Xiaomi sold over 2 million smartphones in Q3 2016, claims 150% YoY growth from Q3 2015 to Q3 2016

According to a tweet posted by Xiaomi India, the Chinese smartphone maker has sold 2+ million smartphones in the country in the third quarter 2016. The company also claimed to have attained more than 150% year-on-year growth from Q3 2015 to Q3 2016. The company’s recent offline expansion, the addition of new online partners and its large product portfolio are the factors that contributed to this growth.

Meanwhile, the research firm IDC has released a data implying the various aspects of the smartphone market in India. According to it, the recent demonetization of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 currency notes will have an impact on India’s mobile phone and personal computing market during this quarter. The demonetization will lead to temporary shrinkage in sales during the Q3 2016, it said. This slowdown will be more evident in tier 3 places, where the shops accept payments in cash.

The online sales too will witness this drop in sales as a major share of online sales depends on the cash-on-delivery mode of payments. In the quarter ended in September, India witnessed a shipment of 32.3 million devices of feature phones. In the case of smartphones, the shipment stood at 39.9 million units. In the quarter ending in December, there could be a drop of 24.6% in feature phone shipment and a 17.5% decline in smartphone shipment.

The online share of smartphones has increased to 31.6%, primarily due to the increasing sales of smartphones from Chinese vendors. Xiaomi is one of among the top five players. Lenovo leads in the online sales, covering one-fourth of the total online smartphone shipments. Lenovo’s K5 series and Motorola G4 series contributed to this growth. For Xiaomi, the popular models are Redmi Note 3 and Redmi 3S. Xiaomi claimed to have sold 1.75 million devices of Redmi Note 3 in a span of five months.

Compared to the previous quarter, Xiaomi’s shipments have doubled.  It has around 7.4% market share in the country. It occupies the third position after Samsung and Micromax.

Indus Towers launches nationwide “Aesthetic Sites” initiative deploying green towers

India’s largest telecom tower company Indus Towers has announced an initiative of launching “Aesthetic Sites”. As the name indicates, this caters to the requirements of smart cities with beautiful landscapes. The company also promises environmental considerations while deploying sites.

Commenting on the nationwide initiative, Mr. Bimal Dayal, CEO, Indus Towers, said, “With our focus on innovation that enables transformation and belief in Design Thinking approach, where we develop a solution basis customer needs, Aesthetic Sites roll out is a great testimony in this direction”.

“While deploying world class technologies in telecom infrastructure domain, Indus Towers will continue to build digital highways and play a pivotal role in the government’s focus areas such as Smart Cities and Digital India,” he added.

Indus Towers upholds its green initiative. The company recently converted 55,000+ sites into green sites, by making them diesel-free. It deployed Free Cooling Units (FCU), Natural Cooling Units with Turbo, Micro Cooling Unit, Solar power FCU andSolar PVleading to energy savings. This has also added to the reduction of operational costs.

Indus Towers targets to deploy an additional 500 sites in 50 cities in next 12 months. The sites also promise a noise free atmosphere.

Headquartered in Delhi, Indus Towers Limited is promoted by a joint venture among the entities of Bharti Infratel Limited, Vodafone India, and Aditya Birla Telecom (Idea). It has presence in 15 telecom circles in the country. With the current count of over 121,330 towers, Indus has the widest coverage in India and is also the largest telecom tower company in the country.

Apple iPhone 8 might feature “Curved” OLED display: Report

Reports have already surfaced online about the OLED display of Apple iPhone 8. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) adds a little more to it and says that the new iPhone 8 may come with “curved” OLED display that extends to the edges. According to the report, the company is testing 10 different prototypes for the next iPhone and may reduce the number to two-three models by the time of launch.

Concept Image

For the curved OLED display, Apple has signed a deal with Samsung but has also asked othersuppliers like Sharp, LG Display, and Japan Display to “increase the output of thinner organic light-emitting displays”, and submit displays with better resolution than Samsung.

Samsung’s current panels feature 2K resolution. The primary benefit of OLED display is the better color reproduction with an enhanced contrast. Also, the LCDs require backlight, whereas the OLED displays don’t.

WSJ report further said that the OLED curved display may be limited to the premium variant of iPhone 8. Other models may feature the regular LCD display. There are also speculations that the iPhone 8 will go for all-glass back design, a bezel-less display, dual-camera set-up, fingerprint scanner, advanced wireless charging, and no home button. For those who miss theheadphonejack in iPhone 7, the rumors say that it may not come back.

Overall, the world may witness a totally redesigned Apple iPhone 8.

Lenovo K6 Power Launched in India: Pricing, Specifications, Availability

As expected, Lenovo has finally launched the K6 Power smartphone in India for Rs. 9,999. It will be exclusively up for open sale viaFlipkart, starting at 12 PM IST on December 6. Lenovo has launched the 3GB RAM/32GB internal storage variant of the K6 Power in India, which will be available in Silver, Gold, and Dark Grey colour options. The phone was first introduced at the IFA 2016event.

The Lenovo Vibe K6 Power features a 5-inch Full HD IPS display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. It is powered by a 64-bit Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset with Adreno 505 GPU. Thephone could come in two variants – 2GB RAM and 16GB of expandable storage; 3GB RAM and 32GB expandable storage (up to 128GB via microSD card). It sports a 13MP rear camera with LED Flash, Sony IMX258 sensor, PDAF, and 8MP front-facing camera. The device runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow and supports connectivity options such as dual-SIM, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, and Fingerprint sensor (located on the rear).

A 4000mAh battery backs the Vibe K6 Power, which is touted by the company to deliver up to 96.5 hours of audio playback, 13.6 hours of video playback, 48 hours of voice calls, and 12.6 hours of Internet usage, and 649 hours of standby time. Lenovo has also pre-loaded the Ultimate Powersaver app in the K6 Power, which turns on the power-saving mode for extending battery life by reducing app and data consumption. The phone is alsoequipped with reverse charge option that allows it to work as a power bank for charging other devices.

The K6 Power also comes with app lock functionality that enables app locking via fingerprint sensor. Also, the Vibe Pure UI on the K6 Power also features Dual Apps option that allows apps to be used under two different accounts on the same phone. Given the specifications and pricing, the K6 Power will rival Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 3 and Redmi 3S Prime.

Tata DoCoMo launches special prepaid packs for Rs. 500 to help people during demonetization

In the backdrop of the Government’s announcement of allowing to use the old Rs. 500 currency notes to make mobile recharges till 15 December this year, Tata DoCoMo has launched special prepay packs of Rs. 500 for the subscribers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Using RC 500 pack, the customers can avail Rs. 600 worth talk time.

Alongside, Tata DoCoMo has also launched RC 494 pack that provides the subscribers unlimited STD and local calls for 30 days in their home circles. There is also a pack for Rs. 496, which will offer the subscriber Rs. 250 worth talk time and 5GB data. This pack is valid for 60 days. For the heavy data users, they can choose RC 495 to avail 10 GB of data with 90 days of validity.

Commenting on the launch of new RC packs, Mr. Prasanna Das, Consumer Business Unit-Head, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, “We have launched these special packs for Rs. 500 to add to the convenience of our subscribers during the demonetization phase. These products have been designed to cater to our large subscriber base with varying needs and offer maximum voice and data benefits. Also, our subscribers can avail these using the old 500 currency notes.  As a customer-centric brand, we will continue to delight our subscribers with innovative products and services.”

The above RC will be available in all retail stores till 15 December, said a release from the company. There is no information about the availability of Rs. 500 prepaid packs in other circles.

Recently, the company launched Tata DoCoMo starts offering 1GB 3G data at Rs. 91 for prepaid users”>My Best Offer Pack for prepaid customers in Karnataka at Rs. 91 for 1GB. Under the pack, 2GB data was offered at Rs. 182 and 3GB data at Rs. 273.

Tata DoCoMo has a pan-India presence in 19 telecom circles.

Dish TV adds 3 HD channels, taking the total to 59 HD channels on the DTH platform

Asia’s largest DTH service provider DishTV has added three new regional HD channels to its portfolio. Zee Marathi HD, Zee Bangla HD, and Colors Marathi HD are the newly added channels. With these additions, the total HD channels of DishTV rose to 59 from 56.

Commenting on the launch of new HD channels, Mr. Arun Kapoor, Chief executive Officer, DishTV India said, “DishTV has always taken the lead in enhancing the value proposition and believes in providing the maximum and the best in entertainment to its subscribers. Our endeavor is to increase affinity with our audiences by providing them the choice of content they would like towatch.  With a sharp focus on regional language content, the move aims at connecting strongly with the regional language subscribers. The addition of three new regional HD channels will not only strengthen our presence in the HD space but will also diversify our offerings.”

DishTV already has an impressive array of regional HD channels. Gemini HD and ETV HD in Telugu, and SunTV HD, Sun Music HD and KTV HD in Tamil, Zee Talkies HD in Marathi, Colors Kannada HD in Kannada, and Colors Bangla HD in Bangla are a few other regional HD channels available.

The channels will be available for free preview until 28 December 2016. The channel number to access Zee Marathi HD is 70. Zee Bangla HD will be available at 73 and Colors Marathi HD will be at 71.

Also Read: Dish TV to merge operations with Videocon D2H to form India’s largest DTH operator

DishTV has more than 575 channels and services on its platform. There are 22 audio channels, and 59 HD channels and services. The company has a distribution network of over 2,297 distributors and more than 241,346dealers that span across 9,350 towns in the country.

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Reliance Jio now has over 50 million users in India, says report

Reliance Jio Infocomm, the 4G entrant, has reportedly crossed 50 million subscriber mark, and is continuously growing its base to quickly touch the 100 million user bark before the fiscal year end. According to the Economic Times, the Mukesh Ambani-led telecom operator has crossed 50 million mark on November 26, 2016, and has been adding an average 6 lakh customers per day, having launched commercial operations on September 5.

The publication’s sources said that the telco is adding almost 1000 customers a minute, which is far more than the industry had expected.

“Credit Suisse in its last report had mentioned that Reliance Jio can reach 40 million by end of FY17 and other analyst firms had given way lower estimates. This is record of sorts,” a source was quoted as saying by the publication.

Reliance Jio has been offering free voice services bundled with 4 Gb data usage along with a host of content services till December 31, 2016. A number of reports have said that the telco may well extend the validity of this free service offer to March 31, 2017, to further expand the user base and to increase the stickiness of customers.

In a recent presentation, Jio said that 90-95% subscribers through Aadhaar based e-KYC across 4059 towns and cities. It added that Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh were the foremost states in adopting Jio services.

In a bid to enhance subscriber base in rural areas and tier 2 and 3 markets, Reliance Jio is also preparing to launch feature phones with 4G capability. Jio is reportedly looking at pricing these phones at Rs 999 and planning to bundle them with unlimited voice and video calling, besides digital content.

The company will offer the feature phones with Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology. It offers voice service using its IMS-based VoLTE technology through an all IP pan-India network.

Earlier today, another report by BloombergQuint had said that Reliance Jio has approached CCI to file a complaint against incumbent telcos — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular for acting as a cartel, thus jeopardizing Jio’s entry.

Jio has over time complained of high instances of call failures with other operators and blamed them for not providing adequate PoIs. Jio, which first acquired 4G spectrum in 2010, now has the highest quantum of 4G spectrum across the 800 MHz, 1,800 MHz and 2,300 MHz bands.

Goldberg — Inked Deal To Appear In Royal Rumble Match Prior To Bout With Brock Lesnar

There’s a reason Goldberg was made to look so dominant during his return tonight at the Survivor Series … The Sheet has learned he recently agreed to appear in the upcoming Royal Rumble.

Sources tell us the 49-year-old made the deal this week that will see him participate in a Rumble match for the second time in his career. This year’s event is in January at the Alamodome.

For those who missed his return, Goldberg DOMINATED Brock Lesnar in a match that lasted only a few minutes — surprising the entire wrestling world.

No word at this point as to whether any sort of WrestleMania match is in the works. After watching tonight’s PPV though, we can only imagine that The Beast will be thirsty for revenge.

Stay tuned.

Another MAJOR Star Agrees To Compete In Upcoming Royal Rumble Match

Goldberg isn’t the only part-time wrestler who will appear in next year’s Royal Rumble … Pro Wrestling Sheet has learned another big name has also agreed to compete in the match.

Multiple sources confirm that Brock Lesnar has been booked for the Alamodome on January 29th for the Rumble, which only makes sense now that his Survivor Series opponent is in it as well.

We broke the story over the weekend, and Goldberg confirmed last night on Raw that he’d be in the 30-man match. He also said that he’s got another title run left in the tank.

For what it’s worth, the event is still 2 months away and plans could always change. As of right now though, The Beast is pencilled in to enter the over-the-top-rope battle royal.

Will the two powerhouses once again collide at the Rumble? All signs point to yes.

WWE Royal Rumble 2017: The Undertaker Vs. AJ Styles And 5 Ways To Pack The Alamodome

WWE Royal Rumble will be a star-studded show featuring the likes of Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, AJ Styles and Roman Reigns, and as expected, the pay-per-view already has some lofty expectations.

For the first time in 20 years, The Royal Rumble will take place from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The last time it was held there, WWE packed in 60,525 fans, a record crowd for the event that still stands to this day and one that the company will undoubtedly look to break in 2017.

WWE is hoping that The Royal Rumble will be a bigger and more successful event than every PPV not named WrestleMania, so the creative team will have to pull out all the stops to ensure that it will not only live up to, but exceed, the high expectations fans already have for the historic return to the Alamodome.

While it won’t be easy, WWE certainly has the ability to make the 2017 Royal Rumble one for the ages. But how can the company achieve that?

Here are five things WWE can do to guarantee a packed house of more than 60,000 fans in San Antonio.