After we reported the Nokia is in talks to acquire NAVTEQ, Nokia issued a Press Release to confirm the deal.
Nokia will pay a price of approximately $8.1 billion for the take over.
Nokia is in serious talks to acquire Navteq who is a leading navigation software maker.
Interestingly Navteq is also a data provider for Google Maps.
The company has a $7.61 billion market capitalization – their main business is software for in-vehicle navigation systems.
If Nokia bags Navteq , it will be a shot in the arm for Nokia’s GPS Device offerings and the mobile-services arena.
Nokia and Navteq already have a business relationship, where Navteq provides information for Nokia’s mobile phones.
via [WSJ]
Vodafone India (Hutch) has introduced the Blackberry 8310 and Blackberry 8820 priced at Rs.24,990 and Rs.31,990
Vodafone acquired Hong Kong-based Hutchison International’s Indian telecom arm Hutch’…
Vodafone India (Hutch) has introduced the Blackberry 8310 and Blackberry 8820 priced at Rs.24,990 and Rs.31,990
Vodafone acquired Hong Kong-based Hutchison International’s Indian telecom arm Hutch’s stake for $11.1 billion in May this year. The company earlier said it would be investing $2 billion in consolidating and expanding its business in the country.
Vodafone Essar, India’s second largest mobile service operator after Airtel, has a subscriber base of 34.11 million and a market share of 20.11 percent as on Aug 31, 2007, according to data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).
It would be great to see the premium offerrings from Vodafone
The Global Mobile Service Providers starts operations in India, the 2nd largest mobile market in the world. The Vodafone logo is synonymous with the Global Red Branding strategy of Vodafone.
As an Indian Mobile user, I have never seen Vodafone as a Mobile brand. I relate it to the Ferrari Formula 1 Team ( Vodafone is a sponsor for the team)
But now all of a sudden, Vodafone is a Mobile Operator in India. Vodafone is known worldwide for its Value Added Services. Will be interesting to see what Vodafone does in India considering the nature of the market.
The Hutch pug in the new Vodafone TV AD
My Vodafone number phone was showing the Hutch operator text till yesterday
but changed to Vodafone suddenly . A really fast re-branding excercise I must say.
Now the hutch website hutch.in points to vodafone.in
Fly enters low cost handset market with V70 and M110
Meridian Mobile – A major player in the telecom (mobile handset) industry are pleased to announce the launch of low cost phones in Indian market under the Fly brand.
‘Fly’ a much sought after brand in the Central Europe market is now creating ripples not only in India but also in Germany, Spain and south Asian markets.
Fly currently has a range of 18 models in the Indian market. All the models are feature packed mid-segment phones. The latest to join the Fly family are the V70 & M110. This takes the number of currently running models to 20.
The V70 & M110 marks the entry of Fly in to the low priced segment. While the phones are reasonably priced, they still flaunt best in class features & stunning looks.
V70 – Candy Bar Phone
A smart Candy Bar phone displaying simplicity at its best. It exhibits a lively combination of entertaining features at extremely reasonable prices. This light weight phone offers the most hunted features like MP3 ring tones and USB connect. It has a lot to do with the music lovers as it offers radio FM facility with built in antenna. It also has a 4x zoom VGA Camera for soft clicks and offers a satisfying storage capacity of 500 in phonebook and up to 200 messages. It gives a battery back up of 2 hours and 30 minutes of talk time and remarkable 120 hours at standby mode.
This phone is priced at Rs.3250/-
M110 – Clamshell Phone
A Cute Clamshell mobile fulfilling all the basic requirements with its quality features. It can be connected with the PC sync via USB. It is a high on storage phone with a storage memory of 500 in the phonebook and up to 200 messages. The VGA Camera it offers facilitates the user with 4x Zoom. Enjoy foot tapping music and your favourite numbers every time your phone rings with MP3 ring tones. All these exiting features are available at most reasonable price.
This phone is priced at Rs.3150/-
The highly popular Nokia 6300 gets an nice upgrade to Wi-Fi with the new Nokia 6301
The highly popular Nokia 6300 gets an nice upgrade to Wi-Fi with the new Nokia 6301.
Its a Triband GSM phone with Wi-Fi and GPRS, EDGE. It sports Bluetooth 2 with EDR &. of the features are same as the Nokia 6300 except the Wi-fi and the UMA (Unified Mobile Access). The phone comes with a nice dock so you dont have to hold this beaaty when you are at work.
Though the 6300 is low on battery life , still its a hit due the sleek design.
Price and Availability
Expected to be available for Christmas for approximately Rs.10000
Nokia today announced a new member to it E series of phones – the Nokia E51 .
The E Series phones are targeted at business and enterprise user.
The E51 is a sequel to the E50.
Its just 12mm thick but has Wlan ,Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, microSD expansion
Network features include GSM Quad band support, 3G, HSPDA, GPRS and EDGE
It sports a 2 Mega pixel Camera also.
Other highlights include FM Radio and Music Player.
The E51 is set to hit the stores in October or November and will retail at about EUR 350 or Rs.20,000 in India.
Specifications and Photos
The Hutch pug and the Hutch pink will soon not be seen on Indian screens and hoardings as Vodafone is going to roll out its Global branding in India from September.
Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone will unleash the Vodafone logo later this week in India
Vodafone has made bulk bookings on Star and Sony Television for airing the new Ads.
Apple has reduced the price the iPhone 8GB edition to 399 USD from 599 USD.
Thats a sharp 33 % decline price in the phone within 2 months of the launch on June 29th.
Apple is giving a free $100 voucher to customers who had paid $599 for the same device.
This move was because many consumers were angry with Apple for making them pay extra for the same device just months back.
The price cut coincides with the announcement of new music devices like the iPod Touch and the New iPod Nano.
We speculate that the iPhone will hit the $200 mark by the time it hits Asia and India.
HP has announced two new phones in its iPAQ series
HP IPAQ 610
The iPAQ 610 belongs to the Business Navigator series
Features
HP IPAQ 910
The iPAQ 910 belongs to Business Messenger series.
It sports a QWERTY keypad and has a larger screen. Apart from that all features are identical to the 610.
Pricing is expectd to be announced shortly.
Being a mobile phone blog we get numerous requests from desperate users who have just lost their phones. Sadly we cant help.
BPL Mobile has come up with an interesting Mobile Tracker solution which sends out an SMS when the SIM Card on your mobile phone is changed. The software works only on some GSM / Nokia Symbian handsets which include
Symbian Series 60 First Edition
Symbian Series 60 Second Edition
Symbian Series 60 Third Edition
Thats good news only for Nokia users.35 Handsets are supported as of now.
Features
Rediff.com reported last week that gPhone would be launched in India in September.
We also reported earlier about the gPhone from Google possibly being an iPhone Killer
Now its getting closer. Reports suggest that the gPhone runs Linux and might be a Openmoko phone customized to run Google Apps like Gmail, Gtalk,Google Mobile Maps,News , Youtube and Calendar.
Possible Features
Price
The price is expected to be around $100 or Rs.4000 approx for the entry level phone. There might be a high end phone with better features and might compete with the iPhone.
At this stage. This news is still a rumor and there’s not official confirmation about the phone.
But there’s enough evidence that Google is working on a phone as Google has accepted that its in talk with Operators in India
We covered the Nokia N81 slider before
The N81 is expected to be a 8GB Music Phone with a 2 Mega pixel Camer and 3G.
It might have a secondary camera for Video Calling.
More details and pricing are awaited
Today is August 29th and We can expect some new announcements from Nokia.
Nokia is holding a function at the Ministry of Sound Club in London later today .
We spotted some Nokia N95 8GB pics on the net.
It might just be a rumor but the graphics seem real.
Lets wait for the official confirmation later today
Nokia E61i is an enterprise phone loaded with features. It gives Blackberry handsets some serious competition.
Update : Nokia E71 is out and chk out the review
The handset fits snuggly in the hand (at least for me)
The design is impressive and has luxury touch added to it due to the metallic finish similar to the 8800
The phone is an upgraded version of the E61 which lacked a Camera and had a primitive browser. But the built of the E61i is much better than the E61. The keypad has undergone a transformation for the better.
