Apple beats Xiaomi in China with 45 mn iPhone shipments, Oppo leads

Latest News - Shipping 44.9 million iPhones to China, Apple has beaten Xiaomi, touted as the 'Apple' of China that shipped 41.5 million smartphones and slipped to fifth spot, market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) has revealed.

According to IDC's Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report, Apple dropped from 58.4 million iPhones in 2015 and Xiaomi from 64 million Mi phones, drops of 23 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively.

Oppo, which shipped 78.4 million phones -- more than double the 35.4 million it shipped in 2015. Huawei came in at second, shipping 76 million phones, while Vivo managed to almost double its shipments, going from 35 million in 2015 to 69 million last year.

"Increased dependence on mobile apps has led to consumers to seek phone upgrades, thus helping drive the large growth in fourth quarter of 2016. In lower tiered cities, there was a similar demand by (Read More)

Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl says profits 2 years away, road ahead is clear

Latest News - Indian e-commerce firm Snapdeal expects to turn profitable in the next two years, its CEO said, as the company cuts costs and boosts efficiency in a market currently dominated by homegrown Flipkart and US internet giant Amazon.

Kunal Bahl, who co-founded Snapdeal in 2010, also told Reuters in an interview that the online marketplace provider backed by Japan's SoftBank Group did not immediately need to raise capital unless it makes an acquisition.

A burgeoning Indian middle class' rapid uptake of wireless high-speed internet has prompted buyers to shop online, boosting sales at e-tailers and making the country's internet services market one of the (Read More)

Facebook, Google join drive against fake news in France

Latest News - Giant Internet firms Facebook and Google joined forces with news organisations on Monday to launch new fact-checking tools designed to root out "fake news" stories in France ahead of the country's presidential election.

Social networks and news aggregators came under fire during the US presidential vote when it became clear they had inadvertently fanned false news reports.

Facebook , said it would work with eight French news organisations, including news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), news channel BFM TV, and newspapers L'Express and Le Monde to minimise the risk that (Read More)

United Opposition attacks government over note ban in parliament

Micromax plans to raise Rs 510-680 cr in next 12 to 18 months

Latest News - Indian handset maker Micromax Informatics has said it is planning to raise and invest an amount of Rs 510-680 crore ($75-100 million) in the next 12 to 18 months.

While the firm is primarily into procuring and marketing mobile handsets and consumer durables, it had invested in a few companies earlier on its own, unlike the proposed initiative where it will raise funds and lead the project.

According to Rahul Sharma, co-founder, Micromax, some of its past investments have provided huge returns (where the internal rate of return had been in “triple digits”) and thus it is willing to expand the “horizon”. Micromax had set up a corpus of Rs 2,700 crore ($400 million) in 2014 and has since invested in 10 firms. Here are some of them:

Transerv: Micromax Informatics had tied up with Transerv, a Mumbai-headquartered digital payment solution company, in early 2016 to offer (Read More)

Vodafone, Idea merger plans leave Tata Teleservices in the lurch

Latest News - The proposed plan by British telecom major Vodafone and Aditya Birla group’s Idea Cellular to merge their operations has Tata Teleservices in the lurch. Tata Teleservices was in talks with Vodafone for a merger that would have resulted in synergy gains of Rs 10,000 crore for both players.

Last week, Vodafone confirmed that it had initiated talks with the Birlas for a merger that would create India’s biggest mobile operator with over 382 million customers. The British company walked away from merger talks with the Tatas citing its own initial public offer plans.

Insiders said while Vodafone and Idea would gain if the merger took place, Tata Teleservices would be left fighting a battle to retain its 6.5% revenue market share. With three large players Vodafone-Idea, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio commanding 90% market share, it will become difficult for (Read More)

Tata Sons shareholders vote to remove Mistry as director

Latest News - Shareholders of Tata Sons, in an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Monday afternoon, voted to remove former chairman Cyrus Mistry as director of the company. The meeting took place at the Bombay House, the headquarters of the $103-billion group.

The meeting was attended by Tata Sons interim chairman Ratan Tata, N Chandrasekaran, who will take over as Tata Sons chairman on February 21, and other Tata Sons directors, including Ajay Piramal. Mistry did not attend the meeting. A one-line statement from Tata Sons said (Read More)