China Mobile on Track to enable 200,000 LTE Towers

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China Mobile is on track to enable 200,000 TD-LTE base stations by end-2013 (the majority an upgrade of existing TD-SCDMA infrastructure at 1.9GHz and this network would cover more than 100 Chinese cities, or c500m people. China Mobile aimed to procure c100m TD-LTE devices in 2013. While many of these will be datacards, this suggests … Read more

4G VoLTE to Gain Traction in 2013

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Voice over LTE (VoLTE) is gaining momentum, with likely adoption this year in North America, Hong Kong, and Japan given increasing chipset (Qualcomm, Broadcom, ST-Ericsson) and handset (LG, Sony) availability. VoLTE is important for telcos as it can enable differentiating features such as HD voice, in-call multimedia sharing, and video calling, helping them combat the … Read more

Why we Like Smasung Galaxy Note 8 over iPad ?

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Samsung has unveiled Galaxy Note 8.0, an 8-inch tablet equipped with an S Pen, to compete with Apple’s iPad mini. The tablet has a screen resolution of 1280 x 800 and a pixel density of 189 ppi. It is based on Samsung Exynos 4 Quad with quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU (1.6 GHz), 2 GB RAM, with 16 / 32 GB of internal storage. It is equipped with a 5.0MP rear camera and 1.3MP front-facing camera.

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Acer Liquid E1, Z2, C1 Affordable Android SmartPhones

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Acer has kicked off 2013 smartphone line-up with three new smartphones including Liquid E1, Z2, and C1. The detailed hardware specifications are still emerging. Initial feedback on pricing is interesting, in our view. It is reported the E1 will have a retail price for €199-299 and the Z2 for €99-129, suggesting Acer is attacking the … Read more

Asus Padfone Infinity and FonePad Models Comparison

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Asus will soon launch Padfone Infinity and FonePad. The Padfone Infinity is the third generation device in the Padfone series, and is a smartphone with an integrated docking tablet. The key upgrade in Padfone Infinity to its predecessor is the use of QCOM’s Snapdragon 600 Quad-core CPU (1.7GHz), and larger 5″ display. FonePad is a 7” tablet with 3G voice (i.e., phone) functionality, but is more akin to a tablet, in our view. FonePad is Asus’ challenge to Phablets.

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Lenovo’s ForthComing Android Tablets S6000 A3000 A1000

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Lenovo announced three new Android-based tablets. The tablets included a pair of 7” tablets, the A1000 and A3000, and a 10” tablet, the S6000. Each of these tablets are running Mediatek CPUs, which suggests they will target first time tablet buyers, and/or emerging markets. Previous tablets have been larger NVDA Tegra and Intel Atom-based.

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InfoEdge Banking on Pick up in Recruitment – LinkedIn Still Not a Threat

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Info Edges Job Speak Index has indicated a pick-up in the past two months, driven by an improvement in hiring trends at software, BPO (business process outsourcing), and pharma companies. Info Edge gets around 80% of its revenue from the recruitment business (primarily naukri.com), which has seen slower growth in the past 2-3 quarters due to the weak macro-economic environment and low business confidence. We expects hiring activity to pick up in FY14 as offshore IT services spending should increase driven by a relatively stable macroeconomic environment, relative stability in large client organisations, and regulatory deadlines that will force installations and/or upgrades of IT systems in key sectors, such as banking.

Channel checks with IT company management and leading HR

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Telecom Spectrum Prices Falling

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Wireless Spectrum prices in India peaked with the 3G auction [2100 MHz] at Rs 33,501m/Mhz (pan- India), driven largely by policy uncertainty around license renewals and future availability. Telecom Spectrum costs since then are rapidly falling and stand at Rs 23,786m/Mhz (pan-India) for the 1800Mhz band. They are likely to fall further since auctions have failed in key markets, which would necessitate a further reduction in reserve prices.

The government is obligated to auction the entire spectrum

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SmartPhone and Tablet Sales Weaker in Feb-2013

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February sales were generally weaker. Except for fewer working days, the shortfall from Largan primarily reflected sluggish iPhone 5 shipments; the weakness at Wintek was due to softer demand on Apple legacy products including iPad 4 and iPhone 4S; the softness at Ichia reflected model transitions (i.e., Blackberry) on top of labor supply shortage. iPhone … Read more