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India is expected to overtake the US as the second-largest smartphone market next year (Source: Thinkstock Images)

India is expected to overtake the US as the second-largest smartphone market next year with robust annual growth, says a Morgan Stanley research report.

According to the report on global technology and telecom, the country’s smartphone market will grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23 percent through 2018 and would account for 30 percent of the global growth during the period.

“We expect India to overtake the US next year as the second-largest smartphone market by units. India will grow nearly five times faster than the world’s largest smartphone market China, where growth has decelerated,” the report said.

It added, “We estimate a 23 per cent CAGR in units in India, compared with 5 percent over the same period in China. By 2018, we estimate 192 million smartphones will be shipped to India or 11 percent of global units.”

Morgan Stanley said there are only 225 million smartphone subscribers in the country, accounting for 18 percent of the total population.

“The improvement in demographics, as measured by declining age dependency, has been one of the most important factors supporting higher potential growth in India… We expect consumption to maintain a relatively high growth rate, driven by an increase in per-capita income growth and an emerging middle class,” it noted.

On consumption of data, the report said the country is on the cusp of significant growth in data traffic driven by rising data users as well as growing data usage per user.

“We expect India’s internet penetration to reach 50 per cent by 2018, up from 26 percent last year, driven by rising smartphone availability and affordability, online content and changing user behavior,” it said.

The global consultancy estimates 4G smartphones will account for 75 percent of 170 million shipments by the next year, which currently has less than 1 per cent subscriber penetration in the country.

The report, which is based on 2,600 urban smartphone buyers, said the respondents paid an average of Rs 8,500 for their smartphones and plan to spend 40 percent more on their next phone.

A team of researchers has come up with a smartphone application that projects a magnified smartphone screen to Google Glass

Having trouble seeing items on your phone screen? Now, a team of researchers has come up with a smartphone application that projects a magnified smartphone screen to Google Glass, which users can navigate using head movements to view a corresponding portion of the magnified screen.

They have shown that the technology can potentially benefit low-vision users, many of whom find the smartphone’s built-in zoom feature to be difficult to use due to the loss of context.

“When people with low visual acuity zoom in on their smartphones, they see only a small portion of the screen, and it’s difficult for them to navigate around – they don’t know whether the current position is in the center of the screen or in the corner of the screen,” said senior author Gang Luo from Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass. Eye and Ear.

Luo added that this application transfers the image of smartphone screens to Google Glass and allows users to control the portion of the screen they see by moving their heads to scan, which gives them a very good sense of orientation.

In an evaluation of their new technology, the researchers observed two groups of research subjects (one group that used the head-motion Google Glass application and the other using the built-in zoom feature on a smartphone) and measured the time it took for them to complete certain tasks. The researchers showed that the head-based navigation method reduced the average trial time compared to conventional manual scrolling by about 28 percent.

As next steps for the project, the researchers would like to incorporate more gestures on the Google Glass to interact with smartphones. They would also like to study the effectiveness of head motion-based navigation compared to other commonly-used smartphone accessibility features, such as voice-based navigation.

“Given the current heightened interest in smart glasses, such as Microsoft’s Hololens and Epson’s Moverio, it is conceivable to think of a smart glass working independently without requiring a paired mobile device in near future,” said first author Shrinivas Pundlik. “The concept of head-controlled screen navigation can be useful in such glasses even for people who are not visually impaired.”

The study is published online in the journal IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.

More than one million people are now connecting to Facebook through Tor dark web every month

More than one million people are now connecting to Facebook through Tor “dark web” – which maintains privacy and leaves no digital trail – every month, media reports said on Saturday.

According to Facebook, the growth of Tor over the past few years has been “roughly” linear, noting that some 525,000 people who accessed the service via Tor in June 2015 rose to more than one million in April this year.

“This [Tor] growth is a reflection of the choices that people make to use Facebook over Tor, and the value that it provides them. We hope they will continue to provide feedback and help us keep improving,” TechCrunch quoted Facebook as saying.

Tor allows anonymous web browsing by sending data through multiple encrypted steps rather than making direct connections that shields the identity of its users.

Facebook created a dedicated address for Tor access in October 2014, making it easier for users to connect via Tor and give them privacy.

Facebook also expanded its Tor support at the start of this year by rolling out support for the Android Orbot proxy, giving Android Facebook users an easier way to use Tor. Apple’s iOS platform still does not have Tor support.

Confirming Facebook’s claim, a spokeswoman for Tor said in a statement: “When using Facebook website over Tor, Tor Browser is in charge of that data, so it is anonymous. Of course, someone may post a status update saying that they are at some restaurant, for instance, and that would de-anonymise them.”

Tor could be used in countries where internet access or use of Facebook is blocked or censored, the Tor statement added.

“Many people use Tor in countries where the internet is censored, not in order to be anonymous. Tor allows them to access the uncensored internet, including reaching Facebook. In Iran, for instance, Facebook is blocked. So people use Tor to get onto the internet and browse and from there they can reach Facebook,” it read.

Privacy activists, hackers, activists and journalists use this “dark web” to communicate securely.

PressPlay TV aims to bring in-flight entertainment to trains and buses with the help of smartphones (Source: PressPlay)

This February, the Indian Railways switched on video-on-demand services on two trains running between Delhi and cities in Rajasthan. It was a first for railways in India, where otherwise the most entertaining options are limited to a cheap paperback from Higgin Bothams Railway Minister or ‘timepass’ snacks.

PressPlay TV, the company that enabled the service, hopes to have the service rolling on over 30 trains by year-end. In fact, the company already does this on many intercity buses and has 3,000 hotspots running across the country. Co-founder and COO George Abraham says there will be 10,000 of these in a few months from now.

Explained: What is Google’s Wi-Fi at 100 railway station project and how will it work

In a chat with IndianExpress.com, Abraham explains that his technology is primarily the box, “double the height of a set-top-box”, which stores content locally and lets users connect using the PressPlay app to stream the content at superfast speeds. “Our goal is to bring the airline experience of in-flight entertainment to other modes of transport, but using the smartphone to create that personalised entertainment solution,” he adds.

So how does the technology work? The box stores the content and also houses the router. The same box is used for busses and trains, but with the latter range as well as a number of concurrent users is increased. Still trains need one server per coach to ensure smooth performance, Abraham says, reminding us that the box is “completely made in India”. The content is refreshed once in 30 to 45 days and there are people on the ground who check on the device once in three or four days, explains Abraham.

“To make the content relevant, the focus is on making it highly localised with a good mix of long form as well as short form,” Abraham says, adding that they have a good mix of languages too.

PressPlay TV has an ad-funded model for now and Abraham says they make enough to cover the costs. He is more happy about the user acquisitions for the OTT app. “The great strategy for us is that we are acquiring new users every single day on the bus or train and without spending on marketing.” Over time, he plans to add premium content that can be charged for. For now, most of the content is sourced free and that lets PressPlay TV stay viable.

“The railways views it as a new initiatives programme. We are evolving as well. We have been given timeframes to evolve and come up with a revenue model,” he adds. Being a trendsetter is a bit of an issue, for PressPlay TV “doesn’t have someone to emulate or copy”. “That is the good as well as bad as we have no benchmarks to follow.”

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The blocking of Apple mobile entertainment services in China poses fresh challenges for the tech company (Source: AP)

The blocking of Apple mobile entertainment services in China poses fresh challenges for the tech company as it prepares to report its first-ever drop in iPhone sales.

The news on Thursday that Apple Inc’s online book and film services had gone dark in China came at a vulnerable moment for the company. Apple executives have said that iPhone sales will fall for the first time in the company’s second quarter, and the results for that quarter will be released on Tuesday. Investors are sensitive to any signs of trouble in Greater China, the company’s second-largest market by revenue.

Apple executives have flagged the growing services business as a potential source of revenue as sales of the company’s flagship devices level off, upping the stakes for success in China, said analyst Bob O’Donnell of TECHnalysis Research.

“It raises questions in an area that we know long-term is going to be very strategically important to Apple,” he said.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that a state regulator demanded Apple halt the service. The move came after Beijing introduced regulations in March imposing strict curbs on online publishing, particularly for foreign firms.

Still, the outage is only troubling if it persists, O’Donnell said. Apple said in a statement on Thursday that it hopes to make the services available to customers in China as soon as possible.

Apple has a strong track record of working with officials in China, where it has launched a series of services including mobile payment Apple Pay, but some analysts questioned whether the company may receive a chillier reception in the future.

“Is this the beginning of more pressure on Apple by the Chinese government?” asked analyst of Frank Gillett of research firm Forrester. “It’s a symbolic turn, and the question is to what extent is it a harbinger.”

The company released its book and movie services in China only late last year, leaving Chinese consumers little time to form a habit.

“People who are buying iPhones in China aren’t buying them for iTunes,” said O’Donnell. “They are buying it for the status and the cachet of owning an Apple product, and that is really more about the hardware.”

Chinese consumers’ appetite for the phones themselves will be critical to quarterly earnings. Apple is expected to post its first-ever quarterly drop in iPhone sales, to about 50 million units, reflecting a saturated global market.

Wall Street expects adjusted earnings per share to drop 14 percent to $2.00 and revenue to drop 10 percent to $52.0 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

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Sony Xperia Z3 is the first non-Nexus device to get Android N Developer Preview (Source: Google)

Google is expanding its Android N Preview to non-Nexus devices with Sony’s Xperia Z3.

Google in a blog post announced that the preview version of next Android will be available for test on Sony’s Xperia Z3 smartphone. The Android N Preview was initially available to Google’s Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 6, Nexus Player, Pixel C tablet and Android One based General Mobile 4G devices.

Also Read: Android N developer preview: Split-screen multitasking, interactive notifications and more

Google’s post reads, “Sony has been working closely with us to bring you the N Developer Preview on Xperia for early testing and development.”

With Android Marshmallow having turned almost a year old and most Android devices still stuck on Lollipop and KitKat version, the Android N Preview can be seen as an effort to deliver faster OS updates.

For those interested in trying out N Preview on Xperia Z3, the latest preview build can be downloaded from here and then manually flashed to the device. Google says all future Developer Preview will be available as an OTA update.

Recommended: Android N update revealed: VR mode, 3D Touch like support and more

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Government is likely to exempt iPhone and iPad maker Apple from mandatory local sourcing rule (Source: Reuters)

Government is likely to exempt iPhone and iPad maker Apple from mandatory local sourcing rule, a move which would pave the way for tech giant opening single-brand retail stores in the country.

The company had given a detailed presentation to a committee headed by DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek on April 19, on its products, technology, innovations and camera.

By early next week, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) would send the proposal for final approval to Finance Ministry, sources said.

“The panel has looked into the detailed proposal. The committee feels that it is a fit case for exemption of the mandatory sourcing norms,” they added.

The US-based company has sought approval from the government on setting up single-brand retail stores in the country.

As per the foreign direct investment (FDI) norms, the government may relax the mandatory local sourcing norms for entities undertaking single-brand retailing of products having state-of-the-art and cutting edge technology and where local sourcing is not possible.

The government had set up a committee to decide whether a product is state-of-the-art and can be eligible for exemption from the mandatory local sourcing applicable for FDI single brand retail trading.

At present, 100 per cent FDI is permitted in the single-brand retail sector but companies are required to take FIPB permission if the limit exceeds 49 per cent.

The company sells its products through Apple-owned retail stores in countries including China, Germany, the US, the UK and France.

Apple has no wholly-owned store in India and sells its products through distributors such as Redington and Ingram Micro.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has also submitted an application to open stores in the country.

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