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...
