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There are 8 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India" Nokia Adds Microsoft Email Function To PhonesNokia will be adding Microsoft Mail for Exchange in its E and N Series of phones. The series runs on Nokia’s S 60 platform. It has added the software to almost 80 million mobile devices already, reports ET. Mark Louison, head of Nokia’s North American operations, said, “Microsoft Mail For Exchange is the world’s most popular e-mail solution. This is a great way for our users to unlock Mail For Exchange.” Unlike in India, Nokia’s the fifth largest phone maker in North America. Where it lags behind the Blackberry and iPhone. With Nokia getting serious about the softwares and services (Read : Why Ovi Is Important To Nokia? )that it provides, along with the hardware, tying up with Microsoft can be a real plus and might score a point with the business customers. Good times ahead for the mobile consumers. A lot of integrated services and now from the hardware makers themselves. Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult UAE’s Telecom Giant Etisalat Eyes Majority Stake in Mumbai’s Swan TelecomThe Indian Telecom industry is abuzz with activity and we’ve been paying close attention to the details to bring you news as it happens (or in this case, as it is about to happen). Not too long after we reported that Norway’s Telenor and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo were ready to pick up stakes in the Indian Telecom Operators Unitech Wireless and Tata Teleservices respectively, we come across this report which talks about Etisalat who seems to be interested in picking up a majority stake in Mumbai’s Swan Telecom. Etisalat (Emirates Telecommunications), which is one of the telecom giants in the UAE is almost done picking up a majority stake in Mumbai-based Swan Teecom, which is one of the six new telecom companies who have received licenses from the Indian Government to operate and service in the various telecom circles in India. As per the information gathered from various industry sources, Etisalat has been longing to find itself an Indian partner to enter the fastest growing telecom market for the past 6 months. It seems that initial talks with Spice Communications and Datacom have failed and that the company is in the final stages of closing this deal. According to the report, Etisalat is all set to pick up a majority 51% stake in Swan Telecom. However, it doesn’t seem to be an easy road for Etisalat to tread. India’s Foreign Direct Investment rules state that the Foreign Investment Promotion Board can refuse approval of a foreign investment from companies that operate in foreign unfriendly countries. This might just be the unwanted barrier for Etisalat, claims the paper, though it goes onto say that the same is being dismissed as a non-issue by many sources. The UAE giant has its operations in Pakistan. This makes Etisalat among the many other global players who want to set foot in the Indian Market. Vodafone, Hutch, Orange have all eaten the pie while firms such as AT&T, ZTE, NTT DoCoMo, Telenor, France Telecom are starting to queue up to grab a bite. Indian companies such as Datacom (backed by Videocon) and Unitech Wireless (which in our last entry denied having finalized a player) are still looking to partner with international players, so they might just be the friend the international giants are looking for. All this activity seems to have picked up a lot of pace after the announcement of 3G spectrum auction. The government has already initiated the auction process and the same are scheduled to be conducted in the coming weeks. BSNL has already begun testing their 3G services in the city of Pune, after it was allotted the spectrum along with MTNL. Are you ready for the 3G revolution yet? Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Build Your Mobile Website Right From Your Mobile Phone Using mobiSiteGaloreRemember mobiSiteGalore, that enables you to build quick & free mobile website (.mobi), from a computer without requiring any knowledge of coding, optimized specifically to be viewed on the small screen of a mobile phone!
mobiSiteGalore, which is backed by chennai based Akmin, recently launched a new service - 'Build-with-Mobile' that let you do the same job right from your mobile phone. All you need is an internet connection on your mobile.
Anyone with a basic Internet connection (like GPRS) on their mobile phone can visit www.mobisitegalore.com or www.mobisitegalore.mobi, sign up for a free account and build their full-fledged mobile website right away. We went ahead and built a dummy mobi site. Check out the screencast that shows how to use this service.
Following are some of the features of mobiSiteGalore:-
In today's context where 4 times more users have access to a mobile phone than a PC/Laptop and looking to the future of internet which is clearly mobile, mobile version of your site is a must to reach to a much larger audience from different walks of life. Give it a try! Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult MapmyIndia Targets 1 Million+ Sales Of Navigator Device In 3 YearsMapmyIndia the Indian startup which provides detailed maps at different zoom levels on the Net and related applications like Mapsearch, eLocation, Driving Directions & Local Search and that extended it core competency offline by launched a in car navigator late last year has now set its sight on selling atleast 1 lakh of those navigator devices.
Rohan Verma, director of MapmyIndia told business standard about his companies plans, “PNDs (Personal Navigation Devices) are quite new to the country but with companies like Ford, General Motors and Sony Ericcson promoting these devices through their car and mobile handset sales the concept is going to be popular. We intend to sell around 100,000 devices by March 2009 and are targeting at a million plus sales within next three years” At the time of the launch we had shown concern over the price of the device which was about Rs.22,000 then. But MapmyIndia went the tie up route and soon struck a deal with General Motors to bundle navigator as a add on accessory for their luxury cars. Mapmyindia has been very active in taking their maps offline be it the navigator or even the mobile device with a GPS based solution for Windows Mobile 6 phones. There were also hints dropped by Rohan of taking the maps to TV at the last IAMAI conference. They have competition in this space from the likes of All in all it does seem that MapmyIndia plans to take maps everywhere though the navigator could be their trump card as it does have potential as a product within luxury segment cars which is growing rapidly in India. Sale of a million such devices would mean 50 Million $ in revenue which if achieved would mean a windfall for the VC’s Nexus India Capital which backed MapmyIndia in its early days with 2.5 million $ and lately Kleiner Perkins and Sherpalo ventures. PS - You can also watch our exclusive interview on WATShow with Rohan Verma of MapmyIndia Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Exclusive: Tushar Burman Joins Infomedia India SIP As Head -Internet - To Relaunch CHIP & Other Magazine SitesYou are reading it here first: As per our sources Tushar Burman has joined Infomedia India as Head-Internet and will be responsible for relaunching Special Interest Publications (SIP’s) online presence. Tushar was earlier in the Indian Express group where he was the Associate Editor of “Intelligent Enterprise” a enterprise technology magazine. Prior to this he has worked with Dunn & Bradstreet as a senior analyst and Jasubhai Group as a senior writer. Infomedia India which was bought by Network18 late last year and which boasts of a magazine brands portfolio of the likes of Chip, OverDrive, BetterPhotography, T3, AVMax and Better Interiors is looking at the digital medium seriously. And why not when even publishing firms from the west are forging joint ventures to enter the Indian market. Most of Infomedia’s magazine’s already have an online presence but besides for their tech magazine CHIP’s online site Chip.in the other magazine sites have not been updated since 2007 (check betterphotography.in, betterinteriors.in and overdrive.in) which kind of explains a need to get a Head of Internet and pull up socks on that front. Also as Infomedia is now part of the Network18 group there could be a possible conflict in CHIP and Tech2 which essentially target the same audience. So it will be interesting as to how the structure and marketing of these sites take place. One would think all the online properties should be a part of Web18 their web arm but as of now thats not the case. As suggested in our earlier article offline magazines seem to be taking their online presence far more seriously now. They seem to get it now that most of the reading (at least the ones connected to technology) might move online sooner or later in a big way and this move is to be ready as when that happens. Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Endemol (Reality TV Production House) To Enter Gaming SpaceSo all you TV junkies out there (I am one!), Endemol must be a familiar name among you. No, those who still can’t remember this name, are just not watching enough of television. So let me tell you about it. Endemol is the International company behind the shows like Fear Factor, Big Brother (Big Boss in India), Deal Or No Deal etc. Indian companies have been remixing and making successful shows around many of the Endemol shows. World over, it’s a renowned company in TV production, which was once listed on the Euronet Amsterdam Exchange but is now de-listed. The big news is that Endemol is entering the gaming market, according to Indiantelevision.com. Endemol will be creating games based on the shows that it holds the licenses for. Deal or NO Deal and Set For Life are the shows that might see their game versions coming out soon. Endemol India country head Deepak Dhar said, “We are talking to various broadcasters to license out the gaming software for our shows. From now on, we will try to do a simultaneous launch of the gaming software along with its launch on various TV channels.” Logical step for a company that wants to rise up from being just a TV production house to a full-fledges entertainment company. However, competition in Indian gaming market is tough. Even fierce now, what with the entry of Reliance’s Zapak. Movies based on computer games have done well in the past. However, there are little evidence of the computer games based on TV properties (or movies, for that matter) that became hit. Let’s see if they can make some compelling content. Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Media Transasia In Joint Venture with Dennis Publishing - To Set Up New Tech Online Title By Year EndMedia Transasia and Dennis Publishing have formed a joint venture and plan to launch a new online technology site by year end along with three magazine tiles by next year in India. There are already a bunch of technology news sites like Tech2 and Techtree which are backed by big media companies like Network18 and UTV respectively and this foray will only make things competitive and cut throat. There is also CIOL which has tying up with international brands for the media services business. Dennis publishing has brands like ITPro, ComputerBuyer, ComputerShopper and IGizmo in the west. We shall have to wait and watch till year end as to whether they bring a brand name from there or start a completely new online property and brand. Speaking on the decision to enter the Indian market, James Tye, CEO, Dennis Publications told E4M "We see India as a dynamic market with huge potential. The growth in India is bigger than in the US and the UK, and we feel it was important for us to be present in this market." Speaking on the Joint Venture he said "We developed good relations with Media Transasia when they took the licence to bring 'Maxim' and 'Blenders' magazines in India, and we though this was the right company to do form a JV with them as we are both privately owned companies and share the same philosophy of serving our customers with innovative editorial, in print, online and on mobile. We are confident that Media Transasia will be great partners" Media Transasia seems to be looking at pumping in a lot of funds as Rasina Uberoi, Vice President, International, Media Transasia, said, "We have huge investment plans lined up for India and look forward to making this JV make the Indian media scene rock." Looking at this news I feel soon there will be a trend where more and more publication companies will go digital and 2009 will be an interesting year to track how these primarily offline media companies are able to fare in the online space. Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult Anuj Dahiya heads to NDTV Media While Kallie Purie joins India Today Digital (Via WATJob.com)With the Digital space growing with each day the need for middle and top management staff is growing as well and its no surprise that many Industry movements are happening where in people are leaving cushy jobs and taking key positions in upcoming digital initiatives. So here are the two key industry movements that happened in the last few days: Anuj Dahiya who was working with ValueFirst, a mobile data services company for a year as country head, business development has joined NDTV Media as national head, digital ad sales. He will report to Narendra Tripathi, senior vice-president, NDTV Media. He shall be handling ad sales of sites like MSN, Facebook and Bollywoodhungama.com which come under the ad sales deal of NDTV Media. At India Today Group The digital business is picking up steam and they have realigned their online properties under India Today Digital and launched itgo.in which will now be headed by Kalli Purie who is also the daughter of India Today founder Aroon Purie. (Via WATJob.com) Follow Industry movements and Job Openings On WATJob.com Related PostsAlso check out Our Jobsite: WATJob Our Video Show: WATShow Our Gaming Blog: WATGame Our Consulting: WATConsult More Recent Articles
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