Xiaomi Redmi 1S enters the arena: A true ‘first smartphone’ for the feature phone generationIn 2010, Micromax launched the Andro A60, a phone that was not memorable in any way, except for its catchy advertisements. Till then Android phones were considered out of reach of the masses, since they were mostly high-end, but Micromax billed the A60 as ‘My first Android’. It was priced at around Rs 8,000, had a tiny display with a 320×240 pixel resolution, a 600 MHz single-core processor, memory of 150 MB and a SD card slot. It really was the most basic offering you could get.

It may not have been the ideal first smartphone in terms of specs or Android phone, but since then the threshold for entry-level has changed massively and the specs picture has also changed dramatically. The price revolution has been led by Micromax and other Indian vendors such as Karbonn, Lava and Spice. As more and more brands arrived in the market, the low-end pricing kept 

Calm after the storm? Xiaomi Mi 3 reportedly discontinued in India as Mi 4 launch Looks like Xiaomi is training all its attention on the upcoming Redmi 1S as reports around the web suggest that the company will stop selling the Mi 3 indefinitely.

A report on tech blog TechPP quotes the company’s India head Manu Jain as saying, “Over next few weeks, we will focus on Redmi 1S, and Mi 3 wont be available. We will take the final call after few weeks, once we have more visibility / data points.”

New ultra-competitive Angry Birds game is out for iOS and Android; has deep Facebook integration

Another iteration of the addictive Angry Birds game has hit smartphones. Angry Birds Friends, the newest game, is more or less like the previous ones, wherein you have to fling birds to destroy pigs. While the gameplay may remain pretty much the same, the game now comes with a new, interactive social angle. It tracks and stacks up your score against friends via Facebook. You get to compare and pit your score against other players of every platform the game is available on. This means, players on Facebook, iOS and Android can judge each other’s score. The new version is free on both platforms. Get socially interactive with Angry Birds Friends Angry Birds Friends features tournaments offering new levels every week. The interactive angle allows players to brag, send gifts, and invite Facebook friends to play. It comes with four classic power-ups, plus one exclusive to Angry Birds Friends on mobile. You can challenge your Facebook friends for bronze, silver, and gold trophies. Expect daily rewards, and also free bird-coins just for completing the tutorial.  Angry Birds has been one of the most celebrated games of the mobile platform that leverages on the touchscreen. Moreover,  Rovio has kept dishing out several iterations of the game to keep up the entertainment quotient. Early last month, it had teased mobile gaming fiends with a possible Angry Birds Seasons, giving us a hint or two about the forthcoming update. Considering the popularity of the game, Rovio has announced the all-new animated series wherein fans will be able to watch the latest adventures of birds and pigs with the Angry Birds Toons.

Apple could price the budget iPhone around $350 and not lower: JP Morgan

There’s some more discussion around the budget iPhone and this time it is about the price. While many have been speculating that Apple will launch an iPhone with middling specifications for as little as $200, two analysts from JP Morgan think they have worked out what the actual price could be. They claim that the "budget" iPhone could sport a $350-400 price tag. According to AllThingsD, the theory put forth by Gokul Hariharan and Mark Moskowitz, analysts from JP Morgan, has very strong historical precedents. They cite the example of the iPad mini, which was priced at $329 at its launch. Many felt that compared to its competition then, the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire, the mini was overpriced as the Nexus 7 started at $249 and Amazon’s media consumption tablet cost $199. They felt that this would make the iPad mini a difficult device to sell to the budget conscious. The roaring success of the iPad mini, however, has proved them wrong with almost 12 million of the smaller tablets being sold in the last quarter, making up almost 55 percent of the total iPad shipments and helping Apple maintain a near 40 percent share of the tablet market. The pricing of the iPad mini has thus helped Apple carve out a new slice of the tablet market with a middle price band of $329 and in the process, also dominate the tablet market as a whole. The plastic back of the rumoured budget iPhone A similar strategy was seen with the iPod nano. The launch price of $199 was again perceived as too expensive as the low-end MP3 players of that time were significantly cheaper. But the iPod nano proved to be immensely successful and ensured Apple’s near monopoly of the MP3 player market. This strategy of sacrificing some of its margins in order to unlock yet another segment of the market has been spelled out by the company’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer. “We are managing the business for the long term and are willing to trade off short-term profits where we see long-term potential,” he said during Apple’s most recent earnings call. According to JP Morgan, we could see this strategy being played out in the smartphone market too. The middle section of the smartphone market is dominated globally by Samsung. The Korean company has a market share of over 35 percent in the $200-500 price range. Apple’s current flagship smartphone iPhone 5 starts at $649. The analysts from JP Morgan opine that launching a new product in the $350-400 level could see Apple secure nearly 25 percent of that market share in a matter of just 12 months. There is definitely a market for Apple phones in that range and the recent sellout of the two-generations-old iPhone 4 priced at Rs 26,000 (approx $480) in India is a good indication of that. A new Apple phone priced in and around Rs 20,000 ($350-400) will be in sync with its strategy thus far and help it grab a chunk of the smartphone pie in the middle segment.

Acer to launch 8.1-inch, 32GB Windows 8 tablet soon

Yesterday, we reported that Microsoft would be working on a 7.5-inch Windows 8 tablet in order to compete with Apple’s iPad mini and Google’s Nexus 7, both of which have been runaway hits. It turns out that this isn't the only small-sized Windows 8 tablet that we’ll be seeing. An "accidental" listing on Amazon.com of an 8.1-inch, 32GB Windows 8 tablet by Acer was reported by PC World. The tablet was listed at a price of $379.99, which is extremely competitive given that a 32GB Wi-Fi-only iPad mini costs $429.00. The listing was spotted during an event by Acer in New York where it unveiled a wide range of gadgets. The Taiwan-based company introduced a 15.6-inch Acer Aspire R7, an 11.6-inch Acer Aspire Ultrabook, the 7.9-inch Iconia A1 tablet and a series of touch notebook computers. The Iconia W3 that was listed on Amazon.com wasn’t unveiled, which is probably why the listing was yanked off in a matter of minutes. The leaked listing (Image credit: PCWorld) The listing of the Windows 8 tablet revealed that the 8.1-inch tablet was running on a 1.5GHz Intel processor and 2GB RAM. The presence of an x86 architecture processor means that the tablet would be running the full version of Windows 8 rather than the Windows RT OS. The leaked listing also showed that the tablet sports a 2MP rear camera, with no mention of a front-facing camera. The screen resolution was listed as 1280 x 800 pixels, which  is on par with the Nexus 7 and higher than the 1024 x 768 reslotion of the iPad mini. The early range of Windows 8 tablets had displays that were 10 inches or larger and recently Microsoft has tweaked a whole lot of features and specs of the Windows 8 OS in order to make its environment compatible with tablets sporting smaller displays. The OS's hardware certification program recently reduced the minimum allowable screen resolution for Windows 8 tablets from 1366 x 768 down to 1024 x 768 pixels. The leaked builds of the Windows Blue update, which will be out soon, all sport a Snap feature that works well on smaller tablets. This is a major tweak as the feature worked only on displays with the approved 1366 x 768 resolution in the earlier version of the OS. This new tablet by Acer is expected to be launched in the coming weeks and this along with the other rumoured smaller Windows 8 tablets will give Microsoft some chance of increasing its share in a market dominated by Android and iOS

Gongkai phone sells for $12

Ever thought of paying as little as $12 (amounts to approximately Rs 650) for a fully-functional phone? Well, we came across the Gongkai phone, which now makes it possible. It's a complete quad-band GSM phone featuring an OLED display, Bluetooth and MP3 playback. It has only basic features, but that's what one could expect at that price. The phone is a great option if you are going on a short trip/vacation or during the monsoon when people don't want to carry their expensive smartphones. Moreover, at $12, the phone is unlocked and contract-free; it also comes with a protective silicone sleeve. A basic phone for $12 (Image credit: bunnie studios) After a teardown, bunnie studios reveals that the low price of the phone is possible due to several factors. The entire case snaps together and there are no screws holding the phone together. There are almost no connections inside and all components, such as the battery and display, are soldered directly to the board. There is a flipping switch that helps hard-disconnect the battery. Further, the battery also has no secondary protection circuit. Despite its slacky built, the phone features a backlit keypad and decorative lights around the edge. It equips the Mediatek MT6250DA chip and a Vanchip VC5276. The CPU clocks at 260MHz, 32-bit. The MT6250 chip is said to sell for less than $2 when bought in bulk. Apparently, the production price of the phone goes below $10.  Last year, we came across the M2 phone from a Chinese handset manufacturer going by the name Ken Xin Da. The phone priced at Rs 1,200 was amongst the tiniest phones one could find in the market. It came with a dual-SIM, dual-standby option, rated talktime of 240 minutes and bundled a 2GB memory card. Affordable tablets and phones are a boon for developing nations like India. In fact, we’ve had our tryst with the Aakash tablet project. We’ve seen this cheapest tablet in the world face a lot of ups and downs. One shouldn't expect superior quality or performance from Gongkai either (considering its price). The price of the device is as low as ordering a highly-loaded large pizza or a nifty pair of earphones. A sub-Rs 1,000 phone could be a great initiative for India, especially as we are looking to connect remote and isolated regions of the country.

Nikon launches new cameras in Coolpix line-up

Nikon has expanded its Coolpix line-up with new cameras. The point-and -shoot cameras have automatic features and are aimed towards making photography more accessible. The cameras feature high-definition video recording and automatic capture and are available in different colours. Alongside the camera, Nikon has launched a new ad campaign, dubbed "Simply Wow". Speaking at the launch, Hiroshi Takashina, Managing Director, Nikon India, said, “Nikon, once again brings excitement to camera industry by rolling out new products and a new campaign which strives to make a strong connect with the consumers. With this launch, Nikon reiterates its commitment to offer products with stylish designs, vibrant colours that are equipped with easy functionality to capture precious moments of life. We really wanted to show consumers what is possible with the new Coolpix series and emphasize the outstanding picture quality it can deliver. We recognize that today’s consumer is looking for technological superiority and it is showcased through the new Coolpix range.” The launch consists of 17 new cameras with 69 colour variants along with Coolpix A. Coolpix A is the first compact digital camera in the line-up to be equipped with a DX-format CMOS sensor. The company claims that its capabilities are comparable to those of a digital SLR camera. It is equipped with an exclusively designed wide-angle 18.5 mm, f/2.8 fixed focal length NIKKOR lens. One of the new members of Nikon's Coolpix A line-up The Coolpix P-series models include the Coolpix P520 and Coolpix P330. The Coolpix P520 is equipped with a 42x optical zoom NIKKOR lens that is capable of super-telephoto shooting at the equivalent of a 1000 mm focal length. The Coolpix P330 comes with an effective pixel count of 12.2 million pixels and a large 1/1.7-inch backside illumination CMOS sensor, which enables high sensitivities and less noise. The S series includes nine new models (Coolpix S9500, S9400, S6500, S5200, S4400, S3500, S3400, S2700 and S31) that are equipped with features like Wi-Fi compatibility and built-in GPS. The Coolpix L-Series comprises of four models (Coolpix L820, L320, L28 and L27) with features including a high-powered optical zoom to automatic shooting functions that makes taking dazzling pictures easy. The new camera in the AW series is the Coolpix AW110, which is an outdoor camera built with waterproof resistance to a depth of 18 m. It comes equipped with Wi-Fi, built-in GPS and world map and is shock-proof upto 6.6 feet. All of the newly-launched cameras are now available in stores. The Coolpix A is priced at Rs 54,950. The price of the P series cameras range from Rs 16,950 to Rs 24,950. The S series camera prices range from Rs 5,950 to Rs 18,950. The L series cameras are priced between Rs 4,990 to Rs 15,450. The Aw series camerea is priced at Rs 16,950. With the new additions, the Coolpix line-up now has 22 different models to choose from.