Smart benefactor for your smart mobiles : May 2013

Monday, May 6, 2013

A Sneak Peek into airtel money

Take a minute to look into your wallet and just check the amount of credit cards and debit cards you carry in it. Along with your wallet every day you also carry a fear of misplacing your cards in it. Will the day ever come when you can step out leaving your heavy wallets at home and yet shop & dine? How would you feel if instead of fumbling through a wallet for your credit cards, coupons, you could simply use your smartphone to pay your bills? Well, the good news is that the days are already here! With ‘airtel money’ you can routinely leave the house every day without your leather wallet and can still pay for your utility bills, broadband, telecom and toll recharges, e-ticketing , dining and shopping.

Launched amidst great anticipation, airtel money is a mobile-based payment and remittance solution, which provides an opportunity to cater to those 90% of the 250 million Indian consumers, who do not hold bank accounts and use cash to pay for their daily needs. It is a trustworthy, secure, fast and cost effective mobile wallet service that lets you make your payments without standing in a queue and transfer money across the country. Ultimately airtel money will be able to benefit anyone who holds a mobile phone capable of using it.

HOW IT WORKS?

airtel money works like a prepaid account on your mobile phone. One can deposit money (called ‘loading cash’) on to their airtel money account at any airtel money retailer or through the Web using net banking, credit and debit cards, and use this balance to pay for various products and services or to transfer money through a simple menu on the phone. What’s more – customers using airtel money are offered exclusive discounts and offers at various airtel money merchant outlets.

There are basically three kinds of accounts that a customer can avail:

a) Express account – Created instantly with minimum details of the customer.

b) Power account – Advanced account that is ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) compliant.

c) Super account – No-frills savings account of Axis Bank on the airtel money platform called ‘airtel money Super Account powered by Axis Bank’. This account offers customers banking transactions including cash deposits, money transfer, and withdrawal and even allows customers to earn interest.

To begin with, savings, remittance and payment solutions are provided in the top four remittance corridors involving Delhi and Mumbai on the sending side and Bihar and East UP on the receiving side. Thereafter these services may be extended to other remittance corridors in the country.

HOW TO REGISTER FOR ‘airtel money’

One can register for the ‘Express Account’ by dialing *400# from the Airtel mobile and register by providing basic information. For a ‘Power Account’, a customer has to visit the nearest authorized airtel money outlet or Airtel relationship centre and fill a simple form and submit a photograph and a copy of the identity & address proof. Post KYC verification, the power account gets activated.

HOW SECURE IS YOUR MONEY?

The transmission between your mobile phone handset and the server is highly secure and ensure highest security standards. When you register for airtel money, you get a 4-digit mobile personal identification number (mPIN), which you are required to change within 48 hours to a secret 4-digit mPIN known only to you. The mPIN is subsequently required to authorize all your financial transactions and to get any account information. The mPIN is not stored anywhere on the phone or on any server, so it is independent of any malware attacks on handsets. Therefore, your money will always be safe even if you accidentally lose your phone or even if your device is attacked, so long as you have not disclosed your mPIN to anyone.

Available across 800 cities in India, airtel money is continuing to gain traction and has begun to receive customer acceptance. As of now it acquires 42% customer market share of the PPI (pre-paid payment instruments) industry. With the passage of time we are hopeful that airtel money will enable various mobile-based commerce services to reach customers in deeper pockets of the country

Friday, May 3, 2013

Latest Android Distribution Reveals Gingerbread Down 1.3% and Jelly Bean Up 3.4%

As can be seen in the above graphic, Jelly Bean continues its growth, which is nowhere near last month’s increase of 8.5%. Unfortunately, the numbers still aren’t at a point where Google (and Android customers) should be satisfied. Of course the Jelly Bean numbers will naturally rise as newer phones are released and older phones become discontinued, but we would like to see this happening at a much higher rate— this starts with the manufacturers.

They need to start developing their skins/bloatware for updates more efficiently, or getting rid of it altogether. (Which would make a lot of us pretty happy.) Stock Android with unlocked bootloaders for all phones is still somewhere in fantasyland, but hopefully the imminent release of Android 4.3 (or 5.0) will make OS-integration simpler.

Some great news for the oft-forgotten Droid Bionic this month— Motorola finally dished out their Jelly Bean update to the phone, causing Bionic owners to rejoice everywhere! (Probably making up the majority of the 3.4% increase…)

Here are this month’s numbers:

1.6 Donut: 0.1%
2.1 Eclair: 1.7%
2.2 Froyo: 3.7%
2.3 Gingerbread: 38.5%
3.2 Honeycomb: 0.1%
4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich: 27.5%
4.1 and 4.2 Jelly Bean: 28.4%

Devices with Gingerbread slowly continue to go down, and devices with Jelly Bean saw a solid 3.4% increase in the past month. We’ll update you guys next month with Google’s next release of distribution statistics.

Google+ Hangouts for desktop now allows remote control of other computers

If you’re constantly heading over to the homes of friends and family to supply some tech support, Google+ now provides a much more simple solution, via Hangouts Remote Desktop. Powered by the same technology behind Chrome Remote Desktop, this new feature will provide a much more efficient way of getting things done.

Of course this application requires permission, so you don’t have to worry about hackers being able to swiftly commandeer your desktop without your approval.

Rovio unleashes Angry Birds Friends to Android

Last month we reported that Rovio was planning a big release on the Google Play Store. That time has come now, with a new version of Angry Birds that is sure to go viral in the coming weeks.

Ported from the online version, Android users everywhere are now able to experience the social features of Angry Birds Friends for free. This new version allows gamers to connect with Facebook friends, challenging them to matches of the classic game. You can gather daily rewards, send and receive gifts, post about the game via Facebook connectivity, and collect trophies.

For those worried about losing your progress after playing on Facebook, have no fear— the app picks up right where you left off on the computer with seamless integration. Nice! There’s also a pretty cool tournament feature included that users will definitely have to check out.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Bharti Airtel to sell 5 percent stake to Qatar investor

India's biggest telecoms company Bharti Airtel said Friday it would sell new shares equivalent to a 5.0-percent stake in itself to a Qatar-based investor for $1.26 billion.

The investment, Bharti said, will "further strengthen its capital structure and provide further flexibility to the company to deliver on its growth strategy".

As part of the agreement, Bharti will issue 199.8 million new shares at 340 rupees ($6.2) per share, which investor Qatar Foundation Endowment (QFE) will acquire, the Indian firm said in a statement.

This is a 7.5 percent premium to Bharti's closing price of 316 rupees on Thursday.

The investment comes at a time when Bharti, like several Indian telecom companies, is struggling with falling profits due to high interest costs and intense competition in the country.

Bharti reported Thursday that its net quarterly profit halved in the first quarter of the calendar year compared with 2012 to 5.08 billion rupees ($94 million), the 13th straight quarterly fall in its profitability.

News of the new investment encouraged investors, however, with Bharti shares rising as much as 4.5 percent to a high of 331 rupees on the Bombay Stock Exchange, after the news.

"This strategic partnership with QFE demonstrates the confidence they have in us and our strategy for growth," said Bharti's chairman Sunil Mittal.

QFE's acting chief executive Rashid Al-Naimi said as a long-term global investor, the shareholding gave them "exposure to a high growth sector in key emerging markets".

Analyst Ankita Somani of Mumbai's Angel Broking said the stake sale will help Bharti to reduce its debt, estimated at $11.74 billion at the end of March.