The core committee, with may be the largest mass following in recent times, met in Anna's native vilage for a two day session over the weekend, where it was decided that they would be intensifying their agitation for citizen's charter and other demands in the election-ready states. If everything goes according to the plan, we would soon be seeing Anna Hazare taking time out from his schedule to strengthen the already strong movement in Maharashtra as well as other states.
The device initially planned to be launched bearning the name of Facebook as well, is being manufactured for Vodafone by Alcatel, and is targeting consumers in non-metros. Priced at a shade cheaper than Rs. 5,000, I see it getting an immense following among the students of small towns and cities.
A $10-billion e-commerce market - thats how companies see the Indian market. So that goes out to explain why most of the startups lately have been in the e-commerce segment. But here is the kicker, now that this $10-billion cashcow is turning the heads of the senior executives at the seattle based e-commerce megagiant, Amazon, there ought to be some disturbance in the kids-camp of Indian e-commerce players. Because, thats what they are - a bunch of kids when it comes to Amazon. While the biggest e-commerce player in India, Flipkart is valued at a whooping $200-million, it is still light years away from the $95-billion valuation Amazon can mightily boast of!
Things have been pretty riled up in the Amazon camp as well - first the proposed* launch of a mighty cheap android-based tablet to give a tough fight to the market dominance of Apple Inc's iPad, followed by a complete redesign of the Amazon website (to be made live for users worldwide soon) and now the distinctive beacon signalling its intention of making an entry with splash in the much prospective Indian e-commerce market - I've got to say, the folks have been keeping themselves pretty busy.
This move is not so much targeted on the sale of iPads, as it is targeted on the sale of Apple iPhones, which is available in India through exclusive offers from Bharti Airtel and Aircel, besides the authorized Apple resellers - iStores and Imagine. Now, this is a sale model that has been adopted by Apple and other phone makers in most markets, including but not limited to the US - where phone makers and telcos collaborate to bundle their offerings.
With the new tablet expected to be released in the next few weeks, Amazon started testing a major redesign of the website late last week, an overhaul that is expected to make the Amazon site easier to use and navigate on tablets.