Archive for April, 2010
Nokia Launches 3 Qwerty Mobile Phones in India
Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has launched its range of Qwerty devices, whose keypad is like that of a computer keyboard, starting at Rs 5,300.
It has also launched an improved version of Nokia Messaging with free push mail service.
Nokia Messaging aggregates multiple email accounts through one client. It can support and mobilise up to 10 email accounts such as Gmail, Yahoo, Rediffmail, Sify and Indiatimes among others.
Nokia today launched three devices — C3, priced at Rs 5,317.89 (Euro 90), C6 — a touch and full keyboard phone — at Rs 13,000 (Euro 220), while E5 is priced at Rs 10,634 (Euro 180), a business-cum-entertainment device.
Nokia, which is the market leader in India has been facing competition from home grown mobile manufacturers in the low-end mobile segment.
Players like Micromax and Olive have already launched Qwerty keypad phones with a price tag of Rs 2,000.
However, when asked whether Nokia is responding to the competition with the new launch, the company’s Executive Vice President Anssi Vanjoki said, “It is a strategic option for Nokia. With the new devices we are bringing mobile messaging and social networking into the hands of more people.”
With the free push mail service, Nokia is also trying to tap the mobile email users in India.
“People are looking at messaging services as an enhanced business tool. There are six million mail users on mobile in India. The number is expected to touch 130 million in 2014,” Nokia India Managing Director and Vice President D Shivakumar said.
India is among the top five countries for the service and we are confident that with our decision to offer it free of cost, we will see a significant surge in adoption of email and messaging services in the country, he added.
The service will be available through all leading operators in the country and consumers will only have to pay the basic data download charges.
It has over three million active users in more than 100 countries today.
TCS, Infy, Wipro Hire 20,000 in Q4
IT giants Infosys, TCS and Wipro hired over 20,000 employees in the January-March quarter, with improving business conditions propelling their recruitment plans.
According to human resources experts, IT and IT-enabled services are expected to see a huge jump in hiring this year and major companies in the sector have already set the pace.
The three IT companies put together have made net additions of 20,014 employees (taking into account attrition) in the January-March quarter.
IT giant Infosys hired as many as 9,313 employees in the quarter, but the net addition after taking into account attrition was 3,914, according to the company’s financial statement for the period.
The hiring increased the total workforce of the company and its subsidiaries to 1,13,796 employees at the end of March this year.
Another IT major Tata Consultancy Services took on board a net 10,775 employees in the last quarter of 2009-10 fiscal. TCS’ total employee strength has soared to 1,60,429 at the end of the last fiscal.
The hiring momentum picked up from the third quarter of the last fiscal, when TCS had made 7,692 net additions, compared with just 320 recruitments in the previous quarter.
Besides, Wipro made net additions of 5,325 employees in the Q4 FY10, taking its total strength to 1,08,071.
According to a recent survey by staffing firm TeamLease, Indian companies are increasingly upbeat about their hiring plans across almost all sectors in April-June period this year, led by an improving business outlook.
HR experts predict companies in the IT & ITes sector would hire 1,50,000 professionals in the fiscal year 2011.
Oracle CEO to Sell $1.3 bn Shares
Oracle Corp said Chief Executive Larry Ellison plans to sell $1.32 billion of his stock in the business software giant over the next 10 months.
Ellison will sell as much as 50 million of his Oracle shares starting no earlier than “late June,” following the release of Oracle fiscal year 2010 earnings. Some of these shares may be acquired through the exercise of stock options.
The sales will be executed through what is called a “Rule 10b5-1″ plan, an SEC-registered program for corporate insiders. Oracle said the sales are part of Ellison’s “strategy for asset diversification and liquidity.”
If he completes the sales, Ellison will still own about 1.13 billion shares, or 22.3 percent of Oracle’s outstanding stock. Based on Oracle’s Monday closing price, the 50 million shares are currently worth more than $1.32 billion.
Microsoft Debuts FIX IT Program
Microsoft has launched “Fix It” software that keeps an eye on a PC and automatically repairs common faults.
The software basically adds the automatic diagnostics system in Windows 7 to older versions of Microsoft’s operating system.
The software, currently available as a trial or beta version, is intended for users of Windows XP and Vista.
The package also tries to anticipate how security updates will affect a PC before they are installed.
Once installed, the software gets updates about known issues with Windows or any connected devices, and regularly checks to see if a host machine has fallen victim. Once fixes become available it will tell users they are ready or attempt to apply them.
The software has onboard fixes for about 300 of the most widely encountered problems that stop Windows working as it should.
The software also maintains a list of the hardware and software on a machine so if the automatic fix does not solve a problem, it will be able to help users supply detailed information to Microsoft’s support staff about what has gone wrong.
Those signing up and downloading the Fix It software can use it on several different machines.
The free software can be downloaded from Microsoft’s support pages. Windows XP users wanting to use it must have Service Pack 3 for the operating system installed.
The Fix It service began in late 2008, when Microsoft began using the logo to highlight automatic fixes on its support pages that dealt with very common problems.
Anyone clicking on the logo kicked off a download that tried to fix that problem automatically.
Microsoft, like many other software firms, has built a vast database of faults and problems as technology built into Windows reports back about crashes and other bugs that machines encounter.
Slimmest LED Monitors of the World Now Comes to India
Leading LED monitor brand, BenQ, has launched the world’s three slimmest LED monitors–BenQ V2220, V2420 and V920 LED in India.
“With the launch of the three new V series models spanning HD to full HD, 18.5″ wide to 24″, the company has lined-up 8 models in the India market,” BenQ India’s Vice- President (Sales & Product Management), Rajeev Singh, told reporters here.
“BenQ V series is energy efficient and consumes 44 per cent less energy than other LED monitors,” Singh said.
BenQ V series will be now available pan-India at Rs 8,999 (V920), Rs 14,999 (V2220) and Rs 18,900 for V2420 model.
The company has a marketshare of 10-12 per cent in India in the monitor segment and plans to increase it to 15 per cent with the launch these models by this year-end.
“Our product is very unique and we expect at least 15 per cent market share by end of this year,” he said.
BenQ India, is a part of the BenQ Corporation. The Taiwan-based company offers unrivalled breadth and depth of products and integrated technologies across platforms.