Aircel plans to offer its 2G and 3G subscribers better location based services and to get real time tracking, navigation information and information services while on the move, without the need to buy a GPS enabled phone from next month.

Aircel, has selected Ericsson to provide the mobile positioning systems for its subscribers. Through these services subscribers will be able to find nearby restaurants or gyms, the fastest route home, or keep track of children or the elderly with a tracking service. Enterprises could also use the services for effective resource management.

Mallikarjun Rao, chief technology officer, Aircel, said “There is huge potential in offering this value- added service to our consumers. Most Indians spend on average 90 minutes per day on the roads; location-based services will definitely increase efficiency and enhance the quality of their life.”

Ericsson’s Mobile Positioning Systems (MPS) will offer advanced Location Based Services (LBS) to Aircel subscribers and can support several positioning alternatives for GSM and WCDMA(3G). This ranges from network-based methods (using cell tower based information), which will be available to all users, to more accurate terminal-based methods (in phone/device capablity) using GPS positioning for people with GPS enabled phones.

Aircel already offers ‘pocketfinder’ service which helps users find places of interest nearby such as petrol pumps, ATMs, hospitals, restaurants etc. However, with this new deployment these services will be expanded and their accuracy improved.

Samsung’s application store has introduced a new method to purchase apps for its users. From now on, users don’t need to rely on credit cards alone to make their payments from Samsung App. Users can now buy apps and pay it later through their postpaid bill or get it deducted from their prepaid balance irrespective of the service provider, such as Airtel and Vodafone.

A positive aspect of this is that users now need not to furnish their sensitive credit card information in order to purchase an application.

Apart from India, the service is now available in various other countries that include Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Ukraine, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.

“At Samsung Apps we’re committed to doing all we can to provide our customers with an enhanced user experience” said Kang-Hyun Kwon, senior vice president of media solution center, Samsung Electronics.

“The new payment method offers flexibility, choice and ultimately a simpler purchase journey,” added Kwon.

The new payment procedure is a secure and simple method which enables users to buy an App in just two clicks. Samsung Apps was launched in June 2010. At that time users were able to pay for the applications through their credit cards and other prepaid cards.

The new billing launch is being marked with a promotional event in which those customers buying apps during the promotion will be eligible for a lucky draw and random prizes. The promotion will continue from May 17 to June 20.

Tata Docomo, the GSM brand of Tata Teleservices, has announced an SMS based ‘Summer Carnival Contest’ across all its circles for both its prepaid and postpaid customers.

Under the contest, five lucky winners from each circle will get a chance to avail scratch and win vouchers carrying prizes worth up to Rs 5,000 daily by answering simple questions based on cricket, Bollywood, general knowledge etc.

For each correct answer, the customer will score 10 points, amongst which top five highest scorers at the end of the day will get a ‘Scratch and Win’ voucher carrying prizes worth up to Rs 5,000 each. The contest is valid till 28th May.

The vouchers offer eight branded gifts including wrist watch, digital camera, travel bag, iPod, sunglasses, cash back, home theatre and holiday packages.

The winners can redeem their vouchers by entering their Scratch Card number on Click2Redeem.com.
“We are extremely excited and eager to experience customer response to the Summer Carnival Contest launched today. We are confident that the contest will be one of the most sought after, for the gratification worth Rs 2.3 crore,” said S Ramakrishna, chief operating officer, Andhra Pradesh circle, Tata Teleservices.

He added, “The contest is easy and customers stand a golden chance to win exciting new prizes. We hope that our customers will enjoy every bit of the contest and answer simple questions related to cricket, Bollywood, General Knowledge, etc.”

To participate in the contest, customers have to send SMS ‘SUB DAYCRI’ to 54321 or Dial *654*1# (chargeable at Rs 5) daily. Post the subscription, customers will get cricket score updates along with a chance of participating in the contest by answering simple questions. Customers can respond to the questions by replying A or B to 54321 at Re 1.

The scratch card/assured prize voucher cannot be substituted or en-cashed.

After BlackBerry and iPhone, online ticketing portal Book My Show has announced the launch of its application for Android based devices.

With the Book My Show application, Android users will be able to book movie and ongoing IPL cricket tournament tickets through multiple payment options including credit card, bank transfer and so on.

The application’s design, according to the developer, has been kept simple so that it can be easily used by everyone. It has one touch access to most features like search and book movies.

The application as of now only supports movie and cricket ticket search and booking, but the developers wish to add the functionality to search and book tickets for plays, concerts and other sports event in future.

The application has support for devices running Android version 1.5 and above including support for tablets running on Android as well with the automatic resizing capability added by the developer.

Users who wish to download and install this application can visit the Android marketplace from their respective device or can click here to download the application.