Korean mobile phone major Samsung Electronics has commissioned new facilities at its Noida manufacturing plant through which it plans to produce Android and Bada operating system phones in India by the year end.

Ranjit Yadav, country head, mobile and IT business, Samsung India, said during an event in Delhi, “Samsung’s Noida facility is currently manufacturing multimedia, Dual-SIM and touchscreen phones and by year we will start producing Android and Bada handsets also.”

As a result of this development, mobile customers in India can expect a 4 per cent reduction Samsung smartphone prices when mass manufacturing starts in the country. In the current scenario when handset players import handsets from other countries they pay import duty of 4 per cent, which a company can pass on to customers if they start mass production in India.

Yadav didn’t reveal the names of smartphones that Samsung will be manufacturing in India but we expect some of the smartphones from Samsung Galaxy S to be manufactured here because of the appeal this device has in India.

In the same event J S Shin, president and chief executive officer for South West Asia at Samsung, said, “India is one of the top three mobile markets for Samsung in the world and we stand committed to this market and Indian consumers.”

He added, “We are working on consistently strengthening our presence in the country through a very innovative mobile portfolio; as well as enhance manufacturing, operations, research and development.”

By introducing Virtual Reservation Message (VRM) Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has taken a big step toward ridding train travelers of the hassles of carrying a print out of the Electronic Reservation Slip (ERS) while traveling by train.

As opposed to the earlier requirement of a print out of the electronic reservation slip or ERS, train travelers now can also show the ERS on their internet enabled devices like tablets, smartphones, mobile phones and even laptops.

A VRM will only be considered valid when it accompanies a valid identity card issued by a government body and the passenger’s details match with the reservation chart.

Currently, passengers who don’t have a physical ticket have to pay a fine of Rs 50.

The crown of the thinnest smartphone of the world goes to iPhone 4, and not to the Samsung Galaxy S2. The ruling has come from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of the UK.

Apple was first to claim its iPhone 4 as the slimmest smartphone of the world, but was challenged by Samsung which said that its Galaxy S2 is even thinner.

When users go into the detail, the dispute seems to be all about the technicalities. For example, the Samsung phone stands at 8.71 mm at its thinnest point which is thinner than the uniform thickness of 9.3 mm of the iPhone 4.

However, Apple pointed out that the Galaxy S II had prominent bulges at the top of the device, where the cameras lens was, and at the bottom. “Galaxy S II had peaks and valleys to its design; the thickness ranged from 8.71 mm to 9.91 mm,” Apple had told the authorities.

The ASA decided to go along with the Apple argument by taking the thickest points of both the phones in the account. The thickest point of iPhone 4 was thinner than the thickest point of Samsung Galaxy S2.

The ASA ruling said, “We noted that the iPhone 4 had a uniform depth of 9.3 mm. We noted that the complainant objected that this was misleading because he believed the Samsung Galaxy S II was thinner. Whilst we noted that the Samsung product had thinner points, we considered that Apple’s methodology for making the thinnest claim was reasonable. We considered that consumers would be less interested in whether certain points of a product were thin, if bulges in the product made its overall thickness greater.”

Qualcomm will come out with 2.5 GHz Snapdragon processors, which will be two times more powerful than the current market leading processors, by early next year. So users can expect powerful smartphones next year. The announcement came at an event held in Istanbul and was reported by Pocket-Lint.

Currently, the Qualcomm processors are used in handsets made by HTC to BlackBerry as well as other renowned manufacturers. Commenting on the upcoming processors, the Qualcomm chief executive officer, Paul Jacobs said, “It’s not about how many cores or how many gigabytes, it’s how well you can optimise the system.”

The new Snapdragon processors will come in various forms including single, dual and quad-core and all of them will be two times more powerful than the current market leading processors. The Snapdragon chips will come with Adreno graphics processing unit and will support 3D, 1080 pixels and of course LTE.

Notably, Qualcomm’s rival Nvidia is also coming out with a new quad core processor, named Kal El. So one thing is for sure, the future smartphones and tablets will be better than present day laptops in terms of mobile computing power.

Nokia today announced the launch of two budget mobile phones in India. The Nokia 101 is a dual SIM music phone while Nokia 100 has slot for a SIM card.

Nokia 101

With its dual SIM capability, the phone makes it convenient for consumers to access calls and texts over two different networks. Additionally, consumers can stay entertained with the integrated MP3 player, FM radio, a 103 phon loudspeaker and carry their entire music collection in the 16 GB expandable memory.

The Nokia SIM manager allows users to select which SIM card to use to make a call or send a text message while helping them manage costs and maintain Network coverage without needing several phones. In addition, the SIM manager allows users to store settings of up to five SIM cards on the phone, and to personalise them by assigning names and logos for each SIM setting.

The Nokia 101 will be available in India in the next few weeks at Rs 1,699. The phone will come in Black and Red colours.

Nokia 100

The Nokia 100 is perfect for people looking for durability and simplicity as well as affordability when making calls and sending text messages.
Priced at Rs 1,399, the Nokia 100 comes with a colour display and grid-based menu system with fun and easy-to-read icons. Furthermore, the Nokia 100 features an FM radio.

Both the Nokia 101 and Nokia 100 offer Nokia Life Tools and Nokia Money in India, providing instant access to locally-relevant information on healthcare, education, agriculture and entertainment.

It will be available in India starting October.

“When paired with powerful and locally relevant services such as Nokia Life Tools and Nokia Money, the Nokia 101 and Nokia 100 offer a unique experience that is simply unmatched in India at these price points,” commented V Ramnath, director, sales Nokia India while announcing the launch.

The company is also offering these handsets with bundled plans of Airtel which is giving 100 minutes of free Airtel to Airtel talktime for the first month with Nokia 100 and 101. As part of this Airtel offer, customers will also get 400 national and local SMS free every month. Customers subscribing to this Airtel offer may continue to avail its benefits in the second month with a minimum recharge.