman, Media & Entertainment Business Conclave, FICCI; Biren Ghose , Convener  MEBC & President ABAI & Country Head- Technicolor India; Srivatsa Krishna , Secretary , Department of IT , Bt and S&T , Govt. Of Karnataka;  Kumud Srinivasan , President , Intel India; Ashish Kulkarni ,Co  Chairman , FICCI AVGC Forum & CEO, Big Animation; Neeraj Roy , CEO , Hungama Digital Media;  Anup Chandrashekar , Business Head , Asianet & Star Suvarna ; Shruthi Naidu , Director TV serials; LV Krishnan , CEO , TAM India; Jawhar Sircar, CEO, Prasar Bharti; Preet Dhupar, COO India , BBC World News; Ravi Hegde , Group Editor, Udayvani among others
     

  • Grand Theft Auto V tops $800 million first day

    Grand Theft Auto V tops $800 million first day

    MUMBAI: It had been over five years since the last Grand Theft Auto game hit store shelves, and all that pent-up demand did wonders for sales of the franchise’s fifth installment, which went on sale Tuesday.

    Take-Two Interactive Software announced Wednesday that the first day of “Grand Theft Auto V” sales topped $800 million worldwide (excluding Japan and Brazil, where the launch is still expected).

    At about $60 a pop, that translates to more than 13 million units. It is the highest first-day retail sales in the company’s history and the GTA series, which had sold 125 million units before this release.

    The revenue numbers also make GTAV the biggest video game launch ever, exceeding the record set last November by Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which hit $500 million in its first 24 hours and a record $1 billion its first 15 days.

    The question is whether GTAV will be able to maintain its momentum over the next two weeks and beat Activision with its consistently record-setting game. Then next up whether Activision’s next massive release, “Call of Duty: Ghosts,” can match $800 million its first day.

    GTAV’s setting this record speaks of three major trends in the video game industry, which has otherwise been struggling with massive sales declines as consumers shift their spending to digital add-ons, and free or cheap apps.

    First, big brands rule. During the past few years, consumers have bought fewer games, but they’re continuing to spend big on established titles.

    Second, digital content makes games more appealing. GTAV has more digital add-ons than ever, and that makes it a better value proposition to the consumer.

    And third, while people have held off on buying new consoles, with the next Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation coming this fall, every year the user base with consoles grows and enables a bigger game launch.

  • Apple makes iWork apps free, but only available on new iPhone 5S or 5C

    MUMBAI: Apple didn‘t only announce new iPhones at its press conference. The company also revealed that the apps in the iWork suite – Pages, Numbers, Keynote-plus iMovie and iPhoto – will now come free with new iOS devices. These productivity and creations apps usually cost $5- $10 each. By making them free, Apple is once again emphasizing that iOS isn‘t just for content consumption, but also content creation.

     

    Of the group, only iMovie and Numbers have a solid four-star rating on the App Store for the current versions. Pages and Keynote only rate at 3.5 stars, among iOS users. iPhoto has a rating of 2.5 stars for the current version. And though Apple added collaboration features with iWork for iCloud, there are many areas in which Google Docs is still better.

    Still, by making the iWork suite and other content creation apps free for new users Apple increases the chance that customers won‘t download third party apps and just stick with Apple‘s offerings, similar to the way many do on the Mac.

     

    This deal appears to be for those with newly purchased iOS devices only. At setup, new device owners will get a screen offering the option to download the apps for free. Existing customers can keep on paying $10 or $5.

     

    Currently, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iMovie, and iPhoto are all still showing in the app store with their original pricing … on the old devices.

     

    For those unfamiliar with the suite, Pages is the iWork word processor, Numbers is for spreadsheets, and Keynote is the presentation maker. All of them work with their Mac equivalent programs and Microsoft Office. Beyond that, the supported file formats are very limited. It‘s possible to create and edit rich content in all three, but the apps can‘t do much of anything beyond pretty basic editing functions.

     

    iMovie and iPhoto are for editing and organising movies and pictures, respectively. Both are basic when compared to their Mac equivalents (no surprise since they‘re made to work on phones and tablets). They each provide ways to share and enhance media that are easy and accessible.

  • PK Online launches Hello1.in

    PK Online launches Hello1.in

    MUMBAI: Digital media company PK Online has launched Hello1.in, a content distribution product. The product which is accessible on multiple devices like feature phones, smart phones, PC and smart TV, currently features Live TV, Movies, Music, Apps, and Games. The portal in future will include eBooks and magazines.

    Hello1.in currently supports both, pay per use/download and subscription based services. This service is on self developed content delivery platform. PK online earlier has also been behind many successful content distribution products like Hello TV and also runs Adchakra which is a cross channel ad network.

    PK‘s ad network business complements this initiative by acting as the audience acquisition engine for the service. Their current content partner include leading players like Zee, Universal, UTV, Reliance and Times Music and is looking at adding more Indian and international partners. The real time and transparent revenue reporting feature enables content partners to stay updated on the performance of their catalog.

    Hello1‘s monetisation strategy is based on operator distribution and direct to consumer model. It is currently integrated with leading operators like Vodafone, MTNL and Idea as an off deck service and is open to license the platform to content owners who want to set up their own digital destination.

    The company is also looking to capture audiences using the social platform. Keeping this in mind, Hello 1 has its presence even on Facebook and users can directly register on Hello1‘s FB application http://goo.gl/V4okL.

    Other than this the company also plans tie ups with all leading ISPs, MSOs and Mobile operators to offer consumers to pay through operator accounts in coming months. The other important features about this new media innovation is that it is a one stop destination for all types of digital content with a single account and subscription for all devices, a digital cloud based Vault for re-downloads, an automatic device adaptation for seamless rendering across 7000 feature phone models and it is a native app for Android and iOS.

    Commenting on their latest project, PK Online co-founder and VP Cauvery Adiga said, ‘We are trying to bring all our learning in one comprehensive product which provides a good user experience and ease of payment to end users. Hello1.in aims to be the choice of destination for ‘legal and paid‘ consumption of digital content by enabling micro-transaction for Indian market.”

  • Smartphone sales surge; Smartphone apps score over tablets

    Smartphone sales surge; Smartphone apps score over tablets

    MUMBAI: Here‘s some food for thought. Even as Nokia is betting on its 1O5 $20 phone to ramp up its sales worldwide, IDC last week reported that sales of smartphones in Q1, raced ahead of sales of simple or feature phones for the first time in mobile phone history.

    According to market research firm, International Data Corp (IDC), vendors shipped a total of 418.6 million mobile phones in Q1 compared to 402.4 million units in the first quarter of 2012 and 483.2 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012.

    In the worldwide smartphone market, vendors shipped 216.2 million units in Q1 2013, which marked the first time more than half (51.6 per cent) the total phone shipments in a quarter were smartphones. The market grew 41.6 per cent compared to the 152.7 million units shipped in Q1 2012, but 5.1 per cent lower than the 227.8 million units shipped in Q2 2012.
     

    The big trend in Q1 is the emergence of Chinese companies in the Top five smartphone vendors list. Huawei and ZTE hawked 9.9 million units and 9.1 million units each in Q1 2013.

    Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, 2013 Q1 (Units in Millions)

    Vendor

    Q1 2013 Unit Shipments

    Q1 2013 Market Share

    Q1 2012 Unit Shipments

    Q1 2012 Market Share

    Year-over-year Change

    Samsung

    70.7

    32.7%

    44.0

    28.8%

    60.7%

    Apple

    37.4

    17.3%

    35.1

    23.0%

    6.6%

    LG

    10.3

    4.8%

    4.9

    3.2%

    110.2%

    Huawei

    9.9

    4.6%

    5.1

    3.3%

    94.1%

    ZTE

    9.1

    4.2%

    6.1

    4.0%

    49.2%

    Others

    78.8

    36.4%

    57.5

    37.7%

    37.0%

    Total

    216.2

    100.0%

    152.7

    100.0%

    41.6%

    If one looks at the chart above, Samsung sold more smart handsets than the rest of the four in the top 5 combined.

    Samsung‘s reign in the top five overall mobile phone shipment chart got stronger in Q1 with its share of shipments rising to 27.5 per cent. Nokia, however, saw its share dropping a quarter to fall to 14.8 per cent. Apple too reported single digit growth rates during Q1.

     

    Top Five Total Mobile Phone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, 2013 Q1 (Units in Millions)

    Vendor

    Q1 2013 Unit Shipments

    Q1 2013 Market Share

    Q1 2012 Unit Shipments

    Q1 2012 Market Share

    Year-over-year Change

    Samsung

    115.0

    27.5%

    93.6

    23.3%

    22.9%

    Nokia

    61.9

    14.8%

    82.7

    20.6%

    -25.1%

    Apple

    37.4

    8.9%

    35.1

    8.7%

    6.6%

    LG

    15.4

    3.7%

    13.7

    3.4%

    12.4%

    ZTE

    13.5

    3.2%

    16.2

    4.0%

    -16.5%

    Others

    175.4

    41.9%

    161.1

    40.0%

    8.9%

    Total

    418.6

    100.0%

    402.4

    100.0%

    4.0%
     

    What does the surge in sales mean for those of us in entertainment? Clearly, that mobile phone users are seeking more and more out of their handsets. They have simply moved beyond being just devices to be used as a long-distance talking tool.

    Kantar Media‘s latest proprietary TGI Clickstream study, with data collated from October 2011 to September 2012, has revealed that the smartphone is the device that consumers prefer as their pocket companion, even though tablets sales have been climbing crazily worldwide .Says Kantar Media‘s TGI International head Geoff Wicked: “There‘s no denying that more and more people are purchasing tablets for both business and personal use, but the fact remains that there are a billion smartphones on the planet, and tablet sales are still in their millions. While tablets will continue to become both more accessible and more sophisticated, the smartphone is still considered the all-round communications device that stays with a user for nearly 24 hours a day.”

    Kantar Media has been running a showcase theatre session at the Festival of Media Global, which is ending today Montreux, Switzerland.

    According to the Kantar Media study, social networking is the most popular type of smartphone app, with 37 per cent of smartphone web users surveyed saying they had downloaded a social networking app in the past twelve months. While this was the second most popular kind of tablet app, just half that amount (18 per cent) of tablet web users surveyed had downloaded a social networking app in the past twelve months.

    The biggest gap was evident across health and diet apps, which were downloaded by 11 per cent of smartphone web users but just 3 per cent of tablet web users – a difference of more than triple. The smallest gap was for property apps – downloaded by 4 per cent of smartphone web users and 3 per cent of tablet web users.

    Music, the fourth most popular type of app across users of both devices, was downloaded by more than double the amount of smartphone web users compared with tablet web users (25 per cent vs 11 per cent). Obviously, who wants to carry a clunky tablet with her when she is jogging around Central Park in New York or taking a walk in Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi. Similar results were revealed for mapping apps, which are the fifth most popular across both user types, but are downloaded by 22 per cent of smartphone web users compared with 11 per cent of tablet users.

    Mobile apps downloaded October 2011 to September 2012 (% of smartphone web users)

    Tablet apps downloaded October 2011 to September 2012 (% of tablet web users)

    Social networking – 37%

    Entertainment (games, digital books etc) – 19%

    Entertainment (games, digital books etc) – 32%

    Social networking – 18%

    Music – 25%

    News/weather – 15%

    News/weather – 27%

    Music – 11%

    Maps – 22%

    Maps – 11%

    Shopping – 18%

    Shopping – 10%

    Lifestyle – 11%

    Lifestyle – 8%

    Health and diet – 11%

    Sports – 7%

    Sports – 18%

    Health and diet – 3%

    Property – 4%

    Property – 3%

    Other practical apps – 20%

    Other practical apps – 10%

    Other – 12%

    Other – 4%
  • Disney UTV launches four freemium apps

    Disney UTV launches four freemium apps

    MUMBAI: Disney UTV Digital, the digital media arm of Disney UTV, has launched four freemium apps UTV, Disney, Comedy and Devotional, for Indian mobile subscribers. Nokia Asha series has pre-embedded the UTV App on more than 2.5 million devices.

    Content in the UTV app includes movie trailers, full length movies (Bollywood and Regional), Bollywood gossip and more. The Disney App includes short form content featuring Mickey and Friends, other Disney classics such as Big Bad Wolf and Santa‘s Workshop and celebrated Pixar short form animation such as Reds Dream and Adventures of Andre and Wally B.

    The Comedy App gives users access to humorous videos like MENtals, Baba Aur Baby, Chickipedia and more. The Devotional App includes stories of Indian deities like Maa Durga, Sai Baba, Sri Krishna, and it includes the mythological epic Ramayana as well.

    These apps, which feature the breadth and depth of Disney UTV‘s content across movies, television, Hollywood and English content along with aggregated content, have already crossed the 15 million download mark in their test phase itself. The apps provide a superior streaming experience for users, even on low-bandwidth GPRS networks.

    The apps support monetisation via both ads as well as paid subscriptions enabled through Digital Disney UTV‘s mobile operator billing platform. This allows regular mobile users to access both ad-supported content as well as premium content within the same app, through a seamless one-click transaction via their mobile operator.

    Disney UTV director, celebrity and video Sameer Pitalwalla said, “Feature phones are currently the dominant data consumption devices in India. While we have a robust smartphone strategy, we wanted to provide feature phone users with an excellent video experience. We combined our great catalogue with best in breed technology and have seen both download and engagement numbers catching fire. 15 million downloads, 1.5 million active users, terabytes in streaming and millions of ad impressions prove the power of our content and experience.”

    Nokia India director developer experience Gerard Rego said, “Engagement and innovation have emerged as one of the top deciding factors in the mobile phone industry with more and more youth accessing Apps that enhance their user experience. Our association with Disney UTV has been extremely successful and, together, we continue to add value to our consumers by offering superior on-the-go video streaming. The availability of Disney UTV Digital‘s new Freemium Apps is a great milestone as users can enjoy their favourite content through fast and seamless video streaming on their Nokia Asha devices.”