New Jaguar XE sedan to make global
debut in September
The Jaguar XE will use a new grade of high strength aluminium called 'RC 5754', which has been developed specifically for the XE, the company said in a statement.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Samsung Galaxy Star 2 Plus launched at Rs 7,335
NEW DELHI: Samsung has unveiled Galaxy Star 2 Plus smartphone in India, a budget Android 4.4 (KitKat) handset that competes against the likes of Moto E and Micromax Unite 2. Along with Galaxy Star 2 Plus, the South Korean website has also taken the covers off Galaxy Ace NXT smartphone.
Both smartphones have been priced at Rs 7,335 and listed on Samsung's India e-store, but neither is available in the market officially. Galaxy Ace NXT has been available in the market for the past couple of weeks via online retailers like Amazon. On the other hand, Galaxy Star 2 Plus is not available in the market at all currently.
Samsung Galaxy Star 2 Plus has a 4.3-inch screen with 480x800p resolution and runs on a 1.2GHz processor paired with 512MB RAM. The Android 4.4-powered smartphone has Samsung's TouchWiz skin on top and comes with 4GB internal storage and supports microSD cards up to 32GB. The smartphone has a 3MP rear camera, 1,800mAh battery and connectivity features like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
Galaxy Ace NXT has the same specifications and software as Star 2 Plus, but has a 4-inch screen and 1,500mAh battery.
Monday, July 28, 2014
Faired version of Bajaj Discover 150 spotted at dealership
Bajaj plans to leave no stone unturned to become the top seller in the Indian motorcycle market. The latest product to join Bajaj’s Discover family is a semi-faired version of company’s commuter motorcycle, the Discover 150F.
But is the Discover 150F just another Discover with more plastic?
In terms of looks, yes, it is the same commuter motorcycle, with addition of a small fairing. However, the engine has been replaced by a newly developed 150cc 4-stroke 4-valve unit. The company has remained silent about the power figures but expect it to be a tad lower than that of the Pulsar 150. The Discover 150F will get a five-speed gearbox.
Other features include front disc brake, MRF Nylogrip Zapper tyres and a monoshock suspension setup at the back.
What motorcycles is it likely to compete against?
Nothing really. I mean you can say Honda Stunner or Hero Ignitor but then both those motorcycles fall in the 125cc engine displacement segment and are better looking as well. The Discover 150F on the other hand feels like just another product which has been introduced for the sake of variety. A sportier rear end and split seats would have made huge difference.
So who is the target audience?Well, the Bajaj Discover 150F is mainly targeted to younger audience base who like sporty motorcycles with lower running costs. But we really doubt that the Discover 150F would succeed to attract the young crowd as much sportier and appealing motorcycles like the Honda Stunner and Hero Ignitor being present in the market.
The Discover 150F has already started reaching the dealerships for display. With the festive season just around the corner, we expect Bajaj to start the bookings soon. The Discover 150F is likely to be priced between Rs 60,000-65,000 range.So would you invest your money on this new Discover? Share your opinions through comments below. Stay tuned into Motoroids for all the dope from the world of auto.
Google’s Nexus saga continues: Motorola’s 5.9-inch ‘Shamu’ tipped to be Nexus 6
While we were made to believe that Google plans to pull the plug on its celebrated Nexus lineup in favour of the new Android Silver series, several reports circulating the web have been suggesting otherwise. In this conundrum over whether Nexus will survive or not and who is building the next device, a new report now talks about the next Nexus smartphone and that it could be built by Motorola.
A new report by AndroidPolice says that Motorola is working on a new smartphone codenamed Shamu, hinting it could probably be the upcoming Nexus 6. “We are confident that Shamu is a real device under active development, and fairly confident that it is a contender for the Nexus program, but are just slightly less confident about its specs, simply due to the information at our disposal,” says the report.
Just like most of the earlier reports that lacked conviction, the new Motorola built Nexus 6 appears to on similar lines, at least for now. It is rumoured to sport a large 5.9-inch display and run Android L. Expected to launch in November, no other specs of the device are known yet.
Apple is planning a large 5.5-inch variant for the iPhone and given the existing fad for giant screen devices in the market, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a large Nexus 6 phone. However, a 5.9-inch display appears far too large, even in this current market situation. After all, none of the 2014 flagships have exceeded 5.5 inches for display size. For now, let’s take this news with a pinch of salt.
A tweet from Google’s official handle had sparked some rumour around the Nexus 6 last month. The tweet was intended to show off the new ingredients feature in Google Search, and the UI was rendered on an all new device, which was highly speculated to be the Nexus 6. Now, if you remember, Nexus 5 was first spotted in a promotional video last year.
Earlier this year, rumours around Google’s premium lineup known as Android Silver spread like wildfire. It was speculated that Silver would replace Nexus. Moreover, at the Google I/O, the company spoke about Android One for the budget segment. So, obviously, it led to speculation that the budget ‘Droids would fall under the One segment while the expensive, premium lineup of device will be branded Android Silver, with Nexus killed off.
But just then there were reports about HTC ‘s Nexus tablet. A 9-inch Nexus tablet codenamed Volantis popped up. We got more evidence that the Nexus programme is not going anywhere, from the company itself. Google’s Dave Burke, the head of Android engineering and the Nexus programme had disclosed the company plans to keep building Nexus phones. “We are still invested in Nexus. People have been commenting about Nexus because there is something else and they think that means the end of Nexus. That is the totally wrong conclusion to make,” he said.
Whether the Nexus programme survives the cut or not, we are surely in for some new hardware, as Google prepares to release Android’s L version in the fall.
Mercedes-Benz India sales up 25% in first half
The flagship S-Class sedan, the ML-Class SUV and the NGC (new generation cars) portfolio pushed the growth
New Delhi: German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz on Monday reported a 25% growth in its India sales for the first half of 2014 at 4,717 units.
The flagship S-Class sedan, the ML-Class SUV (sports utility vehicle) and the NGC (new generation cars) portfolio, which comprises the A-Class and B-Class, contributed significantly to this growth, the company said in a statement.
Mercedes-Benz India managing director and chief executive officer Eberhard Kern said: “The first six months of sales growth reaffirms Mercedes-Benz India’s strong brand premium and competitive edge in terms of offering continuous product innovations...a benchmark production facility, extending an enriching after-sales experience and strengthening its qualitative network presence.”
“With some of the most fascinating products lined up in the remaining two quarters, including the much awaited GLA-Class, Mercedes-Benz is all set for another year of strong growth,” he added.
The company said that while the C-Class and the E-Class luxury sedans remain top sellers, the AMGs range continues to grow in the performance segment it created.
Chinese smartphone OnePlus One to hit Indian market soon
Zee Media Bureau/Vibhuti Jaitly
New Delhi: Chinese smartphone brand OnePlus is set to enter the booming Indian mobile market. There are already many Chinese brands such as Xiaom, Lenovo, ZTE, Gionee, Oppo and few others, that are eyeing the growing Indian handset market and have been received quite well by the people.
OnePlus will launch its smartphone in India but the company hasn't revealed the price and date yet. Rumour has it that the phone will come at a competitive price tag. The smartphone is already retailing in the US where it is priced at $299 for 16GB and $349 for 64GB.
In India, the 16GB smartphone, when launched, could be priced under Rs 20,000 which would put it directly against the Xiaomi Mi 3. Considering there are no 64GB Android phones in the Indian market, the consumers can only expect the 16GB model that will hit the Indian stores.
The smartphone sports a big 5.5-inch LTPS IPS display having Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera that offers a shutter speed of 0.3-seconds and a 5-megapixel front camera.
The phone has the latest Android 4.4 KitKat software. The phone is powered by the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 clocked at 2.5GHz with Adreno 330 GPU.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Xiaomi, China's 'Apple-like' smartphone maker, to take on Samsung & Micromax in India
Innovation distinguishes a leader from a follower — Steve JobsOn Tuesday, around the time some 100,000 pre-registered Indian consumers were going berserk trying to get their orders through for Xiaomi's Mi 3 platform on e-commerce local heavyweight Flipkart's website, the Chinese budget handset maker was living up to its image of the Apple of the East back in Beijing.
A plush event to launch the flagship smartphone Mi 4 at which founder, chairman and CEO Jun Lei was clad like the late Steve Jobs, in the iconic black top and blue jeans, had many things common with an Apple launch gig — including the celebrated 'one more thing...' slide that the Cupertino, Californi
a-headquartered cult handset maker has been accustomed to unveiling in the run up to a product launch.The reliance on Apple imagery pretty much ended there, though. Especially when Jun didn't leave anyone guessing as to who he was targeting with the Mi 4 (pronounced as me 4) launch. "Our product really is better than the iPhone," Reuters quoted Jun as saying. "Even our white colour [phone] is whiter," he joked.If that wasn't enough, vice-president Hugo Barra, Xiaomi's prize catch from Google who heads its global business and is leading the charge into emerging markets, let on that he was "sick and tired" of the Chinese handset maker (pronounced as Shao-mee) being labelled an Apple copycat. The Mi 4 (16 GB) is priced at $320 in China, against $854 for the iPhone 5s which debuted there early this year.
The Apple halo certainly works — especially when the promise is an iPhone-like product at much less than half the price. Some 10,000 Indian consumers who succeeded in wrapping their hands around the Mi 3 earlier this week certainly felt it was worth the wait — and the money. (The Mi 4's base model is more expensive than the Mi 3 by roughly Rs 5,500, has a superior camera, higher RAM and a better processor and screen resolution.)
Priced at just under Rs 14,000 and loaded with top-end features that rivals are offering at over three times that price, the frenzied demand for the Mi 3 with its Apple-like interface led the to the Flipkart website (capable of handling 3 million customers daily) crashing.Twitter was abuzz. Newspapers headlined the event (the online sale binge and the website crash) and buyers talked about it. "I was lucky I got it. At that price, it is a great product," says Chander Sharma, 38, a Delhi-based private sector executive."We are super-excited," says Manu Jain, Xiaomi India head. Adds Michael Adnani, vice-president, retail, Flipkart: "We are working with Xiaomi to ensure that the purchase experience lives up to our promise."Creating A BuzzThe hype and buzz sit nicely on Xiaomi, a four-year-old Chinese company that has seen a meteoric rise and is now hailed as the world's fastest growing handset vendor. Valued at over $10 billion, it is already the sixth largest smartphone vendor globally. And it harbours big ambitions — to sell 68 million handsets in 2014 and 100 million in 2015. In 2013 it sold 18.7 million. Business Insider calls it the next Samsung.A few days ago, Samsung reported disappointing earnings and shrinking margins globally for the second quarter of 2014, partly due to competitors like Xiaomi. In a price-sensitive market like India, experts expect the leaders — volume players like Samsung and desi brand Micromax — to get hit the most by Xiaomi's India thrust. If Apple is in Xiaomi's cross hairs in China — where in 2013, it overtook the iPhone maker — in emerging markets like India where the American handset maker has still to make an all-out assault, the Mi 3 maker hopes to get a head start on the real McCoy.The strategy is clear-cut: package the product like Apple, offer high-end features to rival not just Apple but other high-end smartphones on memory, storage, battery et al — and, best of all, price the product at audacious levels.Xiaomi's calling card clearly is that "we'll give you an Apple-like phone at a fraction of the price".From product design to packaging, Xiaomi has copied Apple's playbook page by page. Like Apple, its zany marketing ploys — online-only retail and word-of-mouth no-advertising strategy — stand out.If Apple's strategy is to build an exclusive premium product, price it high and build an entire ecosystem, like iTunes, around it to keep customers hooked, Xiaomi too wants to do most of that — expect that it wants to be unabashedly mass market. If Apple's strategy is to build an exclusive premium product, price it high and build an entire ecosystem, like iTunes, around it to keep customers hooked, Xiaomi too wants to do most of that — expect that it wants to be unabashedly mass market. Xiaomi wants to combine quality with quantity, operate on wafer-thin margins, use consumer feedback to constantly upgrade its product and offer an array of apps and services around its products to keep customers hooked. Like, as Jun suggested, the Amazon Kindle which is priced at near cost and monetizes with volumes and other services and products it sells. China, the world's most efficient factory, wants to move up the value chain. Its government is pushing its companies to think brand and innovation, so far scarce in China.China, the world's most efficient factory, wants to move up the value chain. Its government is pushing its companies to think brand and innovation, so far scarce in China. From automobiles to consumer electronics, companies like Geely (which audaciously acquired Volvo of Sweden) and Lenovo (which bought IBM's desktop and server business) are snapping up established global brands to play the brand game. Xiaomi is perhaps the purest homegrown effort in that direction.From automobiles to consumer electronics, companies like Geely (which audaciously acquired Volvo of Sweden) and Lenovo (which bought IBM's desktop and server business) are snapping up established global brands to play the brand game. Xiaomi is perhaps the purest homegrown effort in that direction.
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