Internet giant Google launched a new initiative to help businesses reach out to over 70 million mobile Internet users in the country. Under the 'Let's talk Mo' initiative', Google will help businesses create mobile sites for free, Google said in its official blogpost. According to Nielsen Informate Insights for smartphone users 2012 study, Indian smartphone users are spending over 157 minutes daily on the mobile web. The user-experience is, however, not optimised for the mobile screens as most Indian websites are still designed for the PC experience, it added. "That's why, Google is giving Indian businesses two options. One, create a mobile optimised site for free and second test how user friendly is your existing mobile site," Google IndiaCountry Head Marketing Nikhil Rungta said. Businesses will be able to see how their sites look on a smartphone using the GoMoMeter tool and get personalised recommendations for creating a more user-friendly experience. The site also provides information on current mobile trends, best practices, case studies and various other resources to help businesses develop a successful mobile presence. "The dedicated website (http://www.letstalkmo.com/in/d/) will provide all the tools and resources that businesses need to have a presence on the mobile platform". With more and more people using their mobile phones to explore the web, it makes sense for businesses to have a website optimised for mobile sooner than later. Visit as on Omnifuzz or FastFind

Airtel's is likely to launch it in Kolkata circle in the first half of April. Citing unnamed sources, Telecom Talk reports that Airtel may launch LTE-TDD based wireless broadband services in the first half of April, 2012 in Kolkata. It further reports that ZTE will assist Airtel as the equipment partner, while Indus Towers will be providing towers for the 4G services. The site also points out that Airtel may install small cells at different places of the city to provide better coverage. Also, the roll-out of LTE will only be available in select pockets of the city. It may be recalled that Airtel had won spectrum for high-speed wireless broadband service (Broadband Wireless Access spectrum) in four circles namely Kolkata, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka . Airtel was allocated 20 MHz of BWA spectrum in 2.3 GHz frequency band. In the same auction, Reliance Infotel had won a pan-India BWA spectrum and was given a 20MHz band. RIL has been previously rumoured to launch its 4G services with an ultra low-cost tablet. Meanwhile, Airtel, which has the largest subscribers base in India, is likely to launch its 4G services with new dongles and tablets. 



The news that Android phones are the dominant force in the phone market today comes as no surprise, and this is only going to get better, as Android smartphones are going to dominate the phone market in India, China and Africa. It's a different situation in the U.S. as those service providers who didn't tie up with Apple for their iPhone, chose Android as the alternative. The success of Android in the American market is by the high-end, expensive smartphones. The low-end, more affordable devices are more popular in emerging economies, such as ours. In-Stat claims that by 2015, Android will take up close to 80 percent of the phone market in these countries. Most of these Android devices would be ones running on the slightly older builds - 2.2, 2.3, and so on. They would have a single-core 600MHz processor and the typical price would be $150 or lower - roughly Rs.7,500 or lower. The 'gray market' would be a popular place to buy these phones and manufacturers, such as Huawei, Micromax, Motorola, Samsung, Spice and ZTE are likely to take centrestage. It's not just going to be Android - companies such as Nokia and Samsung will compete for this price bracket as well. The Samsung Bada operating system and Nokia's upcoming Meltemi operating system should replace the outdated Symbian S40 operating system. Phone manufacturers look to gain by selling hardware, whereas Google hopes to gain by making money off advertising. Microsoft also hopes to reduce prices of their Windows Phone platform to try and approach a similar price that can woo prospective customers. Some 340 million low-cost Android smartphones are expected to ship in 2015. These large numbers will force the Android platform as a whole to be scattered even more. The new ICS platform requires more processing power and memory requirements, thus making it difficult to port back to older devices, which means the older 2.2 (FroYo) and 2.3 (Gingerbread) Android operating systems will be king for some more time.
US added more charges against file-sharing website Megaupload and its executives, and also accused them of taking copyrighted content from sites such as YouTube for its own service, according to a new indictment released on Friday. The founder, Kim Dotcom, and six others employed by the site were charged with eight additional counts of copyright infringement and wire fraud. They were originally charged with five counts of conspiracy and copyright infringement. Dotcom and four of his co-workers have been arrested and are awaiting extradition proceedings in New Zealand and the Netherlands. Two suspects remain at large. They have been charged in a federal court in Virginia with a making millions of dollars from peddling copyrighted materials, including popular television shows, movies and music to millions of users around the world. The superseding indictment said the Megaupload site had 66.6 million registered users as of January 2012 and just under 10 percent had ever uploaded a single file, suggesting most people used the site only to download infringed material, according to the Justice Department. The indictment also accused the group of taking copyrighted material from sites such as Google's YouTube video service for use on Megaupload websites. The Megaupload service has been shut down.