Olive Telecom has announced the launch of OlivePad VT100, an Android based tablet that supports 3.5G HSUPA, WiFi and Bluetooth. The tablet is priced at Rs 25,000.
The device comes with an inbuilt 3 Megapixel camera and a front camera, and can be used as a touch notebook with capabilities for browsing, multimedia, instant messaging, social networking, GPS, gaming, an e-book reader, television, and voice and video calling.
OlivePad is equipped with features which include flash support, mini USB port, camera and a smartphone. It will be available at all Croma stores in the country from August.
The company expects to sell around one lakh units over the next six months and aims a turnover of $250 million (more than Rs 1,100 crore) during this fiscal.
Olive Telecom has a product portfolio across the areas: WCDMA, CDMA, GSM and EVDO handsets, mobile computing devices, advanced data modems and devices for wireless broadband. The company currently works with 24 network operators across the globe.
Olive launches Android based 3G tablet at Rs 25,000
LIC will soon allow payment of premium via mobile phones
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) said that its policyholders will soon be able to pay their insurance premiums through mobile phones.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, TS Vijayan, LIC chairman, said, “We are in discussion with two to three banks; if you have a bank account with them, through mobile you will be able to transfer (funds).” He expects to roll out the facility some time this year.
Till now, only account holders of Corporation Bank, in which LIC owns a stake, can use mobiles to pay premiums on select LIC policies. This facility was introduced two years ago and is available to customers who sign up for the bank’s mobile payment service.
The customer needs to send a text message to a given number and once the payment gateway verifies his or her details from LIC, the premium is deducted from the customer’s account. This service does not allow payment for unit linked insurance plans.
LIC had started using information technology way back in in July 1995. Its first information and communication technology (ICT) enabled offering to its customers was an online service through which customers could receive immediate policy status reports. Further, their payments were promptly accepted and get they could get revival and loan quotations on demand.
After that, the company started using interactive voice response (IVR) functions to enable customers to receive information on the next premium due, policy status, loan amount, maturity payment due, accumulated bonus etc. through their mobile phones in 59 centres across the country.
Clay Telecom ties up with Jet Airways for Edujetter programme
Clay Telecom, a provider of mobile services for Indian customers travelling abroad, has announced a tie up with Jet Airways for a students’ programme named Edujetter.
As per the programme, students going abroad will be offered customised rental plans as per their usage pattern. The Edujetter programme is applicable to students travelling from India to the UK, Australia, Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, USA and to Canada. Tickets to the mentioned destinations bought before March 31, 2011 will make the buyers eligible for this scheme.
Students can avail free Talk time worth Rs 1,000 with a three month lock in period. Further, activation, deactivation and delivery charges will not be applicable.
The SIM cards will be pre activated.
Students can avail some benefits through Jet Airways such as excess baggage allowance etc.
Vodafone launches new prepaid plans for BlackBerry customers
Vodafone Essar has announced the launch of BlackBerry service plans for its prepaid customers in India, starting at Rs 15 per day.
The new tariffs will allow Vodafone customers to choose from daily, three day, weekly and monthly offers, and avail unlimited access to email, BlackBerry Messenger, instant messaging, social networking, internet browsing and BlackBerry App World application store.
This service comes in four packages: Rs 15 for a single day, Rs 44 for three days, Rs 100 for a week and Rs 399 for a month.
Kumar Ramanathan, chief marketing officer, Vodafone Essar, said, “Our prepaid segment is highly cost conscious and through the democratisation of data services, we are providing an entry threshold at an accessible price point of just Rs 15 per day. We believe that this initiative will appeal to young professionals, students and a broad spectrum of retail customers who are looking for an exceptional experience for messaging, social networking, email, music and entertainment.”
Zen launches Z82 with analog TV
Zen Mobile today announced the launch of Z82, a QWERTY handset with support for Analog TV.
The analog TV feature will enable Zen Z82 users to view live telecasts and news updates on their handsets. The device supports two GSM connections and is priced at Rs 4,799.
The phone is pre loaded with social networking options such as Facebook, Nimbus and Yahoo!, along with instant chat access. Other features include a multi colour track ball, a 2 megapixel camera, 2.4 inch QVGA display, FM radio and a 3.5 mm Audio Jack etc.
Deepesh Gupta, managing director, Zen Mobile, said, “With this product, we will be strengthening our presence in tier one markets and are hopeful of getting a good response.”
MindTree and Moser Baer to enter mobile handset business
MindTree, an Indian software services company, said it will launch its mobile handset in the second half of this fiscal year.
Chief executive officer Natarajan said the company is on track to launch its first smartphone by the second half of the current fiscal. The phone allows users to check email and surf the internet. “We are in talks with carriers and handset manufacturers and are seeing good response from the US and Europe,” Natarajan said.
He also said that the company hasn’t yet received any firm commitments from customers for its new product.
The company has spent about $1 million (more than Rs 4.5 crore) on product development so far in this fiscal year and plans to invest about $10 million to $11 million (between Rs 46 and Rs 51 crore) in its telecom products and smartphone manufacturing business.
MindTree had acquired Japanese firm Kyocera’s Indian facility for $6 million (close to Rs 28 crore) in the last quarter of 2009. It plans to use the facility to start its own mobile phone manufacturing business.
MindTree reported that its first quarter consolidated net profit slumped, hurt mainly by foreign exchange losses on currency hedges, higher wage costs, and by investments in its upcoming mobile handset manufacturing business.
According to sources, another Indian company Moser Bear is also planning to enter the mobile handset market. Unlike MindTree, it will focus on the Indian market. The timeline for the launch has not yet been finalised. According to sources, Moser Baer will manufacture handsets in India, and will not sell Chinese imports.
Lemon to launch new handset today
Lemon Mobiles, the mobile brand promoted by Fastrack Communications will today launch Lemon Duo 402, a stylish handset targeted at users of multimedia applications.
Sandeep Mushran, director, Fastrack Communications, said, “Lemon Duo 402 is a multimedia rich handset priced at Rs 3,770.”
Duo 402 will be a musical powerhouse coupled with a two Megapixel camera and 3.5mm jack. It will have a sleek look.
Sharing company values, Mushran said, “We at Lemon Mobiles want to bring customer delight not only with exciting and innovative products but also by creating an ecosystem to serve our customers with excellent after sales support and service”.
Nokia, Tata Docomo tie up for rural VAS
Nokia India has announced a tie up with Tata Docomo to offer Nokia Ovi Life Tools to GSM operators’ subscribers in rural and semi urban India.
Life Tools is a range of information services related to agriculture and education targeted at rural consumers. With Life Tools, users can directly avail themselves of information services and news alerts related to agriculture and education.
Tata Docomo customers can access the Nokia Life Tools service, which will be available via SMS, GPRS, USSD (unstructured supplementary services data) and STK (SIM toolkit), wherein, the SMS can be availed using a short code designated by Nokia.
The Nokia Life Tools’ agriculture service is available across 18 states and in 11 regional languages.
The service is available in two variants – a basic plan at Rs 30 per month, which provides daily weather updates and relevant agriculture related news, advice and tips; and a premium plan at Rs 60 per month, which provides the closest market prices for three crops chosen by the subscriber, along with weather information, news, advice and tips.
Geodesic, Zee form JV for entertainment apps
Geodesic and Zee Entertainment have entered a strategic alliance to form a new company that will offer entertainment applications for mobile and internet enabled devices.
Headquartered in Mumbai, the new entity called ITM Digital Pvt Ltd will initially provide internet TV on mobile and desktop platforms. The application will stream over 20 live television channels and several on-demand video channels.
A company statement said that consumers across all telecom networks will be able to download the applications, and discover, access, and schedule content through a web interface using broadband, GPRS, EDGE, or Wi-Fi on their mobile phones and desktops.
Punit Goenka, managing director and chief executive officer, Zee Entertainment, “This alliance will enable us to deliver optimised levels of internet integration across our range of assets and product categories. With this venture, we aim to capture the unexplored power of this medium that the Indian audience is fast adapting to.”
The two companies are also exploring opportunities in extending the alliance to combine Zee’s other entertainment assets and Geodesic’s extended mobile products portfolio, the statement added.
Nuance to launch Dragon Naturally Speaking app in India
Nuance will soon launch its Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition application in India, which will initially support the Hindi and English languages.
Nitin More, account director, Nuance, said, “We are ready with a new speech recognition application for Indian market and will be launching soon. Initially, it will support Hindi and English language.”
This application will help in creating emails, documents and spreadsheets – all by voice. Through this speech recognition application one can capture ones thoughts by speaking in to the mobile handset, which will then convert the speech to text. As per the user’s requirement, voice can be converted to SMS, email or any other text document.
More added that this application will not face any problem in converting voices with different styles to text as Nuance has done a lot of testing regarding that.