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Mozilla reportedly plans $25 Firefox OS phones for India this year, but will it succeed?

[email protected] (Tech2)
June 12, 2014

Jun 12: Mozilla plans to further intensify the low-budget smartphone war in India with its smartphone. According to a report by WSJ (paywall), the company plans to launch the Firefox OS -based smartphone priced as low as $25 – translating to around Rs 1,500 – in the Indian market.

Firefox has earlier launched low-budget smartphones in Europe and Latin America with a price tag of $60 and realized to tap in to Indian and South East Asian markets with an aggressive pricing. High conversion rates are to be blamed in developing nations for a $60 smartphone to still feel expensive. The US-based company has collaborated with four handset makers which include ZTE, LG and five wireless carriers that include Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, America Movil to name a few. This isn"t the first time, we have come across such a news. LG built Firefox OS running device was earlier rumoured to launch last year.

Firefox OS phonesThe population of India is over 1.3 billion and most of it could afford a $25 phone with Web apps, though the proliferation of cheap Android-based smartphones has spoilt the Indian consumer for choice. Setting itself apart from Android, would be the biggest challenge for Mozilla in India.

Secondly, there"s very little that is attractive about the Firefox OS from a consumer point of view, since it would be yet another smartphone OS which has to catch up in terms of apps. If Windows Phone was any indication, Firefox OS will have a tough time of it.

In India, smartphones or phones in general are bought off the shelf without a network provider subsidy, and while Firefox may not opt for the subsidy model, it could go with operator tie-ups for free data plans, or app-specific plans. It could also tie up with content providers to get free multimedia content for the new phone.

These are the value-additions that have helped Nokia"s Asha series in India. And Firefox also has to make sure that basic apps such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and perhaps other smartphone staples such as Instagram or Vine, are all on board from the word go. Firefox OS is coming to the market at a time when Android is king, and to dethrone it, Mozilla would need more than just a hot price tag.

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Agencies
March 16,2020

While Google is still working on a coronavirus screening and tracking website, Microsoft Bing team has already launched a web portal for tracking COVID-19 infections worldwide.

The website, accessible at bing.com/covid, provides up-to-date infection statistics for each country.

The COVID-19 Tracker currently lists 168,835 as total confirmed cases, 84,558 active cases, 77,761 recovered cases and 6,516 deaths.

There are at least 3,244 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in the US and at least 61 deaths.

"Lots of Bing folks worked (from home) this past week to create a mapping and authoritative news resource for COVID19 info," Michael Schechter, General Manager for Bing Growth and Distribution at Microsoft, was quoted as saying in a ZDNet report on Sunday.

An interactive map allows site visitors to click on the country to see the specific number of cases and related articles from a variety of publishers.

Data is being aggregated from sources like the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Microsoft announced the website two days after US President Donald Trump said Google has begun working on COVID-19-related portal for US citizens.

Google's website is being built by Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet focused on healthcare services.

"More than 1,700 engineers are currently working on the site", Trump said during a press briefing last week.

The tool will triage people who are concerned about their COVID-19 risk into testing sites based on guidance from public health officials and test availability.

Initially, there was some confusion on Google's coronavirus portal but the company later announced that it is "partnering with the US Government in developing a nationwide website that includes information about COVID-19 symptoms, risk, and testing information."

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Agencies
June 12,2020

Mumbai, Jun 12: Following an overwhelming response for the mega rights issue of Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries, the partly paid-up rights shares are set to debut on stock exchanges on June 15.

The biggest ever Rs 53,124 crore rights issue was subscribed 1.59 times and received bids worth Rs 84,000 crore on June 3.

Reliance said the rights issue saw a huge investor interest, including from lakhs of small investors and thousands of institutional investors, both Indian and foreign.

In 2019, Ambani said in the Reliance's annual general meeting that the company will be net zero debt by March 2021. The company is on course to achieve its target ahead of the deadline.

"In spite of the COVID-19 crisis and the lockdowns, the due-diligence by Saudi Aramco for the planned investment in the O2C business is on track as both the parties are committed and actively engaged," he said recently.

"With a strong visibility to these equity infusions, Reliance is set to achieve net zero debt status ahead of its own aggressive timeline. We believe rights issue was a part of the company's strategy of deleveraging its balance sheet," said Ambani. 

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Agencies
March 8,2020

New Delhi, Mar 8: In order to spread awareness, a special COVID-19 mobile phone caller tune was launched by all telecom operators with basic infection prevention messages played when a caller dials-out, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

"In order to spread awareness about COVID-19, a special COVID-19 mobile phone caller tune was launched by all telecom operators. Over 117.2 crore subscribers of BSNL, MTNL Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone-Idea are being progressively reached out to through SMSs and Call Backs," Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a press statement.

"As many as 52 laboratories are now operational across the country for testing the COVID-19 virus. An additional 57 laboratories have been provided with Viral Transport Media and swabs for sample collection," the statement added.

India has 39 confirmed cases of deadly coronavirus so far. The disease has caused deaths of 3200 people globally. 

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