Maxx launches two new feature phones

The Super MX424 comes loaded with a 2200 mAh battery that gives around 11-17 hours of talktime while the other phone, Sleek MX464 is a feature-rich dual SIM phone.

After manufacturing of mobile phone batteries and chargers, MAXX Group is now all set to start handsets manufacturing in India by March 2012.

According to Ajjay Agarwal, MAXX chairman and managing director, the company will start manufacturing of handsets in India by March 2012 at its Haridwar facility located in the state of Uttarakhand.

“We are at a stage of finalization of the capital goods for the manufacturing of handsets. Initially, every month 100,000 phones will be manufactured here,” Agarwal told Cyber Media News on the sidelines of the company’s new product launch in Mumbai today.

The new series of Khamoshhh… comprise two handsets – a bar phone, MAXX MX401, and a QWERTY handset, MAXX MQ601, priced at Rs.. 2833 and Rs.. 2970 respectively.

For the handset manufacturing, the company will raise funds through internal accruals and bank loans, Agarwal informed. The handset manufacturing will start from its second unit located in the same campus in Haridwar. He added that the second unit is also based in Haridwar due to the tax benefits offered in the state of Uttarakhand.

“We are strongly focusing on developing and manufacturing technology products that are value for money to customers. Also we are strongly focusing on after-sales support to customers,” he stressed.

Presently, the group is bringing handsets to India market from China under a contractual manufacturing from a local vendor.

However, MAXX has overall strength of 3500 people here with a dedicated team of 550 people including 40 technical and engineering staffs who are involved in the mobile phone business.

MAXX Group was started in 2004 and a year later it started its first battery and charger manufacturing unit in Haridwar. During the year, the group was successful in generating Rs.. 5 crore sales revenues.

The Haridwar unit has an installed capacity of making 8.8 crore units of batteries and 3.25 crore units of chargers annually.

From Rs.. 5 crore sales revenues in 2005-06, the group’s sales jumped to Rs.. 52 crore in 2007-08 as it undertook sale of accessories. Two years later, the group formed MAXX Moblink Private Limited (MMPL) for research and development as well as marketing and distributions of mobile handsets.

During 2008-09, it posted total sales revenues of Rs.. 170 crore which includes Rs.. 18 crore mobile handset sales and Rs.. 152 crore accessories business. Besides, it established its second factory in Mumbai at SPEEZ for manufacturing of batteries and chargers for exports.

While the MAXX mobile brand is quite popular in the market with substantial number of customers in the low-mid range price segments, Agarwal informed that the group is developing products across platforms including Android and it will launch new Android-based models in the next quarter.

However, in terms of demands, Agarwal pointed out that there’s high demand of music phones, and, as a result close to 95 per cent handsets of MAXX comes with memory cards embedded with audio and video music content under a partnership with Hungama.com.

The group offers 3 months' free subscription to users for downloading music content.

With strong focus on India market, the group has been successful in reporting 20-25 per cent growth year on year. “We are targeting a 6 million unit sales of mobile phones with revenues around Rs.. 800 crore for fiscal 2011-12,” Agarwal said.

Apple’s iPhone 4 launched in India

Apple released its iPhone 4 in India on 27th May. Two major Indian telecom firms launched the iPhone 4 by means of a pricing plan that allows consumers to pick up the charge of the smart phone in monthly credits in two-year time. Indian cellular phone group Aircel charges 34,500 rupees ($764) for the iPhone 4 with a capacity of 16 GB and 32 GB version costs 40,900 rupees. Whereas, the telecom giant Bharti Airtel that previously sells previous models of the iPhone, have a comparable plan for the iPhone 4, that boast a superior quality screen and better battery life than former versions.



Though many companies have tried to redraft the feature and application of the iPhone 4, Airtel CEO (West Bengal and Orissa) PD Sharma had claimed, "iPhone 4 will stand out for its original applications and cater to the middle segment as well, with attractive pricing which will not create a pinch both in the long and short term".

With the news making reverberations in the contours of the market, large number of tech savvy groups were seen gazing at the seamless beauty of iPhone 4, despite of its high end prices for Rs 34,500 for the 16GB model and Rs 40,900 for the 32GB model.

In order to take benefit from the hoopla surrounding iPhone 4, Airtel and Aircel are offering lucrative schemes to the customers. Confirming the strategic approach adopted by telecom companies in India to beat the neck to neck competition, P. D. Sharma explained the reverse subsidy schemes, in which cost of the phone can be recovered by customer through discounts in mobile bills over a period of two years, which has already impacted Chinese market.



The Apple iPhone 4 is the fourth model of Apple's iPhone and the direct successor of the iPhone 3G. The iPhone 4 is the first iPhone model actually differs from the original iPhone in 2007, both in features and design. The iPhone 4 with a thickness of only 9.3 mm thinner than any previous iPhone models and is made of steel and glass and the unit is available in black and is probably later in white. One of the main innovations concerned the new IOS-4 operating system. IOS-4 also offers a file manager which you can divide applications into folders, which benefit statement. In addition, improved e-mail functions and support for Apple's new iAd mobile advertising platform.

iPhone 4 comes with the large 3.5-inch touchscreen display. For this display is used the Retina technology, which is four times more pixels per square inch can be placed. This technique has the multi-touch screen of the iPhone 4 a resolution of up to 960 x 640 pixels.

The iPhone 4 has a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus and the ability to capture video in HD quality (720p) to be included. Thanks to the integrated 3-axis gyroscope (which moves very precisely observed) is Wll-like motion sensing gaming possible. In combination with the traditional motion sensor offers 3-axis gyroscope a 6-axis motion sensing capability, which means your games can drive the device moving from top to bottom, left to right, front to back and shaking .

The iPhone4 features the same processor as the Apple iPad A4 and has a standby time of about 300 hours. By supporting multitasking just easier and faster between applications, what the battery life benefits. The iPhone 4 can be used as an e-reader app using the new iBooks, that gives you access to the Apple iBookstore. iBook users can also directly read PDF files or save iBooks. Naturally, the iPhone 4 excellent connectivity with support for WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G/HSDPA, GPS and push e-mail to quickly to use the internet or navigate. Also find a comprehensive media player again. The new iMovie app (you have to buy separately) you can edit videos on your device and dynamically maintained transitions and add music to the movies. FM radio is still missing and always, like the iPad, the device is equipped with a less regular MicroSim card slot. 4 The Apple iPhone is available with 16GB or 32GB storage memory.

The dimensions of the phone are 11.50 x 5.90 x 0.90 inches. Speaking time (under ideal conditions) 420 minutes. The standby time is 300 hours under these conditions. The Apple iPhone is available in four colors white and black.

The Apple iPhone 4 supports GSM 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz networks. The iPhone 4 can fast mobile internet with UMTS and HSDPA support. The speed of HSDPA will mean the difference between home and move on. The Apple iPhone 4 can include text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messages sent and received. Thanks to the support email you can simply read your own emails. Vibrating alert and polyphonic and MP3 ringtones are of course standard equipment.

The Apple iPhone 4 has 16 GB of internal memory (Flash). You can transfer data via USB to your PC. The iPhone 4 also has Bluetooth (for wireless communication with other Bluetooth devices such as headsets) and WiFi (for wireless communication with home or small office network).

Indian Railways to launch mobile phone ticketing app

Indian Railways has announced they are developing a mobile ticketing application for mobile phones.

The application will be available to download onto a mobile phone and tickets will be sent by text message.

Anyone using the app would have to carry proof of identification but will no longer have to queue for tickets at stations.

Passengers in rural areas of India often have to purchase tickets from a travel agency, where they can often be sold at higher prices.



This new form of ticket purchasing could make the railways much more accessible to those who live in rural areas, away from a main station where tickets aren’t sold.

Individuals will need to be registered on the IRCTC’s Online Passenger Reservation System in order to reserve tickets.

Indian Railways say they are not looking to increase ticket prices.

HTC Incredible S Review

Expensive, but the best Android smartphone in the market until the dual-cores come along.

The HTC Incredible S wasn't love at first sight for me. That may be because it is just another 'droid, or it is simply down to the horrible name. Nokia may bore you to death with robotic naming convention, but on the other hand, HTC blurs the line between creativity and hilarity with phones such as HTC Hero, Trophy, Rider, Flyer, Dream and Chacha. However, I can't seem to get my hands off this phone - banal nomenclature notwithstanding. The device may not look stunning, but it blends subtlety with out-of-the-box design cues. While it certainly can't beat Nokia N8's excellent anodized aluminium unibody, the attention to detail that HTC has put into the Incredible S is remarkable nonetheless.



Unboxing and Introduction

The phone supports PC charging through the micro-USB cable, HTC also throws in a wall-socket-to-USB adapter for the times when you don't have access to a PC. The supplied headset sticks to tradition with its ugly looks and lacklustre sound quality. Since the phone has only 1GB of internal memory, the retail package mercifully includes an 8 GB microSD card. A rubberised plastic construction provides a comfortable grip over the device. It is good to see HTC experiment with the body material, instead of replicating the design cues of phones such as iPhone and Samsung Galaxy series. The back-cover protrudes along the outline of the battery, but instead of forming a rectangle, it assumes the shape of a SIM card.

The phone has dimensions of 120 x 64 x 11.7 mm and weighs 135.5 g. The Incredible S sports a 4" S-LCD display, which is nothing short of spectacular. The panel has pixel dimensions of 480x800. Despite being an LCD, the display is as good as any fancy AMOLED or Super-AMOLED display. It delivers vivid colours with great contrasts and maintains definition even over acute viewing angles. Sadly, the display tends to reflect light. Even though the text remains readable, the colours seem to fade out under the sun.

Just below the display are four capacitive keys - Home, Menu, Back, and Search. Being capacitive, the keys won't react to anything but your finger. The placement of these keys and the backlight goes perfectly with the display. These capacitive keys even auto-rotate along with it; while that adds nothing to functionality, it looks damn good.

A lock/power button and a 3.5 mm jack reside at the top edge. The volume rocker on the left edge of the phone is flanked by a bare micro-USB port. The right edge has nothing, where a camera key is conspicuous by its absence. Not only does it rob one of the pleasures of using the phone like a standalone camera, but it prevents one-touch-triggering of the autofocus feature. The rear bears a relatively large lens with dual-LED flash and a loudspeaker grille.

The battery cover is easy to release, as long as you can pry it open with your fingernails. It reveals a SIM Card and a MicroSD memory card slot. The bundled 8GB memory card isn't sufficient to hold a good collection of music and movies. A miserly 1 GB internal memory doesn't help matters either. That's a shame when the market is rife with the likes of Nokia N8 and Samsung Galaxy S - both of which boast of 16 GB internal storage. A gigabyte will never be sufficient, considering the number of Android apps available - most of which will be installed to the internal memory.