Xiaomi To Set R&D Unit in Bangalore by March 2015

Handset maker Xiaomi will set up a research and development unit in Bengaluru, its first such facility outside of China, as it looks to beef up presence in the booming Indian smartphone market.

The company, which expects the centre to be operational in the next few months, will focus on localising its products and features for the Indian market through the unit.

“We have always stated that India is one of our most important markets. We are in process of signing the lease on a facility in Bengaluru, which will be our R&D unit. This is the first one outside China,” Xiaomi India Head Manu Jain said.

Work on the facility is expected to commence by the end of March and in the next few months, it will be operational, he added. Jain declined however to comment on investment details and the number of people who would work at the R&D centre.

“The R&D unit will focus on India-specific products to begin with. We will focus on localisation, themes and then India specific features to cater to local requirements here,” he said.

Xiaomi is also looking at bringing in its own eCommerce website into the country to sell its products here.

Xiaomi, which currently sells devices in India through homegrown e-commerce major Flipkart, will bring in its website ‘Mi.com’ to India in the latter part of the year. “We are currently looking for warehousing and logistics partners in India, as well as deciding on a payment mechanisms like cash on delivery.

It may take anywhere between three to nine months,” Jain said. He added that the firm will continue its association with Flipkart.

Currently, the company sells devices through its website in most countries of operations, except India and Indonesia. Xiaomi launched its new Mi4 handset in India for Rs 19,999 as it seeks to expand its operations here.

“We have always stated that India is one of our most important markets. We are big plans for India this year… We are in process of signing the lease on a facility in Bangalore, which will be our R&D unit. This is the first one outside China,” Jain said.

According to research firm IDC, India is the fastest growing smartphone market in the Asia Pacific region with about 82 per cent growth in the July-September quarter of 2014 over the same period last year.

Spice Mobiles To Invest Rs 500 crores For Manufacturing Unit in UP

Spice Group said that it will invest Rs 500 crores to set up a manufacturing unit in Uttar Pradesh, taking forward the Government of India’s Make in India campaign.

The manufacturing unit will bolster the company’s strategy to introduce affordable mobile internet devices in India through domestic manufacturing, thus catering to a larger market by offering a wider range of high technology devices at affordable costs, the company said in a statement.

“With a local manufacturing plant, Spice Group can achieve its vision to create affordable and high technology mobile products for a larger audience. Uttar Pradesh has had a strong connection with our group, ever since we set up the country’s first photocopier manufacturing plant in the state,” Dilip Modi, Chairman, Spice Group, said in the statement.

The Group has signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of Uttar Pradesh for setting up the manufacturing unit in the state.

Under the MoU, the UP government will support Spice Group in establishing the facility in the State in a time bound manner and facilitate the necessary infrastructure, ecosystem and incentives under various schemes announced by the state and central Government.

ICC launched Cricket World Cup 2015 App

The Cricket World Cup 2015 gets underway in about couple of weeks. You must be all excited to catch up with all the latest buzz around the world’s biggest cricket tournament. Well, ICC has just launched an official Cricket World Cup 2015 mobile application, allowing you to use your Android or iOS device to get the most of the experience on the go.

ICC has teamed up with Reliance Communications for the application. The app promises you to keep abreast of the live action with the fastest source of live scores and ball-by-ball commentary. It also features video highlights and the most important moments of the match for those who haven’t caught the action live on television

Getting the app

ICC’s official Cricket World Cup app is available on both Android and iOS platforms for free.  Download the Official ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 App from App Store on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch here . The Official ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 App is available from the Google Play Store on All Android Devices or here

The interface

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 has a very simple interface. On launching the app, you are taken to a blue-themed home screen. On the masthead, you have ICC WC and Reliance logos followed by a countdown that directs you to 100 Greatest WC moments.

The centre has four columns featuring Home, My Team, Video and Polls. Home section has multiple categories including fixtures, results, standings and stats. Scroll down to access more features such as news, photos, teams and venues.

The app also has a ‘fantasy’ section that directs you to play the fantasy league for ICC cricket world cup. There’s also social media integration via ‘Social Hub’, which lets you access latest tweets with regards to the ICC World Cup 2015.

Features

For cricket enthusiasts, ICC’s app offers a range of features other than usual ball-by-ball commentary. It features video highlights and the most important moments of the match. The video highlights are going to include all the dismissals, the big moments, the big innings, the best dismissals and also the post-match press conferences.

On choosing a team via ‘My team’ section, users are notified of the latest updates around their team. For more insight, the app gives you detailed statistics, including top run-getters and wicket-takers. The app also includes latest news and exclusive expert columns.

One of the interesting features is the poll section where users can take part in various polls related to the tournament. Currently, it has running poll on Which side has the best bowling lineup in ODIs. Users can also see the number of responses so far, and percentage share.

Our Take

ICC’s official Cricket World Cup 2015 app is overall a fine app. Though it is slightly sluggish as it takes time to load the content. For cricket enthusiasts, the app should include more interactive features perhaps intuitive graphs including runs break up, partnerships, over comparisons and wagon wheels. We hope more features to come as the tournament nears. But that said, it’s quite comprehensive, and worth downloading.

Samsung J1 with 4.4.3-inch Display Dual Core Processor Android 4.4 Smartphone Launched in Malaysia

Samsung’s much rumoured Galaxy J1 smartphone has become official. The phone appeared on the company’s Malaysian website earlier

According to Samsung Malaysia, the Galaxy J1 features a 4.3-inch WVGA display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM and 5MP auto-focus rear camera with LED flash. The phone also packs 2MP front shooter, Android 4.4 with TouchWiz UI, 1850 mAh battery and dual-SIM support.

Among other specifications, Samsung has included 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4GB of internal storage, microSD card slot, and GPS.

On the software front, Samsung has pre-loaded the ultra-power saving mode and palm selfie feature on the smartphone.

There is no word on the pricing or availability details at the point, but we hope to hear from Samsung soon. We do know that Galaxy J1 will be released in White, Black and Blue colour options.

Meizu m1 with 5-inch HD Display QuadCore 64-bit SoC 4G LTE Launched in China

Meizu has announced Meizu m1, the company’s latest budget smartphone in China. It has a 5-inch (1280 x 768 pixels) IPS display, is powered by a 1.5 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6732 64-bit processor with ARM Cortex-A53 64-bit CPUs and Mali-T760 GPU and runs on Android 4.4 Kitkat-based Flyme OS. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

It does’t have dual SIM support, but comes with 4G TD-LTE connectivity. It packs 1GB RAM, 8GB of internal storage with expansion slot and packs a 2610mAh battery.

Meizu m1 specifications

5-inch (1280 x 768 pixels) IPS display with 300ppi pixel density
1.5 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6732 64-bit processor with 500 MHz Mali-T760 MP2 GPU
1GB RAM,8GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 128GB via micro SD
Flyme OS based on Android 4.4 (KitKat)
13MP rear camera with LED flash, f/2.2 aperture
5MP front-facing camera with OmniVision OV560 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 69-degree wide-angle lens
Dimensions: 140.2x 72.1 x 8.9mm; Weight 128g
4G TD-LTE / 3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
2610mAh built-in battery
The Meizu m1 comes in Peppermint Green, Yellow, Pink, Blue and White colors and is priced at 699 Yuan (US$112 / Rs. 6,880 approx.) in China. It will be available for pre-order from T mall in China starting February 5th. No word on the global roll out yet.