Lava seals the number 2 spot in Indian Market, while Micromax continues to lead

The year 2014 has been the boom for Indo-China/Indian brands as they did some spectacular stuff which even big multinationals failed to do. Ever since late 2011 when Nokia lost possession from the Indian market, it has been a fight for all the companies to be the king of the Indian Market which was dominated by middle class people with low budgets.

The emergence of Chinese companies into the Indian market has taken most of the sheen off the Indian phone makers. Even Motorola’s high specification, low priced devices have taken customers away from the Indian handset manufacturers. But with the combined strengths of feature phones and smartphones, the Indian brands have continued to grow. The companies have benefitted from the shift to smartphones in the lower segment, and their offerings are perceived as affordable. These factors have helped Lava reach the second spot on the podium amongst the Indian handset model.

The report was published by market research venture called Cybex Exim. The company took into consideration the following handset manufacturers: Micromax, Lava, Motorola, Karbonn, Gionee, Lenovo, Spice, Intex, XOLO, Panasonic, Zen, Maxx, Videocon, Xiaomi and Lemon.

To elaborate on their findings, Mr. Amit Gupta, Cybex Exim said:

"To understand the market dynamics, we track the import shipments of various players on a daily basis. Domestic players have shown remarkable growth over the last two quarters; majorly credited to the success of Indian brands like Micromax, Lava and Karbonn. With local vendors reducing the price gap between the entry level smartphones and feature phones, usage for mid-price phones is expected to increase at a high rate. At the same time, the recent launch of Android One devices is expected to drive more volumes in the price sensitive market with many other local players geared up to introduce their devices in the coming quarter.”

Cybex Exim’s findings is as follows:

Lava has said that the company will be investing about 500 crores in a phased manner to set up its own manufacturing unit in India over the next couple of years. This would be a positive step towards increasing tech-based manufacturing workforce in the country.

It’s great to see these Indian companies on a growth track. But looking at the competition they are facing against the Chinese companies, its time the companies up-ed their game. The phones need to get better in terms of specs and overall quality. The Indian companies may also want to take a leap into the flagship business and challenge the name brands.

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After Acquiring Motorola, Lenovo climbs the ladder to Become the Third Largest Smartphone Vendor in India

New reports by IDC have revealed that Lenovo is set to become the third largest smartphone vendor in India. But only after the completion of its acquisition of Motorola Mobility is complete. The acquisition is considered one of the sharpest move in the industry for the Chinese company, which has previously made its name though PC sales.

“Presently, Motorola is at number four in India. And, we are expecting to close the acquisition by the end of the calendar year, which we believe make us the third largest smartphone player the in the Indian market,” Amar Babu, managing director at Lenovo India said.

Amar said that Lenovo’s smartphone business has grown by 200% year on year, much faster than the rest of the market. He added that Lenovo will build the Motorola brand the way it has built the ThinkPad notebook brand within the company.

The overall Indian smartphone market is expected to cross 80 million devices by shipments, up from 44 million a year back. Shipments grew by 84% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2014 to June, with vendors shipping a total of 18.42 million smartphones.

The company is also positive on setting up manufacturing units in the country, given the ‘Make in India’ initiative by the Indian government and the company is hoping for certain incentives by the government that would encourage the same.

The company is already the number one player in the PC market in India. In the Indian smartphone market, Lenovo lags behind Motorola, which is the fourth largest player. The company also plans to enhance its position in the tablet market in India. Lenovo recently launched its new range of ‘Yoga’ tablets in India, priced between Rs 20,990 to Rs 47,990. The range — comprising of four devices — will go on sale today exclusively on eCommerce site, Flipkart.

Source: iGyaan

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What is your personal notifier on your smartphone?

One of the most customizable things on our phones of today isn't the wallpaper, case, or which phone we have, it's our personal notifier; whether it is for text messages, emails, voice mails, etc. It is something we have to hear every day upwards of 100 times for some people. There has to be a happy median between picking a tone you like, but don' t get sick of.

Some people I know just don't care and stick with the notification that comes standard on the device, never blinking an eye. When I first got the Galaxy S3, I was excited to have the whistle you hear over and over on their ads, yet I found it awkward at times in public and it became a pure annoyance. That was changed rather quickly. After going through all the sounds, over and over to find a suitor, I settled on the classic bubbles of the Galaxy series. That was my tone up until Google Hangouts came out. Ever since, I have been using the Hangouts sound; however it seems quite popular now (multiple people at my work use it).

Does anyone else put so much effort into picking a notification sound? Do you use one stock on your device or do find your own? I have been through many on my phones, and it seems only one per device ends up sticking with me. Let me know in the comments below what your personal notifications are.

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What is your ideal homescreen layout?

Now the homescreen is something we see everyday on our phones, some times constantly. It is the gateway to our social media, contacts, messages, emails, and even our jobs some times. I am obsessed with making everything on my phone symmetrical and clean. I hate having app shortcuts in odd spots.

I make sure that my main apps are on the front page and this layout has been constant with all my phones (even the short period of time where I had an iPhone). As far as widgets go, I always have a clock displaying the weather, usually a stock one on the device. My personal favorite will always be the HTC Sense flip clock. I am sure some of you will attest to that. Other than that, the entire homescreen is filled. There isn't one square of wasted space. Below you can see my homescreen on my Galaxy S5.

So what I want to know is, if I am the only one who lays their phone out like this. All of my friends have gaping wholes all over their homescreen with no use of widgets (and it looks horrible!). Leave a comment below of how you layout your homescreen or even put a screenshot in the comment section. Below you can see my personal screen.

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