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Vivo announces Rs 4,000 crore investment for new UP plant

Vivo announces Rs 4,000 crore investment for new UP plant

VivoNew Delhi : Chinese smartphone maker Vivo on Thursday announced an additional investment of Rs 4,000 crore over a period of four years for opening a new manufacturing plant on the Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh that will generate 5,000 jobs in its first phase of expansion.

The new 169-acre land has been acquired near the existing 50-acre manufacturing facility that will help expand Vivo’s manufacturing capabilities and support its continued growth in the country, the company said in a statement.

The Rs 4,000-crore investment, which does not include the cost of the land, will also spur job opportunities in the region, added Vivo that entered India in 2014.

“India is a key market for us, and today we have reiterated our commitment by entering the next phase of growth in India. We’re proud that the new plant will offer a major benefit to the surrounding area through high-quality job creation and training opportunities,” said Nipun Marya, Director-Brand Strategy, Vivo India.

According to the company, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath welcomed the initiative and congratulated it.

Currently, all Vivo smartphones sold in the country are being manufactured at the Greater Noida facility, which is one of Vivo’s four manufacturing factories globally.

The existing manufacturing set-up, which saw an investment of Rs 300 crore, produces two million units a month, with more than 5,000 people at work.

With the new facility, Vivo aims to double the current production capacity to 50 million units per annum.

This is the second big-ticket investment from a global smartphone maker in Uttar Pradesh.

In 2017, Samsung announced that it would invest Rs 4,915 crore to double its manufacturing capacity for smartphones and refrigerators at its Noida plant.

The South Korean giant in July set up one of the world’s largest mobile manufacturing facilities in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

When it comes to Vivo, the company was third with 10 per cent market share in India, after Xiaomi and Samsung, in the third quarter this year. Vivo performed exceedingly well in offline channels, said Counterpoint Research.

Marya told IANS in a recent interview that in terms of value, Vivo is the leader in the Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 segment and overall No. 2 in the Indian smartphone market for the past 18 months.

According to him, the brand awareness of Vivo, which bagged the title sponsorship for five consecutive sessions of Indian Premier League (IPL) starting this year with a whopping Rs 2,199 crore bid, is 100 per cent.

There are currently more than 70,000 retailers in India where Vivo phones are available and the company has more than 200 exclusive stores and two experience centres.

“When we entered India, we were very clear that we wanted to build a very strong foundation here. And four years after entering the Indian market, we stay totally committed to the country,” he said.

—IANS

Smartphone users in India install around 50 apps on average: Report

Smartphone users in India install around 50 apps on average: Report

appsNew Delhi : While the number of apps installed by smartphone users in India range from five to 207, the average number of installed apps on a phone is 51, said a new report on Wednesday.

However, people do not use all the apps they install. Most of the people in India use just about 24 apps on their smartphones, according to the research from technology research consulting firm techARC.

The findings of the “techARC DIGIT” report indicate that there are some users who go on installing apps without much of a thinking and understanding.

Such extremely high installation of apps can not only drain the smartphones in several ways and also impact its performance, but can also expose such users to various vulnerabilities that could be acquired by the device through some apps.

By category, the social media apps lead the usage with 76 per cent of the users using them on a daily basis.

Mobile gaming has gained a lot in the recent times. It stood as the second most-used category with 70 per cent of the users playing one or the other game daily on their smartphones.

Nearly half of the users use financial apps that include banking apps as well as wallet apps to perform one or the other financial transaction digitally, the findings showed.

The over-the-top (OTT) entertainment apps which include live TV, video-on-demand (VoD) and other such apps showing video content is also gaining popularity, with 40 per cent of the users watching content on a daily basis, the research, based on opinions of 1,000 users, showed.

—IANS

Xiaomi announces Black Friday sale on its newest smartphone

Xiaomi announces Black Friday sale on its newest smartphone

Xiaomi announces Black Friday sale on its newest smartphoneBengaluru : Chinese technology player Xiaomi on Friday announced Black Friday sale on “Redmi Note 6 Pro” — just one day after its launch in India.

The smartphone has been launched for Rs 13,999 for the 4GB+64GB and Rs 15,999 for the 6GB+64GB variants.

As part of the sale, the device is available for Rs 12,999 for the 4GB + 64GB variant and Rs 14,999 for the 6GB + 64GB variant — with a sale price drop of Rs 1,000 respectively — only today, the company said in a statement.

The sale is valid on Flipkart, Mi Homes and Xiaomi’s official website.

Launched on Thursday, “Redmi Note 6 Pro” comes with a 6.26-inch FHD+ IPS display, 20MP+2MP AI dual camera on the front and a 12MP+5MP AI dual camera setup on the rear.

The smartphone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 octa-core processor and fuelled by a 4000mAh battery with support for Qualcomm “Quick Charge” 3.0.

Both variants would be eligible for a discount of Rs 500 via HDFC credit and debit cards and EMI only during the Black Friday Sale, the company added.

—IANS

Samsung to release its first foldable smartphone in March

Samsung to release its first foldable smartphone in March

Samsung to release its first foldable smartphone in MarchSeoul : Samsung Electronics Co plans to launch its first foldable smartphone in March, along with a fifth-generation (5G) network-powered Galaxy S10, industry sources said on Monday.

According to the sources, the South Korean tech giant plans to unveil the flagship Galaxy S10 smartphone in February, followed by the presumed foldable Galaxy F and another edition of the Galaxy S10 that runs on the 5G network in March, Yonhap news agency reported.

The outlook came after Samsung Electronics President Koh Dong-jin, who heads the mobile business, said last week that the company will release a foldable smartphone within the first half of 2019.

Koh said the shipment volume of the foldable smartphone will be at least 1 million.

Industry watchers said Samsung is expected to showcase the upcoming foldable smartphone in the Mobile World Congress in February, ahead of the official launch in the following month.

The much-awaited foldable smartphone, however, is not expected to support the 5G network.

While the price of the foldable smartphone has not been decided, industry watchers said it may cost around 2 million won ($1,770). The steep price is expected to limit sales.

Samsung said the upcoming foldable smartphone will fold inward and will sport a 7.4-inch screen when unfolded and have a 4.6-inch display like a regular smartphone when folded.

—IANS

OnePlus 6T: The flagship killer gets even better (Tech Review)

OnePlus 6T: The flagship killer gets even better (Tech Review)

OnePlus 6TBy Krishna SinhaChaudhury,

New Delhi : Since the launch of OnePlus 3 in 2016, Chinese premium smartphone maker OnePlus chose to follow a two-phones-a-year strategy and has been introducing a “T” iteration roughly six months after unveiling a flagship device, with additional upgrade.

The approach has been simple — to focus on powerful hardware backed by top-of-the-line chipsets. This has made OnePlus the leader in the Indian premium smartphone market for the second successive quarter that ended September 30, followed by Samsung and Apple, according to Counterpoint Research.

OnePlus marked its entry into the US with OnePlus 6T after partnering with mobile services operator T-Mobile in late October. It has now brought the device to India.

The company’s latest addition packs in all the goodness of OnePlus 6 along with meaningful upgrades such as the much-anticipated under-display fingerprint sensor, a smaller waterdrop-style notch and a bigger battery.

However, the 6T is OnePlus’ costliest smartphone so far with a price tag of Rs 37,999 (for the 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage base variant). It is also available in a configuration of 8GB RAM+128GB storage and 8GB RAM+256GB storage for Rs 41,999 and Rs 45,999, respectively.

Unlike OnePlus 6, the 6T has been introduced in only mirror black and midnight black colour variants. We used the smartphone (8GB RAM+128GB variant) for almost a week and here’s what we think of it.

In terms of design language, the “T” refresh brings one much-talked about improvement — the tiny waterdrop notch — that gives an immersive 6.41-inch Optic AMOLED display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio to the device.

It also means that the dreaded notch we saw in OnePlus 6 is now gone. The company now lets users hide the tiny notch completely in the settings.

Talking about more screen real estate, the bottom bezel of the smartphone is a tad thinner than its predecessor.

We pitted the device against the now obsolete OnePlus 6 by using the same wallpaper and observed that the taller display on the new iteration looked more dynamic.

At 8.2-mm, the all-glass phone is slightly thicker but feels more ergonomic, thanks to the pronounced rear curves.

OnePlus has tweaked the camera with what it calls the Night Mode, that essentially lights up a shot in very low-lit scenarios but takes some time to optimise the snap to add more details and make them look less grainy.

Also, you don’t know if the optimisation would work every time on a snap or not.

The 20MP+16MP primary camera took neat and detailed photos in proper lighting conditions and like before, the app itself was easy to use.

The “Auto Nightscape Detection” is worth mentioning that automates the device’s more advanced low-light photography mode the moment it detects it is hard to obtain ambient light.

The Bokeh effect in macro shots were particularly pleasing.

The 16MP front-facing camera also packs in some software tweaks that made selfies look better.

OnePlus 6T is fueled by a 3700mAh battery which easily helped sail through the day. The company’s proprietary “Dash Charge” technology is a respite for users. After plugging in, we received about 50 per cent charge in about 35 minutes.

The under-display fingerprint sensor was reasonably fast. We installed the latest update that improved the accuracy of the fingerprint scanner and could unlock the device with a damp finger as well.

Performance was blazing fast, thanks to the Snapdragon 845 chip and 8GB RAM.

What doesn’t work?

Since OnePlus is taking a leap towards perfecting smartphones with flagship-like features at a lower cost, it would have been great to see some IP rating on the device.

There’s no standard 3.5-mm headphone jack this time but that isn’t much of a deal-breaker.

OnePlus has also done away with the notification LED and the tiny notch only accommodates the selfie camera.

Conclusion: OnePlus has brought a slew of meaningful upgrades to the 6T and the phone definitely looks and feels better this time. Topped with a bigger battery and some hardware improvements, OnePlus 6T makes for a highly desirable smartphone in the premium category.

(Krishna SinhaChaudhury can be contacted at krishna.s@ians.in )

—IANS