HTC, one of the most premium brands in India in the last decade, shut shop in India in mid-2018. From a technology innovation perspective, HTC ranked pretty high up, but could not match it with a similar innovation in its business or go-to-market perspective. Its market in India nose-dived since it was either too late …
The 21:9 Smartphone Screen Display: Does it make sense?
Smartphones are growing taller, and taller. From 18:9, the next generation of smartphones are aiming for 21:9 screen aspect ratio displays that promise true cinematic and flawlessly rich gaming experience. But, in doing so, are they becoming tough to manoeuvre? Over the past couple of years, tall 18:9 aspect ratio screens on phones made the …
MWC 2019: 5G, Foldable, and Mixed Reality
At Day Zero of the MWC 2019 at Barcelona, there were some interesting contrasts: While Huawei made a bold bet on Foldable Smartphones, Nokia showcased its Computational Photography chops (in collaboration with Light Labs) with its five rear camera innovation. One key standout hit was Microsoft, who crashed the party, with a renewed pitch for …
Spotify, Podcasting and the India Gambit
Spotify has made a sharp pivot to new frontiers, beyond just music. By acquiring two podcast businesses, Gimlet Media Inc., a popular podcast network, and Anchor, a platform providing tools for creators, Spotify is recognizing the potential for non-music content, and staking a claim on the future of podcasting. Both acquisitions are prudent as well. …
Impossible Burger 2.0: The runaway hit at CES 2019!
To satisfy the global demand for meat at a fraction of the environmental impact, Impossible Foods developed a far more sustainable, scalable and affordable way to make meat, without the catastrophic environmental impact of livestock. At the recently concluded CES 2019, Impossible Foods’ next-generation, plant-based meat — which rivals ground beef from cows for taste, …
Unbundling Hike to drive service penetration
Earlier this week, Hike, founded by Kavin Bharti Mittal, announced unbundling its content and services into new applications. While Hike would continue to be a messaging app, the other services, including video, news and associated services would be hived off into separate apps. Key takeaways emerging from hiving off Hike from a ‘super app’ into …
Unfolding the Foldable Smartphones
While smartphones have become more powerful and feature rich than ever before, they now suffer from a sea of sameness, bordering on boredom. Technological innovations that enable devices to bend and fold are a new line of design thinking for the industry that are not just visually appealing, but make sense, as they give one …
2019 in Smartphones: What’s next?
2018 was an interesting year for smartphones in the India market, with a series of steady and even impressive, smartphones from all major brands, Chinese as well as Global. Across price bands, there were many smartphones vying for attention with their incredible design, craftsmanship and performance. More than ever before, smartphone innovation picked pace in …
OPPO and the future of Indian Smartphone R&D
On December 15, 2018, OPPO, a leading smartphone brand, announced their first ever R&D centre in Hyderabad, India. For OPPO, the R&D centre is the fourth globally, and their largest facility outside of mainland China. Here are some key questions that this article seeks to answer: Why is OPPO India focusing on R&D now? What …
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 for the 2019 Flagships
During the second day of the Snapdragon Technology Summit 2018, Qualcomm introduced the newest generation in the 8 Mobile Platform Series, the Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform: the world’s first commercial mobile platform supporting multi-gigabit 5G, industry-leading AI and immersive extended reality (XR) in the 2019 generation of premium Android flagships. The Snapdragon 855 will change …