India | Fone Arena

iBall Andi 4.7G Cobalt Review

iBall has launched a lot of Android smartphones in India for a while now and it is yet to make the mark that others like Micromax or Karbonn have been able to make. Things could change very soon for Mumbai based iBall with the launch of their recent iBall Andi 4.7G Cobalt.

The iBall Andi 4.7G Cobalt has the right mixture of specifications and pricing to make it a successful, but only if people knew of its existence. It is a typical mid-range phablet that has the specifications and pricing resembling other devices, but is different in its own way. It was launched at a hefty price tag of Rs. 19,995, but now it is available for around Rs. 15,500 in the market. Continue reading “iBall Andi 4.7G Cobalt Review”

Micromax and Karbonn take top positions as the Indian Smartphone market surges ahead with the Phablet revolution

You might have seen us reporting on various marketshare reports each month coming from a company called IDC. Usually, the company provides a wider perspective of the global market for mobile phones as well as smartphones, but this time, they have focused on the second fastest growing mobile phone market in the world, India. We saw in June that the overall shipments of Smartphones in India was at just 6.1 million devices, but in a quarter, it has risen to 9.3 million shipments, according to IDC. And over half of the shipments were from local players like Micromax, Karbonn and the others, with the former taking the no. 2 and 3 positions of the Top 5 Smartphone vendors in the Indian market respectively.

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ZTE Grand X Quad Lite with 5 inch qHD display launched in India for Rs. 14,999

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Apart from five low to mid range smartphones that ZTE launched today, in India, the Chinese manufacturer has also revealed its flagship device. The flagship device, although falling in the similar mid range price bracket, has matching specs with the current crop of 5 inch devices that are doing the rounds in the market. Equipped with a 5 inch qHD screen and a quad core processor, ZTE hopes to peg this as the phone to get from its portfolio for the Indian consumers. That said, ZTE seems to really acknowledge the fact that in India, the volume is in mid range. Let us take a look at the specifications of the device then.

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HP Slatebook x2 Android convertible launched in India for Rs. 39,990

Ever since the HP slate that launched at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, HP had started its Android on-slaught with more devices. Sometime back, HP launched the Slatebook X2, a convertible Android tablet with a keyboard dock that made it work like a laptop too, if needed. This is the standard on most Windows 8 tablets and the trend was started way back, by the ASUS transformer, which has been caught up by other companies such as HP.

The SlateBook X2 has a 10.1-inch (1920 by 1200 pixels) IPS display, powered by a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor and runs on Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean). Surprisingly, the full sized detachable keyboard dock has a touch pad too. The Keyboard dock has a full HDMI port, USB 2.0, an SD slot, and an audio port. It also has a battery that would act as a charger when docked.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 and 8.0 likely to launch tomorrow in India

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The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 and 8.0 inch devices were launched separately, with one device announced in April and the other on the 3rd of June, with not that much of a fanfare. In less than two months, it has been teased as “coming to India” on Samsung’s Facebook page and is also being displayed as “coming soon” in the Samsung India eStore for the both the models. The Galaxy Tab 3 devices are an evolution of the Galaxy Tab 2 tablet and are all equipped with voice calling capabilities, much like the original Galaxy Tab. Boasting 7 and 8 inch screens respectively, they are much of the earlier Samsung device like the Tab 2 310 and the Note 8.0. It is also likely that Samsung will be launching both the devices tomorrow, as we have just received an invite for a press conference tomorrow.

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Rise of Nokia Lumia 520, the world’s most popular Windows Phone

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It has been just four months since the Nokia Lumia 520 started rolling out in various parts of the world, especially India, but it has already taken the top spot as the world’s most popular Windows Phone, according to recently released statistics from Ad Duplex, a Windows specific ad-platform company that claims to be installed on most Windows Phones inside third party apps. Anonymously, they usually collect data and release it every month, but this time, it’s something special. It is all about how the Lumia 520 dominated the Windows Phone marketshare in most countries, including India, to become the most loved Windows Phone in the world.

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Nokia Lumia 1020 US retail price revealed, but what will it cost in India?

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If you just can’t get enough of the Nokia Lumia 1020, here’s more juicy information about the 41 megapixel camera phone. One of the most important factors of any phone launch is the pricing and it has been revealed on the show floor that the Nokia Lumia 1020 will go on sale in the US on July 28th, exclusive to AT&T at 299$, but what if it wasn’t? What would be its price if it was sold unlocked or off contract? The above image answers that exact question. Yes, it might cost 650$ unlocked, but that’s not going to happen due to the exclusivity. But then, the Lumia 1020 is a global phone too right? So what might be the cost in India when it launches here? Read on to find out.

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How to book a Indian Railways train ticket from your mobile phone with just two SMSes

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Indian Railways ticketing has always been cumbersome. While the online booking system indeed solved some of the issues, the IRCTC website always makes us nostalgic of the long waiting queues at stations and be the pinnacle of utter disappointment at times. While the website offers infinite control over your ticket booking, there are a lot of times when you just want it done, with minimal effort. Till now, it hasn’t been possible but worry not, a new and easy way of booking train tickets for Indian Railways is here, and it takes just two steps to book a ticket for upto six passengers! Read on to find out how.

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Samsung is now no.1 in India, leaps ahead of Nokia in overall mobile shipments

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Amidst tough competition from various home brands like Karbonn, Micromax and Lava, Samsung has finally snatched the no.1 spot from Nokia as the leader in overall mobile shipments. The market in India is currently highly saturated with numerous models from various homegrown manufacturers but the two stalwarts of the mobile industry have so far been the leaders when it comes to overall share. Nokia had been the no. 1 in overall shipments for a long time in India, mainly because the country was a feature phone market. But as the market has now matured, Nokia is finding it tough to adapt with its new Windows Phone strategy. Samsung has finally achieved what it always secretly wanted, to trump Nokia in India, and it has done it now.

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Opinion – Why 3G Fair Usage Policy is Retarded

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Interrupting my usual Internet binging over a daily 2 hour commute, was a message from my operator. The message said I had exhausted my 2 GB limit for high speed internet this month, and now will be forced to a ridiculously low speed of 64 kbps. Say what?! Yes, I understand the concept of a fair usage policy thank you very much, and hey, apparently, I can either go through with the reduced speeds or order an add-on pack for an additional 250 rupees for a GB of 3G data. How lovely!

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Apple’s iPhone sales grow 400 percent in India

Credit Suisse has issued a note to clients stating that iPhone sales in India have shot up by close to 400 percent. Reported by the Economic Times, the note suggests that the EMI plans and other schemes initiated in India have had the desired effect resulting in quadrupled sales.

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Tata Docomo partners with Opera for a co-branded Opera Mini browser

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Tata Docomo, one of the many leading operators in India, has partnered with Opera, the browser company, for providing a customized co-branded Opera Mini browser for all of its users in India. Armed with server side data compression technology, which the company pioneered, it provides up to 90% compression and lets you browse with much lesser impact on your mobile data balance. The co-branded browser is available for download at m.opera.com on all the supported mobile devices. That means everything except Windows Phone, we guess.

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BlackBerry launches 0% EMI scheme for BlackBerry Z10 and Curve 9220, partners with Idea for BIS offer

It’s been quite a while since the BlackBerry Z10 launched in India, and that too, with a hefty price tag. To spur the sales of the device, the Waterloo company has now joined the “0% EMI” bandwagon by offering an EMI scheme for the only BlackBerry 10 device in the market as well as the cheap Curve device – the 9220. Like most other EMI schemes offered by companies like Samsung and Nokia, this will also feature Rs.0 down payment, 0% processing fee and 0% interest and the plan will be rolled out in 3000 BlackBerry outlets across India this weekend. One can choose to pay Rs. 4,799/- per month for 9 months, for the BlackBerry Z10 and Rs. 799/- per month for 12 months, for the Curve 9220.

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Mobile data usage nearly doubles in India, thanks to a 3x increase in 3G usage

According to a MBIT index study conducted by Nokia Siemens Networks, the 3G infrastructure provider for most of the networks in India, it has been revealed that the mobile data usage in the country has almost doubled in the period of December 2011 – 2012. The main reason for the increased usage in mobile data is attributed to 3 times increase in usage of 3G mobile data by consumers, mainly from, what operators call, the “A” circles. Apparently, a regular 3G user consumes an average of 434 MB per month while the average amount of data consumed by the 2G user is 115 MB per month. Ultimately, there has been a 92% total increase in the usage of mobile data, with a whopping 196% increase in 3G usage and a 66% increase in 2G usage.

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