The Indian mobile handset market is growing at the rate of 15% annually but surprisingly, the dual SIM handset market is growing at 30-40%. Dual SIM handsets are very popular among Indian users and shanzhai dual SIM handsets were responsible for the revolution. But shanzhai dual SIM phones are losing ground to Indian mobile makers. Read more....
The magic of Mediatek is making life insecure for multinational branded phones in India. Even the desi (local) manufacturers like Spice are annoyed, as every other day a new local brand like Lava, Karbonn, Pagaria, Intex, Olive, Videocon are popping up, with Mediatek at their core. Read more...
Up until now on Shanzai.com, we’ve mainly talked about technology and its impact on shanzhai culture and vice versa. But the shanzhai phenomenon has touched and impacted many other quintessential parts of the Chinese lifestyle. A resident of Shenzhen could quite conceivably drive through KFG in their Toyota Corolla rip-off, wearing an Adidos t-shirt, whilst talking on their iClone and sipping a Bucksstar coffee! Read more...
Nokia, along with Sony Ericsson and Samsung, were the big mobile handset players in India, up until late 2008 when phones became so feature rich that they were priced out of the range of most middle class Indians. shanzhaiphones surged in popularity with their low price and rich feature sets. But they were often unreliable, and some clever Indian manufacturers saw an opportunity to take over the market the shanzhai had created by offering better quality handsets, with warranties, that still competed with the shanzhai models on price. Read more...
While private telcos and the Indian government are going through a rough time trying to spread 3G services across the country, with the auction of the 3G spectrum yet to happen, chip maker Qualcomm is planning to introduce Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology based services ... aka 4G ... in India by next year. read more...
Indian IT is always in the spotlight because of its booming IT services industry, but this time India is on the receiving end as Microsoft launches its cloud services in India. India is poised to receive an initial dose of exclusive cloud services as Microsoft is banking on India as a major customer. The leading software maker on Monday announced the commercial availability of its cloud based operating system in India. But will a paid cloud OS flourish in India, where pirated operating systems are all but ubiquitous? read more...
Last Saturday I walked into a BSNL office in Bangalore with one of my friends who was interested in getting Dataone broadband connection from BSNL. When we visited the office I was surprised to see a large crowed fighting to get free 3G SIM cards! I also saw some folks holding shanzhai smartphones in their hand and eagerly crawling into the queue to experience 3G. Read more...
While the rest of world lined up near the Apple stores for getting a sneak peek of first iPhone, it was able to sell only a fraction of its shipment when it debuted in India. Google doesn’t want to repeat the same mistake and is therefore planning to launch an affordable stripped down version of the Nexus in India. But Nexus with cut down features can woo the Indians who have the desire for affordable Nokia, HTC, Samsung and shanzhai touchscreens. read more...
A few years ago in India the term ‘Internet access’ was limited to cyber cafes, homes and offices. But Indian telecom players and mobile device manufactures recorded dramatic growth in 2009; India now has more than 10 millions mobile Internet users. Read more...
From now on all foreign telecom network equipment providers who want to supply equipment to Indian telcos will have to go through a national security test for clearance. Chinese equipment providers are the main target and Indian security agencies want a ban on Chinese made gear in 20 border states of India! Read more...
At last, the tortoise of Indian telecom, BSNL, has decided to install a jet engine on its back to compete with the hare, Bharti Airtel. While the rest of the world enjoys lightening fast broadband Internet, Indians have had to settle with sluggish Internet speeds. Indians can finally let out a sigh of relief: 32Mbps and 16Mbps Internet speeds! Read more...
2010 is already shaping up to be a good year for the shanzhai to set up manufacturing units in India. On Friday, while presenting the annual budget, the Indian Finance Minister announced tax exemptions for mobile chargers, batteries and accessories. This will further reduce the cost of mobile phones, much to the joy of India users! read more...
What can a 5MP camera and a YouTube app on a mobile phone potentially create? Ordinary people with no training whatsoever in journalism now capture vital moments, people, processes and events and then disseminate their home-grown content across the web. By doing so they are producing a grass roots digital history. Read more...
It seems like the handset leader has finally found the key to the success in the consumer market in India. They have listened to what millions of Indians want in a handset and revealed a 3G phone with a price tag of just USD 89! Is this Nokia’s war against Indian handset manufacturers? read more...
Buoyed by the success of App stores from smartphone manufacturers, the Indian carrier Airtel has rolled out its first App store with 1250 smartphone applications across 25 categories. read more..
India may have joined the Internet party late but the country is poised to boast one of the largest Internet user bases in the world. It’s crucial for manufacturers, the shanzhai included, to understand what type of Internet consumers have access to so that they can offer appropriate devices. From dial-up to broadband, wireless and 3G, we take a look at where the Internet stands in India. read more...
The number of people gaming in India has nearly doubled, from 25% of active Internet users in 2008 to 41.2% in 2009. The most popular form of gaming in India is PC gaming, followed by mobile gaming, and then console gaming. Microsoft and Sony are the two major players, but of lately some new players have also entered the Indian console industry, including the shanzhai. read more...
An Indian company, Intex Technologies, which is known for manufacturing computer peripherals, has launched a QWERTY smartphone, which has a close resemblance to the BlackBerry Curve 8900. read more...
Acer has unveiled its new Android based smartphone series ‘Liquid’ in the Indian market. The smartphone is claimed to be the first smartphone in the world to use the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The uncool thing about the Acer Liquid is that it’s running on Android 1.6 (Donut) instead of Android 2.1! read more...
An Indian online book store, infibeam.com has launched an e-book reader, which bears a resemblence to Amazon’s Kindle. infibeam.com claims that it has good prospects in India since it's the only e-book reader which supports all the official languages spoken in India. read more...
While the electronics industry is the fastest growing manufacturing sector in the world, India is yet to flourish in designing and manufacturing electronics products for the local market. Experts from ISA (the Indian Semiconductor Association) at their Vision Summit 2010, announced their aim to address the trade imbalance of USD 300 billion worth of imports of electronic goods to the country, something they want to fix up by 2020. read more...
Considering that the 3G auction in India has pretty much turned into dream for all the Indian and foreign telcos concerned, it's quite surprising that there are already 2 million subscribers with 3G connectivity in India. Read more...
Jerry stole a piece of cheese from down under the nose of Tom! There is a monster behind Scooby Doo and Shaggy, and the Powerpuff girls are trying to save the world. Johnny Bravo is yet again trying his luck on some chicks with his James Dean looks and Elvis Presley’s voice. Yep, now Indians can catch all their cartoon superstars on their mobile phones. read more...
The big brands have had offices in India for many years and a cycle is emerging of services companies striking out on their own from home offices, not unlike the shanzhai in Shenzen. read more...
India has over 400 companies which have the word ‘Reliance’ as part of their company name. It’s the name of India’s largest private sector enterprise. According to a recent report, India loses Rs 1,208 million per annum (approx USD 26 million) due to piracy and the country has 60 Nike, 65 Rolex and 217 Intel fake brands. India has a huge market for counterfeit and pirated products and the Googlle institute is yet another company which tried to get noticed by using a brand’s name. Read more...
Shenzhen based telephone equipment manufacture, Huawei Technologies is planning to invest USD 500 million over the next five years in manufacturing and research and development in India. This development comes right after shanzhaimobile manufacturers' planned to invest USD 1.47 million in building manufacturing units in India. Read more...
Here is a positive development, which will benefit the shanzhai manufacturers as well as shanzhai mobile users in India. Shenzhen Mobile Communication Association (SZMCA) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), according to which, shanzhai mobile manufacturers will jointly invest USD 1.47 million to build shanzhai mobile manufacturing units in India. Read more....
Barrack Obama once said "Say no to Bangalore and yes to Buffalo" and he introduced a lot of anti-Bangalore policies to discourage outsourcing. But India is no longer a country of snake charmers, and neither is it a low level service provider, nor just a call center’s hub. Bangalore has graduated to become the largest resource of well trained and educated techies in the world. Once known as a pensioner’s paradise, it is now the sub continent’s answer to Silicon Valley, thanks to the abundance of multinationals all over the city. Read more...
It seems that the green computing revolution is gaining momentum all over the world and with major IT giants taking the initiative. IT leader IBM, in association with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi and Roorkee, have come forward to jointly promote research on green technology, energy efficient computing and data mining.- read more.
If you think that all the telecom companies are just revenue oriented, here is a story that may change your mind. India based GSM telecom operator Aircel has recently merged with Delhi based NGO Helpage India, to give mobile handsets to senior citizens throughout the country. Sounds impressive! Read more...
It was a big surprise to see ‘Tiger Woods PGA Tour O7’ listed among the top 10 mobile games on an Indian gaming website. Considering the fact that golf is considered a rich man’s game, confined to metro cities, perhaps the ace golfer’s infamous transgressions drove people to try the game?! Read more...
Although political relations between India and China are not exactly pleasant, technical relations between the two countries seem to be growing healthier. India’s leading CDMA telecom operator, Tata Tele Services (TTSL), has announced that the company will lay fibre optic cable between India and China in partnership with China Telecom. Read more...
Chinese manufacturers boast hundreds of Android based devices, from smartphones to MIDs. Sadly, India still lacks its own Android based device. Unlike China, India is dominated by foreign firms in its PC hardware segment. The scenario is expected to change soon as the Hyderabad based company Notion Ink is set to unveil India’s first Android based touchscreeen tablet in 2010. Read more...
