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Monday 16 March 2015

Consumers to improve wellness through wearables: Ericsson consumer lab report

Ericsson, on Thursday published its latest report from EricssonConsumerLab, entitled Living longer: wellness and the internet. This report examines how satisfied consumers are with their overall wellness, and how it relates to their use of the internet for health and fitness purposes. The report draws together data from several recentconsumer surveys covering up to 49 countries.

“Those already satisfied with their wellness say they are the first to try new health approaches. Rather than typical tech adopters or those with health issues, we therefore see people who are satisfied with their wellness being early adopters of wellness technology. This group has very specific requirements related to cloud, privacy, design and functionality that they want to be fulfilled simultaneously. Fulfilling one or two of these simply won’t be enough,” said Michael Bjorn, Head of Research at Ericsson ConsumerLab.

As 71 percent of consumers are equally as interested?in quantifying themselves as they are in wearables, quantification of behavior today starts with wearables. But people see a range of cloud-based services giving them the potential to live healthier and longer lives – whether the technology can be worn or not.

The report also shows that hopes for increased life expectancy even go beyond personal devices andservices, making individual wellness a societal concern.

“Consumers in cities facing bigger environmental challenges show higher interest in society-relatedhealth concepts, such as a bracelet that checks for smog, or a wearable that helps with eco-friendly commuting, and could potentially drive a faster pace of change. Interest in wellness on a personal level may therefore inspire transformation on a societal level,” added Michael Bjorn.

Three out of the seven society-related health concepts analyzed were seen by respondents to be driven by medical service providers, while two?of the concepts were seen as the responsibility of cityauthorities. However, respondents say technology companies and environmental protection organizations should provide the remaining two concepts.

“Given that the main service providers are expected?to differ widely, the ecosystem to join this will be complex. People think medical information is highly sensitive, and those likely to adopt wellnessservices early on value the integrity of that information more than others,” added Michael Bjorn.

Good News: Xiaomi launches Redmi 2 smartphone with 4G/LTE support in India for Rs 6999


Xiaomi, on Thursday launched the Redmi 2 smartphone in India for Rs. 6,999. It is the successor to the Redmi 1S. The Xiaomi Redmi 2 will be available through flash sale on March 24, and customers can register for it on Flipkart starting 6pm on Thursday. It will be available in White and Grey colour variants. Xiaomi says between 30,000 and 50,000 units will be made available in the first flash sale.

Xiaomi Redmi 2 is a dual-SIM dual-standby phone and both SIM card slots support 4G networks. The device features a 4.7 inch IPS display with HD 720 x 1280 resolution and 312ppi. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat operating system with company's own MIUI 6 skin over it. Redmi 2 is powered by a 64-bit 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor with 1GB RAM. Xiaomi also unveiled the 2GB RAM and 16GB built-in storage variant, called a ‘limited edition’, will be launched at a later date, and no pricing has been revealed.

Xiaomi Redmi 2 comes with an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 2 megapixel front camera. The devicecomes with 8GB of internal storage that is further expandable up to 32GB using microSD card. Thedevice is power backed by a 2200 mAh battery.

For connectivity Redmi 2 includes - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and 4G/LTE network support. The deviceweighs 133 gm and is 0.5 mm thinner.

Day 8: Telecom spectrum auction bids exceed Rs 1 lakh crore: INDIA

Spectrum auction day eight, 6 rounds of bidding were completed on Thursday bid reached Rs 1,02,057 crore in all four spectrum bands at the end of till now 49 rounds were completed on the eight day of the auction.
At the end of day seven, 43 rounds of bidding were completed on Wednesday, bid reached Rs 96,000 crore.
Eight private telecom operators including Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom, Reliance Jio, Tata Docomo, Aircel and Uninor are participating in the spectrum auction.
86% of the spectrum has been provisionally allocated to bidders at the end of day eight, 49 rounds of bidding were completed.
Mumbai and Delhi saw aggressively bidding in the 800 MHz band and also in Madhya Pradesh, North East regions as well. The maximum bids of 78 were received for Tamil Nadu circle and the second highest bids of 75 were received for Odisha circle as well.
Reliance Jio Infocomm has submitted the highest EMD of about Rs. 4,500 crores, followed by Bharti Airtel with Rs. 4,336 crores, Idea Cellular with Rs. 4,000 crores, Vodafone with Rs. 3,700 crores, Tata Teleservices with Rs. 1,500 crores, Reliance Communications with Rs. 1,175 crores, Telewings (Uninor) with Rs. 724.95 crores and Aircel with Rs. 500 crores.
DoT has fixed the pan-India per megahertz reserve price for the 800MHz CDMA band at Rs 3,646 crore; for the 900 MHz band Rs 3,980 crore (excluding Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and J&K); for the 1,800MHz band Rs 2,191 crore (excluding Maharashtra and West Bengal) and for 2,100 MHz Rs 3,705 crore.
While 5MHz of frequency will be auctioned in the 3G band of 2,100 MHz, a total of 380.75MHz will be sold in other frequencies — 103.75MHz in 800MHz band, 177.8 MHz (in 17 circles) in the 900 MHz band and 99.2MHz (in 15 circles) in the 1,800MHz band.
Seven licenses each of Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications, four licenses of Bharti Airtel and six licenses of Vodafone will complete their 20-year term in December 2015, after which they have to be renewed.
This revenue collected in any auction till now and will help the current government to easily meet its fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of the GDP in this fiscal.
But the Supreme Court also order that the auction results can be declared only with the court's approval has left many uncertain as well.
The order also said that no winner can claim any "equity" just because it won a bid and the next hearing is on March 26.