5 Flagship Smartphones to Watch Out For in 2017

Game of Phones has just begun! The year 2017 has witnessed numerous tech companies emerging with their flagship smartphones lately, initially at CES in January. In fact, the MWC 2017 was no different given that brands like Nokia, LG, Huawei, Sony, BlackBerry and more showed off their lineup of flagship smartphones for this year. Considering the vast competition and plethora of options available in the market, we decided to list five flagship smartphones to watch out for in 2017. Here wo go!

Samsung Galaxy S8

South Korean giant Samsung has geared up to launch this year's flagship Galaxy S8 soon. Meanwhile, Samsung also has some press event scheduled for March 15 in New York where it is likely to expand its flagship Galaxy 'S series' lineup. It has been quite sometime now since the company's most-awaited phone of 2017 is making headlines. The Galaxy S8, similar to its predecessor, is expected with wireless charging and IP68 rated water and dust resistance. Rumour has it that the device might be powered by Qualcomm's newly announced flagship Snapdragon 835 chip with 6GB RAM.

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Apple iPhone 8

Apple's iPhone unit is marking its 10th anniversary this year. You must have figured out by now that the year 2017 will undoubtedly be special for the Cupertino giant. India has been a growing market for Apple and we should expect the 10th anniversary iPhone to launch in India shortly after international announcement. Apple has already gained significant market share in India with the iPhone 5s being sold for sub Rs 20,000 in recent times and the price of iPhone 6 also seems to be headed in the same direction.

Reports suggest that Apple will release the next iteration of iPhone in October this year. While it happens sooner or later, let us see what all features we can expect in this year's iPhone 8. First thing first, it is expected that it will sport an OLED, edge-to-edge display and glass body. The display itself might deal with a selfie camera as well as an integrated Touch ID fingerprint sensor. If true, it will not sport a home button this time, though.

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Xiaomi Mi6

Last year, Xiaomi launched the Mi 5s and Mi 5s flagship devices only in China. This year, however, Xiaomi is likely to release its flagship smartphone globally. That is where Xiaomi Mi6 comes into play. The phone is rumoured to arrive in multiple options -- Xiaomi Mi6 Lite, Standard and Pro. The Xiaomi Mi6 is expected pack Android Nougat-based MIUI software in addition to a bigger 4000mAh battery. The phone will likely come with up to 6GB RAM, considering the stiff competition with brands like OnePlus as well as Samsung. Remember the Galaxy C9 Pro? That aside, it is said to be powered by Qualcomm's high-end Snapdragon 835 octa-core chip.

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LG G6

LG recently announced the LG G6 at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 in Barcelona. Design wise, the device is no longer modular unlike its predecessor, the LG G5. It flaunts a metal frame, sandwiched between two layers of Corning Gorilla Glass protection. Furthermore, it comes with pretty thin bezels, wireless charging (region-specific), fingerprint scanner and IP68 rated dust and water resistance. Specs wise, it has a 5.7-inch QHD display, Snapdragon 821 quad-core processor, 4GB RAM and Android 7.0 Nougat OS. It also packs a 3300mAh battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.

LG G6

Sony Xperia XZ Premium

Sony recently held a press conference at MWC 2017 in Barcelona where it officially pulled the wraps off its flagship Xperia XZ Premium. It has a metal unibody design with the fingerprint scanner embedded on the home button. Interestingly, it is also the world's first smartphone to be powered by Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 835 processor. It has a 4K Triluminos display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection layered on top. That aside, it houses a 19MP rear camera and a 13MP selfie camera. Running Android 7.0 Nougat OS, the Xperia XZ Premium is based on a 3230mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 technology. Xperia XZ Premium is also honored as 'Best New Smartphone' at the recently concluded Global Mobile Awards by GSMA.

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OPPO will be the next Indian Cricket Jersey sponsor after successful bid of $162 million

OPPO , one of leading smartphone brand from China has bragged rights for Indian Cricket Team sponsorship after successful bid of $162 million (1079 crore INR). The partnership with BCCI will start from 1st April 2017. OPPO outbid Vivo, another smartphone brand from China for the sponsorship rights. Vivo offered $115 million for a period of 5 years where as OPPO offered $162 million for same time period to become proud sponsor of Team India. 

This is a new step of OPPO in the field of cricket after becoming the official Global Partners of the International Cricket Council for 4 years from 2016 onwards.

Sky Li (President OPPO), Rahul Johri(CEO, BCCI) and Diana Edulji (BCCI)

Speaking on the partnership, Mr. Rahul Johri, CEO, BCCI said “On behalf of the BCCI, I would like to congratulate OPPO Mobiles India Pvt. Ltd., on winning the rights and welcome them to the BCCI family. OPPO Mobiles and the BCCI share a common vision and I am confident that we will work together to further grow Indian cricket.”

The team sponsorship rights include the right to be called the official team sponsor, and to display a commercial logo on the National Men's, Women's, Under-19 and India A teams' kits.

Mr. Sky Li, Global VP & President of OPPO India said, “Cricket in India is not just a sport, but also a way of life and culture, especially amongst the youth. The Indian National Cricket Team is the essence of cricket in India and the team’s spirit of marching forward and pursuing newer heights is highly consistent with OPPO’s pursuit of products with unmatched photography experience.”

Sky added, “The Indian national team receives high reputation and influence among young people. By partnering with the team, OPPO will not only further enhance its connection with the young consumers, but also engage with the country’s youth in its endeavor of providing them with the outstanding selfie-led photography experience.”

OPPO leads the smartphone photography developments in the industry. It started the trend of selfie beautification, first launched the motorized rotating camera phone N3, screen flash and other photography feature. In 2015, in line with its deep insight of young people’s behavior, OPPO first launched selfie focused smartphones——Selfie Expert F series in India. And its first batch products F1, F1 Plus and F1s received warm welcome and the brand leads the selfie trend in the country. Now the brand’s share in the offline market reached 11.7 percent and is ranked No.2 in the market, as of Jan 2017, as reported by research firm GFK.

OPPO is a young and dynamic company and has already established itself as one of the world’s leading smartphone brand with a base of more than 100 million young customers using OPPO mobile phones globally and the brand has become the most welcomed camera phone brand across the young Indians.

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Alibaba's UCWeb looks to lead on Content with the launch of We-Media Reward Plan 2.0 investing initial amount of 5 Crore Rupees

UCWeb, now part of Alibaba group has announced the launch of We-Media Reward Plan 2.0 , a self creating content platform in India with an initial investment of Rs 5 Crores (50 Million INR). The group will be investing 2 Billion INR on driving content distribution in India in coming 2 years. It is worth noting that UCWeb's content distribution platfrom UC News which was launched last year in June has become one of the fastest growing app in country with a Monthly Active Users count of over 80 Million in India.

Announcing the initiative on his visit to India, He Xiaopeng, Co-Founder UCWeb and President, Alibaba Mobile Business Group said, “Dominance of mobile and digital proliferation is leading to an increased adoption of mobile internet and is making India ‘Digitally Ready’. UCWeb is realising its vision of “Serve half the population of the planet”, and we are moving forward to the era of “GUF” (Google, UCWeband Facebook). The investment falls under Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group’s targeted investment of $7.2 billion in content over the next three years.”

“Content consumption on mobile is rapidly rising while the We-Media ecosystem is still at a nascent stage. According to our data, there are at least 400,000 self-publishers in India already with a huge scope to grow the market, especially in the niche categories. UC Browser was launched with an aim to solve browsing-related problems while UC News and We-Media program aim to meet the increasing demand of varied content by users and build a well-established ecosystem. With our strengths in technology like Big Data AI and vast experience in markets like China, UCWeb will augment its focus on digital content aggregation and distribution in the world’s second largest internet market, India. We aim for UC We- Media to open a gateway to more opportunities in India’s content industry and emerge as the No. 1 content generation and service platform in 2017.” Xiaopeng added.

UCWeb is also upgrading its content and services portfolio by adding more short video-related content. Short Videos are fast becoming the most popular form of content consumed in China today and UCWeb sees huge potential for this concept here in India as well. UC News aims to provide upgraded content and services to its users and, going forward, will make significant investment in this category. According to the company’s latest Content Consumption Trends Report, video content has risen 30% in the last quarter alone. The company is in the process of setting up a separate team to handle the Short Videos section and is scouting for relevant partners to support this for UC News India.

“The latest data on UC News shows that we generated over 3,100 million page views in January, 2017 alone, which translates to 100 million page views daily. Moreover, we are experiencing a fast rise in the average time spent on UC News. As of this quarter, an average user spends over 23 minutes on UC News. Our strong user base number indicates the success of our strategy of moving ‘From Tool to Content’. We had said that content is booming and 80 Million MAUs of UC News is a clear reflection of that. Users are embracing diverse -digital content and their appetite for such content is being met by UC News”, said Kenny Ye, GM-Overseas Business, Alibaba Mobile Business Group.

We-Media Reward Plan 2.0 - A game-changer in the content ecosystem

Besides an upgrade in Ad revenue sharing model, We-Media Reward Plan 2.0 will open the door of opportunity to the most talented writers in the country. 1000 We-media writers will be recruited in India and Indonesia who will be able to earn at least INR 50,000 per month through the UC News platform. UCWeb has been setting new trends under the UC We-Media program where people get an opportunity to create, to write, share thoughts and engage with their followers on UC News. The Program saw an increase of 200% and 350% (MoM) in its page views of English and Hindi We-Media content respectively in the past quarter.

UC News is a big-data powered content distributor, serving as a one-stop source of trending and curated news content covering all popular categories that Indian users can consume on the go, with featured channels including news, cricket, technology, entertainment, movies, lifestyle, health, humor, etc. UCWeb’s strength in technology is helping UC News process millions of data request and content of massive origins everyday with the help of its 3 big data clusters set-up in India. The cluster combines over 5000 machines handling millions of data-request with a response time of less than 10 milliseconds for each, thereby boosting the content generation and distribution on UC News to meet the demands of 80 Million MAUs.

Late last year, Alibaba Holdings announced its new digital media arm, Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment, in a major reorganization of the company's entertainment assets. The transformation marked a total consolidation of Alibaba's media businesses, including video website YoukuTudou, UCWeb and Alibaba Pictures Group as well as the company's sports, games, literature, music, and the digital entertainment divisions. 

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Share your Fitness Funda/Mantra Creatively and Get Tango Fitness Tracker worth Rs 4990 at just Rs 8

Finland based Fitness accessories brand Tango has announced its very special offer on the occasion of Women's Day to attract the female fitness freaks in India. Tango Wellness is giving away the fitness trackers at dirt cheap price of INR 8 in India which is having market price of INR  4990.

Tango Wellness Fitness bands

How to avail the offer?

To avail this offer, women just need to write their fitness funda/mantra creatively and post it on Tango's Social Media Platforms. Shortlisted mantras will get the Tango wellness fitness trackers at just INR 8 which has a market cost of INR 4990. 

Social Media Pages where you can participate.

https://www.facebook.com/TangoWellnessIndia

https://twitter.com/Tangowellness

Commenting on this Women Day campaign, Tango India Head Bharat Nanda said, “India is emerging as a favorite market for health care products as people are getting more health conscious especially in the metro cities. To inspire women towards healthy lifestyle, this Women's Day, we are providing an exclusive offer and giving the fitness tracker at just INR. 8".

International Women's Day Campaign has already got huge momentum and has got more than 5000 registration within 4 hours of the launching the campaign. And the company is expecting to engage 5 lakh audiences.

The Tango fitness trackers are available on major E-commerce sites like Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm and Tango World.

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HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play : Specifications, Features and Price

Recently HTC launched its Flagship smartphones HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play. The HTC U series is named as such as it is focused on U (you), i.e. the consumers. The U series smartphones comes with advance Artificial Intelligence which is named as HTC Sense Companion. The HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play smartphones comes with beautiful 3D contoured, liquid surface , adaptive HTC U sonic technology for personalized hearing and a unique combination of MegaPixel and UltraPixel Camera technology in front camera to provide vivid light, details and color.

Mr. Faisal Siddiqui launching HTC U Play (Left) and HTC U Ultra (right) in India

The HTC U Ultra is priced at Rs 59,990/- where as the HTC U Play is priced at Rs 39,990. The HTC U Ultra sports a dual display similar to that on LG V20. The Dual display is supposed to give you all top information you need from your phone right on the top. The secondary display gives you access to the things you use most such as favorite contact, app, reminder, event notification and much more. Apart from this the HTC U Ultra comes with HTC Sense Companion, U Sonic and Voice recognition features. The smartphone comes with a 16 MP UltraPixel in the front and 12 MP UltraPixel main camera unit which is claimed to deliver less blur, fast focus and better photos at night. HTC U Ultra also comes with  BoomSound Hi-Fi edition speakers. HTC U Ultra and U Play comes in with a 64GB memory variant. The HTC U Ultra is available in three colors, which include Brilliant Black; Cosmetic Pink and Sapphire Blue. The HTC U Play with a 5.2” perfectly symmetric thin design takes brilliant selfies with 16MP rear and UltraPixel front camera. The HTC U Play is available in Iceberg White; Indigo Blue; Black Oil and Cosmic Pink Gold colors in the India market.

HTC is betting big on its AI aka HTC Sense Companion aims to become your personal companion in all sense, it is always learning from you and give suggestions based on Machine Learning Algorithms implemented in the software. It learns it all from you like suggesting you to wear warm clothes on a snowy day or to remind you to charge the phone if it determines you will need more juice until you reach home. Similarly the device also responds to your voice even when its asleep. It recognized your voice and respond to navigation, take or reject calls, snooze or dismiss alarms etc.

The HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play come with a one-year insurance that covers liquid damage and any physical damage to the phones. The customers also have an option to avail 7.5% cash back on the MOP value of both the phones using Standard Chartered Debit or credit card. This offer is valid from 6^th March ’17 - 31^st May ’17. HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play will be available in Indian market from 6th March ‘17 and mid-March ’17 respectively

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