Sunday 20 December 2015
Amazon, At no. 1 position in India
Just two and a half years after launching, Amazon has staked claim to ecommerce supremacy in India. According to a press release Amazon issued Dec. 14, Amazon.in became the most visited ecommerce site in India in October 2015, which includes the busy Diwali shopping season, according to the global analytics firm comScore.ComScore’s numbers do show that Amazon.in had 30.1 million visitors in October, and surpassed Flipkart.com (just under 27 million visitors) in monthly visitors for the second time in 2015 (In May, Amazon.in topped Flipkart.com by about 100,000 visitors).
“This is a huge milestone, and we’re all raising a glass to toast our colleagues in India,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Customer response like this is so energizing for us, and we’re grateful. Customers and sellers can count on us to continue innovating and investing heavily in India – it’s very much still Day One at Amazon.in.”But is Amazon telling the whole truth about being Number 1 in India, or is it just using comScore’s numbers as an excuse to run a celebration sale in the U.S. with 50% off a selection of Bollywood digital videos at Amazon.com, as it says in a press release?Adam Lella, Senior Analyst, Marketing Insights for comScore, Inc., told Multichannel Merchant via email that its figures are based on desktop visits, which includes desktops and laptops, but does not include smartphone and tablet visits.And as Multichannel Merchant has documented, India’s ecommerce customers are largely mobile-first.In April, Flipkart co-founders Sachin and Binny Bansal told Ystats.com that they expect to be largely a mobile-based ecommerce company in a couple of years. The Times of India also reported that Flipkart will be shutting down its ecommerce site within a year and move to an app-only format.“Last year, we had more on the app, but still did our web and desktop. In the next year or so, we’re going to be only mobile,”Michael Adnani, vice president for retail and head of brand alliances at Flipkart told The Times of India. “A year ago, 6% of our traffic was coming from mobile. In less than 18 months, that traffic is tenfold. That shows the significance of what a mobile phone is doing for the consumers and consequently doing for us.”On top of the comScore report, Amazon’s press releae claims that the app analytics firm App Annie reported that Amazon.in app downloads grew by over 200% year-over-year in October.According to the App Annie database, as of Dec. 17, Amazon is the 5th most-popular iPhone free shopping app in India, while Flipkart is ranked number-two. Wish is the most-popular free shopping app for the iPhone in India, according to the App Annie database.Ecommerce marketplaces are on the rise in India, and sales there are growing faster than those in China.
Sunday 26 October 2014
Twitter Unveils ‘Fabric’ Platform for Developers
Twitter on Wednesday set out to weave itself into mobile applications with a free "Fabric" platform to help developers build better programs and make more money. Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo touted Fabric as "the future of mobile software development" while unveiling the platform at the one-to-many messaging service's first conference for makers of applications for smartphones or tablet computers.
Fabric consists of software tools to tackle challenges such as stability and distribution of applications as well as streamlining user log ins and placing ads.
The move could build Twitter functions directly into new mobile apps, which could greatly expand the reach of the messaging platform.
Twitter has been under pressure to build up its ranks of users, and making itself a global foundation for sharing, communicating, and placing money-making ads would put it at the heart of modern day mobile Internet lifestyles.
A kit for making sense of application performance data is built on Twitter-owned Crashlytics, while ad management uses the San Francisco-based company's MoPub mobile ad exchange.
"We started Fabric more than a year ago to take on, tackle, and solve challenges faced by developers," Crashlytics co-founder and Twitter product manager Jeff Seibert said during a keynote presentation at the Flight conference for mobile developers.
Fabric puts Twitter at the heart of letting users share comments in real-time from inside mini-programs and providing a common way for people to log in, according to demonstrations at the day-long San Francisco conference.
Fabric promised to weave Twitter into all kinds of mobile applications around the world by letting developers easily build in "tweeting" and logging in using Twitter IDs.
"Nothing is as powerful as someone using your app and wanting to share a moment of pure joy being able to do that instantly," Seibert told developers.
The list of more than 100 "beta" partners for the Fabric launch included McDonald's, Spotify, Jawbone, and the Wall Street Journal.
"We view Twitter as a very complementary news channel to all of our news brands," said News Corp senior vice president of strategy Raju Narisetti, whose company operates the newspaper.
"Now, our app is part of the conversation people are having about our journalism."
Fabric is being used to quickly detect and fix bugs at streaming music service Spotify, and to let users share songs, according to global business head Jorge Espinel.
"Music is social and meant to be shared, so having a simple implementation to have fans share music via Twitter is critical," Espinel said while taking part in the keynote presentation.
Fabric kits were made available to developers at Flight and will be rolled out broadly to the developer community in coming days, according to Twitter.
Fun, functional or hip applications are seen as vital to the popularity of smartphones or tablets.
Twitter has been under pressure to build up its ranks of users, and making itself a global foundation for sharing, communicating, and placing money-making ads would put it at the heart of modern day mobile Internet lifestyles.
A kit for making sense of application performance data is built on Twitter-owned Crashlytics, while ad management uses the San Francisco-based company's MoPub mobile ad exchange.
"We started Fabric more than a year ago to take on, tackle, and solve challenges faced by developers," Crashlytics co-founder and Twitter product manager Jeff Seibert said during a keynote presentation at the Flight conference for mobile developers.
Fabric puts Twitter at the heart of letting users share comments in real-time from inside mini-programs and providing a common way for people to log in, according to demonstrations at the day-long San Francisco conference.
Fabric promised to weave Twitter into all kinds of mobile applications around the world by letting developers easily build in "tweeting" and logging in using Twitter IDs.
"Nothing is as powerful as someone using your app and wanting to share a moment of pure joy being able to do that instantly," Seibert told developers.
The list of more than 100 "beta" partners for the Fabric launch included McDonald's, Spotify, Jawbone, and the Wall Street Journal.
"We view Twitter as a very complementary news channel to all of our news brands," said News Corp senior vice president of strategy Raju Narisetti, whose company operates the newspaper.
"Now, our app is part of the conversation people are having about our journalism."
Fabric is being used to quickly detect and fix bugs at streaming music service Spotify, and to let users share songs, according to global business head Jorge Espinel.
"Music is social and meant to be shared, so having a simple implementation to have fans share music via Twitter is critical," Espinel said while taking part in the keynote presentation.
Fabric kits were made available to developers at Flight and will be rolled out broadly to the developer community in coming days, according to Twitter.
Fun, functional or hip applications are seen as vital to the popularity of smartphones or tablets.
The Best New Android Feature Is a Smarter Lock Screen
Brand new design
Teased back at Google I/O but now appearing in the developer build of Android Lollipop, the new feature works like this: Pair a gadget with your phone-maybe a watch or a speaker or a pair of bluetooth headphones-and Android will ask you if it's a "trusted device." If you say that it is, you can set up your lock screen to disable whenever your phone and that device are paired. So when your phone is close to the fitness tracker on your wrist or connected to the speaker in your bedroom, there's no lock screen. But if there's nothing familiar around, lock screen engage! Phones like the Moto X have had features like this before, but now the functionality is coming to stock Android.
It's a simple little change, but one that can make all the difference for security. Yeah, we all know we should have lock screens-preferably passwords over PINs-to stay safe, but it's easy for convenience to win out. I'm ashamed to admit I haven't had a lock screen on my phone for months, and I love every second of it. With this new feature I can-and will-set up some wildly obnoxious password that's insanely secure, but that I'll almost never have to type in. Strong security I never have to see! It's the same logic behind phone-unlocking NFC tags like Motorola's Skip
The catch, of course, is that its utility is limited to how many Bluetooth devices you have and use. Folks without a smartwatch or other Bluetooth wearable will get way less use from this than nerds who are all gadget-ed up. That and constant Bluetooth connections will gnaw away at your battery life ever-so-slightly. The alternative is to disable the lock screen when connected to trusted Wi-Fi, but that still takes a little tweaking
Flipkart Beats Amazon In Terms Of Diwali Traffic
The Indian e-commerce industry has already witnessed plenty of fireworks much before Diwali crackers have started bursting. As the online festive discount season draws to a close, it seems Flipkart is ahead of the rest in terms of traffic, in spite of the consumer backlash that it had to face on October 6.
The biggest rival for Flipkart, Amazon, which concluded its week-long Diwali Dhamaka on October 16, witnessed a 200 per cent (two-fold) jump in its traffic on the first day of the week long sale, the company said. For Flipkart, the growth in traffic was 10 times that of a normal day on October 6. Incidentally, traffic growth doesn't always translate into higher sales as one might not finally order a product after visiting the site. On actual sales, Flipkart said it had a GMV (gross merchandise value) of $100 million on the Big Billion Day (October 6). Given that Flipkart had achieved sales of $1 billion in annual GMV in 2013-14, its average daily sales last financial year should have been about $2.7 million. So, Flipkart recorded almost 40-times growth in sales on October 6, going by the numbers given by the company. Amazon does not share its GMV.
Experts say that Flipkart as an Indian brand generates more expectations when it comes to deals and discounts. "They are seen as more street smart as a brand when compared to Amazon which is known internationally for quality service and consumer satisfaction rather than discounts," Santosh Desai, MD & CEO, Future Brands, had told this newspaper recently. However, many are also of the view that loyalty is rarely witnessed in online buying patterns and the cheapest deals would find the highest takers. And, Flipkart mostly offered deeper discounts than its rivals.
While the guerilla campaign over Diwali sales were primarily built by Flipkart and Amazon, Delhi-based Snapdeal turned out to be a smart gainer. Snapdeal not only gained positive reviews on social networking sites, it was also the top trending topic on Twitter on October 6.
It witnessed a 15-times growth in traffic on Flipart's Big Billion Day and announced sales worth Rs 1 crore a minute.
iPhone 6 Owners Demand Answers on ‘Bendgate‘
After 180 complaints about bent iPhones - including one where the device apparently "caught fire" - one website is demanding that Apple provide an explanation
Apple today came under further pressure from users of the iPhone 6 to provide more details on whether the handsets bend too easily.
A website collating images of bent iPhones spotted on social media such as Twitter and Instagram claims to have 180 different examples, up significantly from Apple's earlier statement that it had seen just nine damaged handsets.
Early customer complaints that the latest iPhone bends easily when placed in pockets or bags prompted a rare statement from Apple, saying it shouldn't do so when used normally and that only nine complaints had been received.
Since then, however, reports of damaged phones have continued to grow online as millions more iPhones have been sold.
The new website, One of the Nine, has also written an open letter to Apple demanding further explanation.
I assume these to only be a small fraction of one per cent of the problem as most people would not choose to go online to report the problem but simply return the unit to the store," says the letter.
"Some users reported being able to exchange their iPhone 6 and 6 Plus after returning it to an Apple Store. However an equal number were also turned down for a replacement and told they will have to pay for it.
"Can you please share the policy that is used in store to determine whether a warranty replacement is given?"
One user from Japan listed on the website seems to claim that his phone was slightly bent when it arrived in the box. Another user, listed as number 150, said: ”I’ve had my iPhone 6 for about a month, and I have been extremely careful with it. I had it in my front pocket for a short time on Saturday and the top 1/5 is bent. I called Apple to find out about a replacement since I heard on the news that this is a problem. The employee acted like it was just an internet hoax. I can assure you, it is not a hoax.”
Some of those posting pictures have reported that Apple replaced their bent handsets. Others claim that they were charged for repairs or replacements.
One person last week even claimed that his iPhone "caught fire" after it was bent in a rickshaw ride, when it leaned over to one side but did not tip over, and he saw smoke wafting from his trousers.
"Somehow in the process of the tipping of the rickshaw my new Apple iPhone 6 had bent in my front pocket and caught on fire," claimed Phillip Lechter on his blog.
"I could feel my leg burning. I pulled the Apple iPhone 6 out of my pocket and threw it to the side. Someone from a crowd of spectators threw a cup of water on my leg to put the fire out on my jeans."
Gartner Predicts Positive Modi Effect On e-India
Prime minister narendra Modi’s much-hailed ‘Digital India’ initiative, which earned a vote of confidence from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (who met the PM in early October) is expected to boost the government’s IT spending by 5 percent to $7.2 billion in 2015, estimates technology research firm Gartner.
A chunk of these expenses is expected to be incurred in the revving up of external IT services and telecommunications, the development of broadband and cloud-based initiatives, and the creation of digitally-governed smart cities across the country.
Anurag Gupta, research director, Gartner, said in a statement, “The delivery of a citizen-centric and transparent government is only possible through the extensive use of technology and by leveraging digital government.”
Gartner also identified the top strategic technology trends for 2015 in its report. It defines “strategic trends” as those that are likely to have a significant impact on an organisation for the next three years and have “a high potential for disruption of the business [for both end users and IT] and the need for a major investment”.
Gartner analyst David Cearley noted that “the merging of the real and virtual worlds, the advent of intelligence everywhere, and the technology impact of the digital business shift” will define tech in the coming year.
Some of the trends to watch out for are:
- Computing everywhere with the rise of handheld devices
- Rise of 3D printing
- Advanced analytics with every app becoming an ‘analytic app’
- Convergence of cloud and mobile computing
- Growth of ‘smart machines’ in which advanced algorithms will allow systems to understand their environment, learn for themselves, and act autonomously
- Advent of ‘web-scale IT’, a pattern of computing that delivers the capabilities of large cloud service providers within an enterprise IT setting
- Risk-based security and self-protection
Google Offers Guide To Help iOS Users Switch To Android
Designed for iPhone and iPad users, the new Switch website explains everything from transferring photos and music to setting up email and messaging.
Google has launched a website called Switch that has one goal in mind: educate Apple iPhone and iPad users on how they can easily move their data to Android-based devices.
Essentially a manual, it describes how owners of Apple devices, which run the iOS mobile operating system, can take photos and music and bring them to devices running Google's Android, as well as transfer contacts, set-up email and find apps that they were using on their iOS-based devices.
While the site is somewhat small in its scope, it's an obvious shot at Apple. The site provides detailed instructions on getting content from one device to another and touts how "simple" it is to transfer that information.
Apple and Google have been in a war of words -- and a battle for customers -- over the last several years with each side hammering the other for seeming shortfalls. Apple at a special press event last week took aim at Android's alleged fragmentation, pointing out that the platform is having trouble getting users onto a single version of the software. Google, meanwhile, tends to focus on the benefits of Android and features where it believes its product stands out.
Google's Android has about a 51 percent share of the US market when it comes to smartphone platforms, according to a report last month from research firm ComScore. Apple has slightly more than 42 percent of the market.
The iPhone maker last month launched its own guide on how to switch from Android to iOS. Like Google, Apple provides directions on how to make the move and explains how it believes the switch is easy.
