Nokia, AppCampus join hands to create Apps

Nokia India, in collaboration with AppCampus (Finland) and members of Harvard Business School Alumni Angels (India Chapter), has announced their initiative, “Appcelerate-India”, to boost mobile app development on Nokia Lumia and Windows platform. As a part of this unique initiative, AppCampus and Harvard Business School Alumni Angels India will invest in excess of $500,000 in “Appcelerate-India” and provide a combination of grants, seed funding, mentoring, incubation resources to discover disruptive applications and nurture talented Indian mobile start-ups.

Gerard Rego, Director – Developer Experience, Nokia India, said, “At Nokia, our aim is to support Indian app developers to drive path-breaking innovation on our platform. We believe that this will open up countless opportunities to shape the app ecosystem, giving developers the chance to give new and innovative experiences to consumers.”

Pekka Sivonen, Head, AppCampus, said,”It is exciting to build this type of start-up collaboration, tailored for the Indian market, where we truly get to reach developers and start-ups locally and help them evolve into the next Big Thing. This collaboration between AppCampus and Harvard Business Angels can bring significant and sustainable new opportunities for mobile-focussed entrepreneurs and their businesses.”

Ravi Gururaj, Co-Founder, HBS Alumni Angels India Chapter, said, “India has strong technology credentials and a renowned entrepreneurial background. The successful evolution of the technology industry in India presents a great opportunity for mobile app developers. We are now seeing a massive spurt in passion from the local ecosystem towards entrepreneurial ventures in mobile products. Through our collaboration with AppCampus and Nokia India, we want to support app entrepreneurs in their development work and create an innovation-led start- up culture.”

To involve consumers in the exciting world of mobile apps, Nokia India had created the world’s first app reality TV show, Your Wish is My App (YWIMA). With this campaign, Nokia opened up the world of app development to consumers which resulted in over 38,000 suggestions……See More

SAP Labs organizes Barcamp IX in Delhi

SAP Labs India has hosted Barcamp in Delhi. The 9th edition of Barcamp Delhi was attended by over a hundred techies participating in various workshops and discussing some of the latest technology and trends.

The event provided a great platform for techies to exchange ideas, share insights and knowledge on a variety of technology topics. The format of Barcamp allows participants to post the topic of their choice on the Barcamp website, and the topic with the most number of user votes are given a stage to conduct their workshops. “HANA”, “Creating Hybrid Applications”, “Design Thinking”, “HTML5”, “EnterpriseGamification”, and “SQL Server” were some of the topics covered during the conference.

Akash Kumar, Barcamp Organizer & employee of SAP Labs India, “Barcamp is great platform to connect with the like-minded people and engage in intense conversations not only around technology but other offbeat topics as well. The interactive and free flowing nature of sessions allows innovative thinking and exchange of ideas.”

SAP Labs believes in promoting fresh ideas and providing them a stage to grow and nurture……See More

NEC appoints Partho Dasgupta as new MD for India

According to a latest announcement made by NEC India, the company has appointed Partho Dasgupta, as the first Managing Director from India. He will undertake the leadership of NEC’s business operations in the local market and report to Toshiya Matsuki, regional CEO at NEC Asia Pacific based in Singapore.

Dasgupta will be responsible for fostering the growth of NEC India and integration of Computers and Communication (C&C) technologies to build an information friendly society. He will also work to empower societies through CSR initiatives. In addition to advancing NEC’s commitment to the Indian market, Dasgupta will also focus on building NEC as a global leader in the IT and telecom space, as well as to deliver cutting edge technology in the fields of Public Safety, Unified Communications, and Cloud Services.

Dasgupta is a veteran in the IT industry, with more than 25 years of experience. He has held key management and leadership positions in three established IT organizations prior to joining NEC India.

Partho Dasgupta, Managing Director, NEC India said, “As the new Managing Director of NEC India, I am excited to be leading a reputable and acclaimed company to promote and bring in NEC’s cutting edge technologies and solutions to the Indian market. Renowned for its many innovations and applications for both public and private enterprises, I look forward to building on the success and continue developing the business in India’s competitive IT industry.”

“With his valuable and extensive experience in various management roles of the IT industry, I am confident that Mr. Dasgupta will provide significant contribution toward the success and growth of NEC Asia Pacific and lead our business in India to greater heights,” added Toshiya Matsuki, Regional CEO at NEC Asia Pacific.

Koji Oda, former Managing Director of NEC India, will be returning to Japan……See More

Dell offers new Solutions to bolster BYOD Initiative in India

Dell(NASDAQ:DELL) has unveiled new solutions that can help organizations to plan better, deploy and manage mobile and BYOD environments to help drive greater business value from their IT investments. These solutions will also simplify complex data environments, accelerate cloud transformations, reduce mobility obstacles and mitigate security risks.

In addition to Dell’s new mobility solutions and enhancements to its PartnerDirect channel programme, Dell Software has released Toad Business Intelligence Suite 2.0 which will deliver a host of enhancements designed to further facilitate self-service business intelligence across complex data environments. Dell Services has also announced the Dell ProSupport Enterprise Suite to assist customers in achieving the highest levels of performance and productivity for critical systems.

John Swainson, President, Dell Software, said, “Dell is uniquely positioned to deliver highly differentiated, complete solutions – from clients to cloud and everything in between – that remove the barriers created by legacy technologies while empowering customers and partners to unlock new business opportunities. Software is the catalyst to modernizing today’s IT environments, enabling organizations to do more and achieve greater business results.”

Dell  new mobility solutions are designed to address a wide range of customers’ BYOD- enablement strategies by making it easy to extend and manage mobile access, increase the security of data being accessed remotely, broaden network access to better support BYOD, and improve the user experiences when accessing business applications from a variety of mobile devices……See More

NEC reinforces Its System Integration Business in India and beyond

NEC Technologies India Limited (NTI) is taking on a vital role in developing solutions, providing system integration and supporting global pre- and post-sale operations. NTI, formerly NEC HCL System Technologies, a joint venture between NEC Corporation and HCL Technologies Limited, has formally started its operations from April 26, 2013.

NTI aims to double its footprint in India within the next two years. It will focus on providing solutions for emerging opportunities in the retail, security, smart energy, e-governance and infrastructure fields.

“NEC Technologies India will be at the forefront of the NEC Group’s global system integration business. India is the cross point of Asia and Western markets and the new company will play a strategic role in business creation and standardization of our solutions for global markets,” said Takaaki Shimizu, Senior Vice-President at NEC Corporation and Chairman of the Board of NEC Technologies India.

Product Development and System Integration services for global and Indian markets will continue to be the Company’s core target areas. NTI, in addition, is focussing on developing a wide range of solutions for the Indian and global markets around NEC’s advanced solutions for enterprise and public businesses. NTI also plans to expand its current focus on large eGovernance and infrastructure projects in India…..See More

HP creates new Revenue Opportunities for Partners

HP(NYSE:HPQ) has released new unified wired and wireless solutions as well as switching platforms at the HP Global Partner Conference that deliver a simple, scalable and secure network supporting bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives while creating incremental revenue opportunities for partners.

The offerings also enable partners to leverage the HP FlexNetwork architecture to better support their clients’ BYOD essentials with new device on-boarding and provisioning functionalities through a single management application and automated security with software-defined networks (SDN) technology, while being supported by mobility connectivity services.

Prakash Krishnamoorthy, Country Manager, HP Networking, HP India, said, “Organizations are struggling to deploy BYOD solutions within a complex, legacy infrastructure that spans two separate networks and management applications. HP’s complete unified BYOD solution is the first to solve this issue and – combined with HP’s comprehensive training, programmes and services – will create new, profitable opportunities for partners.”

The new HP BYOD solutions will enable clients to simplify operations and reduce costs by up to 38%. These solutions will also enable users to double network scalability over legacy infrastructures to increase network performance by up to 100 percent, improve network availability, mitigate risk to data and applications

HP has also developed a variety of services and programmes to facilitate revenue opportunities generated by BYOD initiatives for channel partners. As a result, HP partners will have access to resources that enable them to speed up new revenue opportunities by simplifying the customer network design and validation process to meet BYOD scalability, security and performance needs with HP FlexNetwork Design and Validation Services……See More

Hitachi Data partners with Avnet Technology

Hitachi Data Systems Corp and Avnet Technology Solutions(NYSE:AVT) have announced a pan-India and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) distribution partnership. This extension of a successful 13-year relationship between Hitachi Data Systems and Avnet in the U.S. and EMEA regions marks a focus for both companies on empowering the channel to deliver enterprise-class infrastructure solutions to customers across India and SAARC.

The agreement allows Avnet to provide the entire portfolio of Hitachi Data Systems’ best-in-class technologies to customers through its strong network of value-added resellers and system integration channel partners.

“Businesses of all sizes are facing challenges when it comes to dealing with ever-growing amounts of mission-critical data and demanding compliance and regulatory requirements related to content storage. Customers are looking for storage solutions that allow them to quickly access the right data at the right time. With the addition of Hitachi Data Systems to our portfolio, Avnet will be able to help our partners develop and implement innovative infrastructure solutions for effective data management strategies to meet their customers’ long-term needs,” saidNaresh Desai, Country General Manager, Avnet Technology Solutions India.

Avnet’s India and SAARC presence and value-added services will enable Hitachi Data Systems to grow its business through the channel and will provide the company with additional routes to market……See More

Microsoft and Airtel launch “#Airtel #Xbox Combo” Offer in India

In a first-of-its-kind partnership, Airtel andMicrosoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) have launched a unique Xbox 360 + Airtel Broadband offer for Indian consumers. The offer is available for consumers across Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Chennai, and Mumbai and is valid until 30th June, 2013. Free Xbox games, attractive offers on Airtel High Speed Broadband connections and free Xbox LIVE gold memberships – these are just some of the goodies available for consumers.As part of this Microsoft-Airtel entertainment offer, consumers in India can take advantage of the amazing offer in two great combinations tailored just for them.

Anshu Mor, Business Group Lead – Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd, said, “Consumers can now enjoy a smooth Xbox LIVE entertainment experience which includes the best multiplayer action that Xbox is so well known for on an Airtel broadband.It is the perfect fit for Xbox users in India, providing them with round-the-clock entertainment with a fantastic, uninterrupted and exciting gaming action/entertainment experience for family and friends. Now play doesn’t need to stop – at home or on the move.”

Consumers buying an Xbox 360 4GB Kinect console plus upgrading or taking a new Airtel High Speed Broadband connection can save up to Rs.15,500 as this combo includes 10 Xbox 360 games, 12-month free Xbox LIVE gold membership and up to Rs.4,888 offer on the existing or new Airtel broadband connection. The current Xbox 360 console owners who buy a High Speed Airtel Broadband connection…..See More

Samsung Galaxy S4 reaches India

Expanding the product portfolio of its flagship smartphone range Galaxy, Samsung has now launched Galaxy S4 smartphone in India.

It is reportedly said that the new Galaxy S4 comes in two variants – one powered by a 1.9 GHz quad-core processor andthe other by a 1.6 GHz octa-core processor. However, Samsung has launched the octa-core version (1.6 GHz quad core processor + 1.2 GHz quad-core processor) in India. The device is powered by Android 4.2.2 and is customized with Touchwiz user interface.

The phone comes with a 5-inch full-HD screen with a resolution of 1080×1920 pixels, and pixel density of 441ppi. It has 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage with provision to extend it through a micro SD card of up to 64GB.

Also, the Galaxy S4 sports a 13-mega pixel rear and a 2-mega pixel front-end camera. It also offers more camera features, including dual-shot, employing the use of both front and back camera, an eraser shot mode to remove people from photos, and a Cinemagram like feature called Cinema Photo, among several other tricks.

Priced at Rs.41,500, the new Samsung Galaxy S4……See More

Oracle betting big on Enterprise Computing Market in India

Oracle has announced the India availability of new Oracle SPARC T5 and M5 servers, powered by the new T5 and M5 microprocessors.
With this announcement, Oracle continues its strategic investment in hardware to become the company delivering the IT architecture of the future – hardware and software engineered to work together, to redefine mid-range and high-end computing. In India, Oracle will be targeting telecommunications, government, healthcare and financial services industry verticals for these new servers.

“Businesses are demanding extreme performance servers that are also cost-effective – and Oracle’s new generation of SPARC T5 and M5 servers are exactly that. The new range provides unmatched performance for midrange and high-end enterprise computing compared to any other offering in the market today,” said Sandeep Mathur, Managing Director, Oracle India.

The new Oracle SPARC T5 and M5 servers join Oracle’s existing entry-level SPARC T4 servers……See More