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Tecno PhonePad 7 II (a.k.a. Tecno PhonePad 7E) is the 2016 refresh on Tecno’s 7-inch tablet. The tablet supports Android 5.1 and can be used to make traditional calls. Like the Tecno DroiPad 10 Pro II, the Tecno PhonePad 7 II supports 4G LTE + Voice. Where to Buy Tecno PhonePad 7 II Jumia.com.ng₦45,900.00 Buy
The post Tecno PhonePad 7 II Tablet Specs & Price appeared first on Nigeria Technology Guide.
Reliance Jio officially launched its free welcome offer for public on September 5th this year, and it’s almost three months since the launch. In these three months, Jio has raked in as many as 50 million subscribers. The company’s initial plan was to offer free services till December 31st and then start charging subscribers from January 1st onwards. However, Jio has also set itself an ambitious target of 100 million subscribers and it will extend its free offer beyond December, all the way to March in order to hit that target.
Scale is important in the telecom industry, there’s no doubt about that. The larger the number of subscribers you have, easier it is to spread the costs of running the network. However, it’s also important to note that inorganic growth hardly ever helps in the long run especially in low margin markets such as India where customers are finicky and jump ship everytime they find a better offer elsewhere.
Jio’s infatuation with having a large subscriber base is understandable. When you invest as much as $22 billion in a telecom company, you want to be the No.2 or No.3 very soon. The most common metric by which people measure the ranking of telecom operators is by virtue of their subscriber base.
However, what most people end up forgetting while chasing the subscriber base race is revenue market share. The top three telecom operators in India control around 75% market share while the remaining 8 have to share about 25% amongst themselves. Although a large subscriber base plays a crucial role in helping the top three command a higher share, what also matters is the quality of their subscriber base which is much better than the rest of the operators as seen by their ARPU levels, the number of 3G/4G subscribers and also their VLR (Visitor Location Register) data.
It’s indeed appealing that Jio has managed to gain 50 million subscribers in such a short time frame and may indeed gain its 100 million now that it has extended the Free Jio offer till March 2017. However, the quality of the subscribers Jio is onboarding right now isn’t exactly great. Most people are using Jio as a secondary SIM right now and there’s no guarantee that the company would be able to retain these people once the free offer gets over.
What Jio is doing over here is very reminiscent of the Monsoon Hungama offer Reliance introduced when it launched its CDMA network in India back in 2003/04. In the Monsoon Hungama offer, Reliance flooded the market with cheap CDMA handsets bundled with talk time and SMS. Just like how Jio is carrying more data than any other operator in India, during the Monsoon Hungama offer as well, Reliance was carrying more minutes than anyone else. Also, just like with Jio, Monsoon Hungama offer also helped Reliance gain millions of CDMA subscribers.
Despite helping Reliance gain millions of CDMA subscribers, the Monsoon Hungama offer relegated the status of Reliance to a network that’s used by the poor or what’s popular known as the “discount network”. Globally, almost every telecom market has a “discount operator”. A discount operator is defined as an operator that competes on the basis of pricing primarily rather than quality. Whenever an operator gives away a lot of freebies, then the tag of discount operator starts lingering around. In the case of Jio, owing to its initial call drop issue and the slow/unusable network speeds being faced by a large chunk of users, their network quality perception has already deteriorated to quite some extent.
As I said, the top three telecom operators have a good quality subscriber base which helps them maintain healthy ARPUs. The 20-80 rule is more applicable in the Indian telecom industry than anywhere else. What the 20-80 rule basically means is that 20% of the customers, generate 80% of the revenue. Post-paid subscribers form just 4-5% of the subscriber base of the top three telecom operators, yet contribute as much as 30-35% of the revenue. These high-paying subscribers are what keep the financials healthy. However, these are some of the most sticky subscribers and poaching them is no easy task.
Most of the high paying postpaid subscribers aren’t willing to compromise on network quality at any cost. They usually earn enough that paying extra to a telecom operator for the best quality network and services is a non-issue for them. These subscribers also end up sticking with the telecom operator in the event of a price hike.
I have already detailed in a different post whether unlimited wireless data will ever be possible in India and at least for the next few years, the answer is a strict NO. Considering that Jio is continuing its free offer till March 2017, the low network speed will continue regardless of whatever network optimisation or carrier aggregation plans Jio has in place. This is because the improvement in capacity will be cancelled out by an even higher number of subscribers coming on board. Some people would argue with me that Jio has revised its FUP to 1GB/day from the earlier levels of 4GB/day. The important point to remember is that the 1GB/day FUP still translates to potential usage up to 30-31GB/month and nothing stops users to buy multiple SIMs and variably increase their FUP. If the first six-seven months (September-March) of your network are going to be plagued with congestion problems and call drops, then high paying postpaid subscribers will be put off.
The thing to remember here is while Jio is providing free services at deteriorating quality to gain sub standard subscribers, while the incumbents are quickly filling in their 4G coverage gaps and improving as well as expanding their network. With the recently concluded auction, the top three telecom operators have gained high capacity (2500/2300MHz) spectrum as well as mid band (2100/1800MHz) spectrum in all their top circles. Both Vodafone and Idea have already said that by March 2017, they’ll be covering as many as 20 circles or more with 4G and have been expanding as well as improving their 4G coverage at a blistering pace. Airtel meanwhile was already a step ahead of Idea and Vodafone in terms of 4G and is now making use of its lead to deploy LTE-A.
Jio’s moat had always been its network quality and its competitors are quickly catching up to it. Except for the low band 850 MHz spectrum that Jio has, competitors are now on an equal footing with Jio in terms of spectrum in most of their top circles. Hurting Jio’s ability to gain high paying customers is also its customer service. I would be lying if I said the customer service of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea are flawless but however they seem to be miles ahead of Jio, specially for high paying VIP customers.
What matters, in the long run, is network quality. Reliance Communications was once the No.2 telecom operator in India behind Airtel in terms of subscriber base but now it’s a distant No.4. The reason for Reliance’s decline has been nothing but it deteriorating network quality for the past few years. Reliance decided to compete in terms of price instead of quality and is now paying the price. Meanwhile, Idea was once the No.6 telecom operator in India and is now a strong No.3; almost all of Idea’s growth has been on the back of strong execution and rapid expansion of the network. Basically, Idea decided to compete in terms of quality while Reliance was competing in terms of price and in the longer term it’s clear that Idea has won.
Worldwide, customers still look at network quality first and price second. If a telecom operator provides cheaper price, customers will surely be attracted but if that cheaper price comes at the price of deteriorating network quality, then customers wouldn’t stick for long.
It is possible to quickly gain millions of subscribers by providing cheap tariffs but this growth will largely be inorganic. The moment you would try to raise tariffs, you would witness large churn. Most operators that gain subscribers via inorganic means are stuck in a death spiral. They don’t want to raise tariffs for the fear of losing subscribers and at the same time, they know that they need more subscribers to continue with the cheap tariffs. So they make their already cheaper tariffs even cheaper, hoping to gain subscribers. While the operator is playing see-saw between maintaining subscriber base and tariffs, the opex/capex requirements only keep increasing, and in a bid to keep tariffs low, network quality takes a significant hit.
When network quality takes a hit, the subscribers that had joined a particular network, not with pricing in mind but quality, they start to leave and they are higher paying subscribers more often than not.
From a consumer point of view, Jio extending its free service to March 2017 would be great, who wouldn’t want free services? Sure, some subscribers who are facing low speeds and call drops would move away from Jio, but the rest can continue to enjoy. But from a business point of view, this is an absolutely disastrous move. The inorganic acquisition of customers would mostly result in sub-standard customer quality which Jio would never be able to monetize to its true potential. In its bid to try and monetize the sub-standard 100 million customers, Jio might end up losing focus on its network and the death spiral scenario I mentioned above comes into effect. Once a telecom operator enters into a death spiral, recovering from it is almost impossible.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post Why Continuing the Free Offer is More Harmful than Useful for Reliance Jio appeared first on Technology Personalized.
Along with the extension of Jio’s complimentary offers up to 31st March 2017, Reliance’s chairman, Mukesh Ambani also unveiled a new digital payment app titled “Jio Money Merchants Solution”. Ambani primarily aims to empower the small businesses across the country in remote areas through this app which will essentially, allow them to accept and process payments.
The new app will be available starting from December 5th and will act as a catalyst in augmenting the cashless future India’s prime minister is envisioning, according to Mr. Ambani. Additionally, for converting physical currencies to digital, Jio will be setting up Millions of touchpoints, where Aadhaar based micro ATMs will be deployed. For other purposes such as bill payments and recharges, Jio Money will be available as well.
Furthermore, Jio has already rolled out over 200,000 eKYC enabled stores, which is actually more than the number of ATMs in India and RIL plans to reach 400,000 by March 2017. These will be also equipped with new Aadhaar-based services. This will fall in line with their roadmap for establishing various micro-ATMs and easing the entire process for the uninitiated customer.
Reliance currently isn’t particularly marketing their Jio Money service as a mobile wallet, Mukesh Ambani’s ambitious move involves a much wider retail ecosystem which is easily accessible to everyone. Incidentally, Jio also withholds a payments bank license in association with the State Bank of India. Reliance Jio’s offers have been extended to the next year’s March 31st, meaning, you’ll be able to access their entertainment as well as 4G services free of cost. You can read more about that here.
“Merchants, especially small merchants, are a very big part of the plan, and we are working with the merchants to build a digital retail ecosystem, called Jio Money Merchant ecosystem,” said Ambani. “This will be at mandis, restaurants, bus and railway tickets, and even person to person transfers. Starting 5th of December, every merchant can download this application.”
With over 50 million subscribers, Jio Money is poised to make a significant dent in the transition of India into a cashless economy, although, it remains to be seen how many of those 50 Million subscribers convert into actual paying subscribers, once the free offer ends.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post Reliance Aims to Bolster Retail Payments Through Jio Money Merchants Solutions appeared first on Technology Personalized.
Tecno Droipad 10 Pro II is a 2016 refresh of Tecno’s tablet line with a 10-incher. It is an Android tablet, but runs on Remix OS, a flavour of Android built to give you a PC-like experience on Android. Tecno Droipad 10 Pro II supports 4G LTE + Voice call and comes with Microsoft Office
The post Tecno Droipad 10 Pro II Tablet Specs & Price appeared first on Nigeria Technology Guide.
Reliance Jio, the high-flying telecom operator in India, is all set to extend the free 4G LTE data and other services to all its customers until March 31 2017. Commenting on the occasion of reaching 50 Million subscribers across India, the company chairman, Mr. Mukesh Ambani announced the new Jio Happy New Year Offer (JNO) which will be effective from 4th Dec 2016.
Under the new Jio Happy New Year Offer, all the new and existing Jio subscribers will be entitled to special benefits which shall comprise of Jio’s Data, Voice, Video and the full bouquet of Jio applications and content, absolutely free, up to 31 March 2017. The benefits will be available to all subscribers signing up for Jio services up to 3 March 2017.
The existing Jio Welcome Offer (“JWO’) users will continue to enjoy the unlimited benefits under JWO up to 31 December 2016, following which they would be automatically signed-up for the JNO as well.
Under the Jio New Year Offer, high-speed 4G LTE data is restricted up to 1GB per day (as against 4GB per day on Jio Welcome Offer), following which the speed will be reduced to 128 Kbps. Jio claims that the decision has been taken to ensure that all the Jio users get superior data experience. Interestingly, those who want to use high-speed data beyond 1GB can do so by paying nominal tariff rates, details of which are awaited.
Developing…
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post Reliance Jio Extends Free Data and Calls till March 2017 with Jio Happy New Year Offer appeared first on Technology Personalized.
After Stagefright and Quadrooter it’s now Gooligans turn to haunt the Android users. The latest malware has already affected a total of one million Google accounts and it breaches the security of Android by automatically rooting your phone, stealing email addresses and also the authentication tokens associated with it. Coming to think of it the attackers can access a multitude of data from the victim’s account including the ones stored on Gmail, Google Photos, Google Docs, Google Play, Google Drive and also G Suite.
Gooligan was first encountered by the Checkpoint researchers in the malicious SnapPea app last year. Since the creators of the Malware had been in a slumber mode till early 2016 the Malware was supposedly out of the radar. Well, the Malware made a re-entry in the Summer of 2016 along with an advanced and more complex architecture that injected malicious codes into the Android system processes. The word ‘Gooligan’ seems to be an amalgamation of Google + Holligan.
The infection begins only once user downloads and installs a Gooligan-affected app on a vulnerable device. The malware can also be downloaded by clicking on the phishing link or malicious download links. After the app is installed it sends data regarding the device to the campaigns Command and Control server. This prompts Google to download a rootkit from the C&C server which takes advantage of the Android 4 and the 5 exploits including the VROOT (CVE-2013-6282) and also Towelroot (CVE-2014-3153), since the exploits are still not patched in some Android versions it becomes easy for the attacker to take full control of the device and also execute privileged commands remotely.
Next, Gooligan downloads a new module from the C&C server and installs it on the infected device. The code is then cleverly injected into the GMS to avoid detection. Gooligan now uses the module to steal users Google email account, authentication token, can install apps from Google Play and also install adware to generate revenue.
Gooligan is perhaps the biggest threat lurking around when it comes to Android ecosystem with the campaign infecting 13,000 devices on a daily basis and also gaining access to the email and related services.
The Gooligan mostly targets Android 4 and 5 and this in itself is a major threat since nearly 74 percent of Android devices are running on Android 4 and 5. It’s also estimated that Gooligan installs 30,000 apps on the breached devices every day while the total number of the app installed is pegged at 2-Million. Demographically speaking Asia seems to be the worst affected with 40 percent followed by Europe at 12 percent
The good folks at CheckPoint have already come up with a tool that helps in detecting a breach associated with a Google account. Just punch in your email address and check for the breach. this is what Shaulov, CheckPoints head of mobile products had to say, “If your account has been breached, a clean installation of an operating system on your mobile device is required. For further assistance, you should contact your phone manufacturer or mobile service provider. Additionally, I would suggest Android users refrain clicking on links from unknown sources and also ensure that you don’t install a third-party app that doesn’t seem trustworthy.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post Gooligan Affects More than 1 Million Google Accounts, Here is How you Can Stay Safe appeared first on Technology Personalized.
If you had told us a few years ago that we would attend an event from Lenovo, we would have laughed at the notion. Lenovo was after all the company that was best known for having taken over IBM’s ThinkPad business and was seen as a bit of a hardware hero with not too much of a “soft”(ware) side. But well, for the best part of an hour yesterday, its executives gently kept skirting mention of hardware, while they launched the K6 Power – the “Vibe” name has been dropped, we hear.
The cynics would say that that was because the K6 Power did not really have anything exceptional in hardware terms. There are more than a few products out there that can match its Qualcomm 430 chip, 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage and 13.0-megapixel and 8.0-megapixel rear and front shooter combination at Rs 9,999 (the likes of Xiaomi, Coolpad and InFocus have devices in that range, to name a few). But as someone who has been observing the mobile phone side of Lenovo for a while, the company has been moving away from the spec sheet for a while now.
Perhaps the event that changed Lenovo’s approach was the launch of the K4 Note, where the focus was on the company’s TheaterMax technology that allowed you to view content on the phone as if on a large display using a special pair of glasses (the company insisted it was not VR). The period since has seen a steady stress on experiential elements like sound (an event was hosted in a cinema hall to show off Dolby Atmos sound) and multimedia. Yes, the spec sheet does come into play but it is only towards the end and then too is seldom allowed to be the star of the show.
That was the case with the launch of the K6 Power where the brand followed what is becoming its template of sorts in recent times – starting with an overview of how well the brand is done, interspersed with comments by its e-commerce partner and rounded off by the product itself, with the spec sheet coming in generally towards the very end. We were given a sampling of the Dolby Atmos effect, shown security features on the phone and told about battery life (with even a real life story thrown in for good measure). Yes, the processor and other hardware specs did get a mention, but they were firmly kept in their place. The centrestage was occupied by the “experience” element – the K6 Power was a great multimedia device was the core message. We had no endorsements from hardware manufacturers (unlike in the Z2 Plus where Qualcomm had come on stage for a while). And as always, there was no celebrity to divert attention – Lenovo did have Ranbir Kapoor on its rolls but never rolled him out for events (apologies for the bad pun).
The product and the experience it delivers very much seem to be the stars at Lenovo events. Which seems to be fine on paper, but runs the risk of becoming predictable and monotonous. When Sudhin Mathur, Executive Director of Lenovo’s Mobile Business Group in India came on stage to outline how well the brand had been doing, there was a sense of deja vu among some of the attendees – Lenovo and Motorola events have been coming thick and fast of late, making the regular template seem repetitive. And this in turn seemed to take some of the momentum away from the detailed product presentation made by Anuj Sharma, Lenovo India’s head for product and marketing. “Too many events,” one of our senior colleagues muttered. And that, along with a profusion of competitors with similar looking products, seems to be Lenovo’s greatest challenge at the moment.
But although some are beginning to find its approach a tad tedious, it certainly beats the adjective-laden spec readout that many product launches are becoming. Most importantly, it seems to be working, if the sales of the K Note series are to be believed. They might not make as much noise about “experience over specs” as some of their competitors do, but Sudhin Mathur, Anuj Sharma and Co have managed to put specs on the back foot in most of their launches.
They also have cut back on an accepted – and in our opinion, regressive – practice of handing out “gifts” and freebies to mediapersons at their events. Of late, Lenovo’s events have been marked by some sort of freebie coming with the invite to the event rather than after it is over. This has led to the end of pitched battles being waged for press kits (less for the releases that they contained and more for what accompanied them), but has also generated some angst in some sections of the media and blog community. Not that it seems to bother the Lenovo team. When some people complained about the absence of gifts at the event, one of their executives smiled and said, “It is our badge of honour. The event is about the product.”
Indeed it is. A bit too much, as per some. But we are not complaining.
© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2016. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |
The post [Event-ually Speaking] Lenovo K6 Power Launch: Talking Experience in a Spec World and Giving no Gifts! appeared first on Technology Personalized.
