Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

[Vayutuvan]

Pandyan: actually big blue charges for some consulting gigs 500 khota an hour. I heard so does Accenture. No need to feel sorry for them. I am usually sorry for the stock holders of their customer KBs.

[Raja Bose]

vina saar is on 3 month visit to sasuraal No idea about Mortullah.

Which big Khan KB did what you are suggesting? Give a proper example instead of speaking in vague generalizations. I don't know of any whether its MS, IBM or ChipZ.

$500-600 per hour is pretty standard rate for consultants in Sillycon valley, even for freelancing phata chappal ones.

[Vayutuvan]

At this point only vague generalizations are in moi mind. If Vina makes back in one piece may be he will have a concrete example. I like categorical nonsense so no can do as far as concrete examples are concerned. Over and out from this sub thread. Putnanja was wise to have gone AWOL.

[Raja Bose]

At this point only vague generalizations are in moi mind. If Vina makes back in one piece may be he will have a concrete example. I like categorical nonsense so no can do as far as concrete examples are concerned. Over and out from this sub thread. Putnanja was wise to have gone AWOL.

So all along it was just your pet theory and you just conveniently latched onto the PM position in MS after doing a keyword match for the word 'manager' without having any idea about its relevance to your theory. A waste of bandwidth and useless discussion basically on something you have no idea about. But hey the post count went up at least!

[Javee]

Business consulting is not always as explained above, but the majority goes like the script above. Almost all Indian biggies do business consulting these days, the margins are good and it does give a good make over for the company. I have seen how good business consulting works for both us and the clients (measurable examples from biggies like MCG to Indian phata abdul companies) and how worse it can be.

Funny story, one of the big retailers in Europe wanted to "transform" their ERP system (SAP), hired a mid sized consulting firm to do strategy to implementation work. The total they got approved from the board was $20 million. The consultants came in boat load from all over the world (about 30 of them), started billing $400 an hour plus expenses and before the end of blueprinting burnt about $4-5 million dollars. It does not include a bunch of licenses that SAP sold them. CFO balked at the burn rate and cut the cord. All in all, the consulting company and the SW vendor made premium revenues with out delivering anything. Repeat rinse above cycle, it keeps happening all across the world from well run companies to corporate nightmares. As for examples where it worked, another big retailer wanted to open new LOB as their core was getting hammered by WMT and AMZ. They hired MCG to chalk out an option plan. MCG sent 2 of their consultants who gave an end to end plan on what line to open and how to go about it (strategy from sourcing all the way to the stores). It was a nicely executed assignment, which built a solid business case for the client.

[Singha]

ZTE is going to launch its powerful Z7 range of phones soon in India .

very comparable to the 15-25k new crop of superb phones already in play.

[Prasad]

So any nice smartphones under Rs 5k? Mother in law is smitten with wife's GS3 but wife refuses to part with it and get new phone Can ask sister to get mil one when she gets back to india.

[manish singh]

Funny story, one of the big retailers in Europe wanted to "transform" their ERP system (SAP), hired a mid sized consulting firm to do strategy to implementation work. The total they got approved from the board was $20 million. The consultants came in boat load from all over the world (about 30 of them), started billing $400 an hour plus expenses and before the end of blueprinting burnt about $4-5 million dollars. It does not include a bunch of licenses that SAP sold them. CFO balked at the burn rate and cut the cord. All in all, the consulting company and the SW vendor made premium revenues with out delivering anything.

Sigh. Back in desh, it feels like only the ERP SW vendors make money. The ERP implementation itself is almost never T&M basis. Milestone payments are lower than actuals due to retention (sometimes as high as 40% to be released at the successful completion of the project). The project keeps going on and on with no adherence to agreed deadlines. With litigation not being an option, implementers do bleed on India projects. When profitability of the project goes below a certain limit, Abduls are not allowed to book hours on the project and are left begging to book hours on other profitable projects. Since it is not T&M, the booking of actual hours is just a jugglery to somehow show projects as profitable. This is not illegal though since it is for purely internal performance reporting. This works as long as there are profitable projects to offset the doomed ones.

[Singha]

So any nice smartphones under Rs 5k? Mother in law is smitten with wife's GS3 but wife refuses to part with it and get new phone Can ask sister to get mil one when she gets back to india.

Redmi1S for 7k soon
or asus zenfone4 or MotoE right now for 7k. the redmi beats it heavily though. be a good SIL and give MIL the better phone.

http://www.mi.com/my/redmi1s/

GS3 is a well specced phone, you will need to pay atleast this much to compete.

http://www.businessinsider.in/Asus-Is-S ... 482318.cms

xiaomi will get a even better reception....sales start tomorrow for mi3 and next month for redmi note and redmi 1S

[rohitvats]

OK. Bought the NEXUS 5. And loving every bit of it.

Was using Samsung S2 as temporary phone ever since my LUMIA 800 met untimely death and have to say this - ANDROID looks and feels beautiful on NEXUS 5. This is how phones should be. Simple and be able to do those general tasks which 99% of us expect from the phone without fuss. Brother has Apple 5 and over the time I've come around to understand why it sells. Apart from Mahdi and brand name and all that, it is a wonderful phone! No my d1ck is greater than yours kind of specs flaunting but necessary hardware+software to do those tasks with ease for which phones are generally bought.

The other device with really superlative performance is Note 3. It is simply awesome. The amount of stuff you can do with that phone is awesome and it can be a different device for different people.

Google has another fan in me - will keep a look out for next iterations from Google.

Anujan: I tried the MOTO X and no wonder, it is a great phone. But NEXUS 5 was available for INR 3K more and has better features. So, decided to go with it.

[rohitvats]

I'm no fan of Micromax and really hope they get trashed.

I know that is a pretty hard statement to make for an Indian company - especially, when Chinese are likely to capture the market share - but the way they conduct their business appalls me. There is nothing by way of product support - they introduce X amount of phones with certain specs and after this run is over, come out with new handset. No product support for what they've already sold. Also, create artificial scarcity of their products with good anticipation or reception. No thought about the end-user. At one point in time, the strategy was to convince the user with faulty device to pay a few bucks more (over service charge) and buy a new Micromax phone!

With all due respect, this is another 'Marwar' scam which will explode and sink w/o trace. I hope I'm proved wrong and they morph into a genuine product development company but chances of that look slim. They already have PE funding and I won't be surprised if they're looking for an IPO. You'll have these fantastic projections with shares being sold at many a times multiple. The idea seems to make quick buck, collect money and off with it!

[putnanja]

At this point only vague generalizations are in moi mind. If Vina makes back in one piece may be he will have a concrete example. I like categorical nonsense so no can do as far as concrete examples are concerned. Over and out from this sub thread. Putnanja was wise to have gone AWOL.

I realized there was no point in convincing you. You yourself admitted that it was your conjecture that MS created PM position to get around visa restrictions. I pointed out multiple reasons (many from close personal observations among family/friends) why that assumption doesn't hold water, and you brought in various fluff. Realized there was no point in trying to convince you that your theory was full of holes. To each his own

[RamaY]

That is the power of good UX - it makes people feel good about owning and using a product And that is what engineers don't seem to get since ages.

I think this is what puts micky apart from others in corp productivity s/w.

[Vayutuvan]

RB: what I proposed is a proper scientific theory - per popper- as there is a way to disprove it. There is a lot of detritus in large companies which may look whimsical to yes now but were the norm (and to the then existing laws n rules) and have been grandfathered to be still in place. There were loopholes too which were exploited (usually quite aggressively) by almost all the companies to get good EPS for the owners. In fact companies which do not exploit these loopholes will be less competitive. What conspiracy theory? Business is war and all is fair in love and war to trot out a pedestrian truism. Almost surely (AS) there would have been quite a few small companies who had crossed the fuzzy line into unequivocally illegal territory. It is not a moral judgement but certainly those which have exploited the loop holes with no holds barred would have to answer to the law one say too soon. It is actually quite stupid to think that those practices which were overlooked when the companies were small would be overlooked in a tightened environment. That is the mistake dome if the Indian consulting cos. might be making. What Marten posted allows us to make a statement like "there exists at least one big company is continuing with practices which are not in the grey area between legal and illegal realms".

So no there us no reason to believe that MS was or is Lilly white nor all of their competitors.

---

Marten: AFAIK, there were no [HL]1[AB] categories before 1985 or at least the existence is not known to the HR people in what were at that time large consulting companies.

[Vayutuvan]

Putnanja
It is a theory. Of course it was put forward so that people can poke holes. All the examples you gave are from 20 years back. My theory does not preclude both of us being right. There is nothing to convince as I am already convinced that your sample and my sample are not uniform in that they are temporally separated by a margin within which period the rules could change and drastically too.

[Singha]

each side having made their final concluding comments on this issue (I hope), let us get back to phones, tablets and gizmos...

[Singha]

micromaxx has the most number of defunct models of any phone maker ever.
probably 15 which are 'out of stock' but in reality they will never be produced again or supported
10 which are 'in stock' but only there in this world until stocks last!!
its a locust trading model, not product support let alone product development.

they are going to get hammered. their phones are underspec and unsupported vs the deep pocket players like gionee, xiaomi, zte, lenovo/moto now starting to enter the indian market seriously.

another entity likely to get wiped clean in the low and middle end is Samsung - turdware specs, bloatware, no updates to mid end phones, no change in looks or materials for ages....who wants a grand duos or lower today even if money were paid ? and S5 is too costly when many comparable rivals exist.

[Zynda]

they are going to get hammered. their phones are underspec and unsupported vs the deep pocket players like gionee, xiaomi, zte, lenovo/moto now starting to enter the indian market seriously.

Saar, the saving grace for desi companies could be an upcoming program Android One. Google has tied-up with these folks to release decent entry-level smartphones in emerging countries running stock Android OS with quick updates etc. India is the pilot market and ETA is around fall (US).

Remember reading somewhere that Google does all the hardwork for these folks i.e. researching and designing materials, components to make an inexpensive decent smartphone and all the phone cos need to do is assemble them efficiently. No R&D overheads, association with Google brand, software updates are taken care by Google...on-paper seems like a win-win situation.

Google expects the retail price to be in the range of 150 to 200 USD.

May be RB can elaborate more on how exactly Android One works.

[Singha]

But none of these folks do assembly i think.none have a phone plant here. They order in lakhs to certain specs from china.
so why cant the Chinese sell android one phones also?

i read about google tying up with these vendors.

[member_20292]

OK. Bought the NEXUS 5. And loving every bit of it.

Was using Samsung S2 as temporary phone ever since my LUMIA 800 met untimely death and have to say this - ANDROID looks and feels beautiful on NEXUS 5. This is how phones should be. Simple and be able to do those general tasks which 99% of us expect from the phone without fuss. Brother has Apple 5 and over the time I've come around to understand why it sells. Apart from Mahdi and brand name and all that, it is a wonderful phone! No my d1ck is greater than yours kind of specs flaunting but necessary hardware+software to do those tasks with ease for which phones are generally bought.

The other device with really superlative performance is Note 3. It is simply awesome. The amount of stuff you can do with that phone is awesome and it can be a different device for different people.

Google has another fan in me - will keep a look out for next iterations from Google.

Anujan: I tried the MOTO X and no wonder, it is a great phone. But NEXUS 5 was available for INR 3K more and has better features. So, decided to go with it.

wait till you run out of battery. Then you will be wishing that you had bought the Moto G.

Its such an awesome phone , and people respect the bugger so much, that they even decided to name it the Moto Ji.

[KJo]

KJo, don't forget that FruitCo has a very loyal and strong user base with deep pockets who stood by them even during John Sculley days. All FruitCo has to do is bring out a well designed product with last year's specs. Say it brings out a super sexy looking wearable with specs which are a year old and 1/3rd the features. In one sweep, it will leave the sum total of Android Wear with their kitchen sink of features and 20 Ghz processors in the dust while people trample over each other to buy the new Appil innovation. That is the power of good UX - it makes people feel good about owning and using a product And that is what engineers don't seem to get since ages.

Saar, I have a slightly different take on this.
I think the loyalty was towards the Mahdi, not really to FruitCo. The days of Sculley and the other fellow were pretty dark for FruitCo, they had billion dollar losing quarters and they were inches from going out of business. The Mahdi had a rockstar quality about him, so he could make people buy whatever oil-e-snake he was selling. Mahdi in a way is like the Holy Brophet. Except that the Mahdi sold you high priced but high quality maal. Brophet sold you evil violent crime. Both are examples of great marketing and psychology.
Bawarchi is a maha bore. Even if he creates something greater than the Mahdi ever dreamed of, everyone will just snore. He isn't a good cult leader. No one wants to follow him. Mahdi had some knack of figuring out what might sell, I am not sure Bawarchi has that skill.

Wakt hi bataayega!

[kenop]

wait till you run out of battery. Then you will be wishing that you had bought the Moto G.

Its such an awesome phone , and people respect the bugger so much, that they even decided to name it the Moto Ji.

Moto G is just the price/feature ratio device for me. Upgrading to 4.4.4 as I type this.

[member_20292]

^
you miss out on the one very important feature that takes money and time and cycles to get right, but no one thinks too much about it, as a customer.

QC. The manufacturing quality of a reputed brand like the Moto, is light years ahead of a Micromax/Karbonn or even a Gionee/Xiaomi.

[Ranjani Brow]

they are going to get hammered. their phones are underspec and unsupported vs the deep pocket players like gionee, xiaomi, zte, lenovo/moto now starting to enter the indian market seriously.

Saar, the saving grace for desi companies could be an upcoming program Android One. Google has tied-up with these folks to release decent entry-level smartphones in emerging countries running stock Android OS with quick updates etc. India is the pilot market and ETA is around fall (US).

Remember reading somewhere that Google does all the hardwork for these folks i.e. researching and designing materials, components to make an inexpensive decent smartphone and all the phone cos need to do is assemble them efficiently. No R&D overheads, association with Google brand, software updates are taken care by Google...on-paper seems like a win-win situation.

Google expects the retail price to be in the range of 150 to 200 USD.

$100, 4.5" screen

If it cost around Rs. 6000 would definitely buy one.

I don't really get the reasoning behind buying an expensive smartphone. I got my first smart phone when I was 18 and cost was 15k. That was 3 years ago and now when I think about the cost to usage dammit it irks me. Rs 500/month for a phone I use for Calls and Whatsapp.

[Raja Bose]

^
you miss out on the one very important feature that takes money and time and cycles to get right, but no one thinks too much about it, as a customer.

QC. The manufacturing quality of a reputed brand like the Moto, is light years ahead of a Micromax/Karbonn or even a Gionee/Xiaomi.

er...its all CM onlee. So you pay money, chipanda will do high-end QC. You don't, they won't.

[Raja Bose]

That is the power of good UX - it makes people feel good about owning and using a product And that is what engineers don't seem to get since ages.

I think this is what puts micky apart from others in corp productivity s/w.

Not earlier. Remember the old SharePoint tools - they were a pain in the mush to use. They learnt a lot from FruitCo. Having PM type positions did help them there since the basic idea and goals behind the product were pretty clear, it was more a case of good execution with a consistent design across all products. When you have massive pieces of software like Office, depending on the Product manager or SDE to ensure good UX is tough. So you need someone dedicated for that and be ready to take the fall for that. In FruitCo they do similar stuff with great success. Chacha will also get it right at some point I guess....they are definitely learning and giving Mattias Duarte more powers to work across product lines. Right now each of their products has a different look and feel as if designed by different gangs of pre-schoolers.

This is how phones should be. Simple and be able to do those general tasks which 99% of us expect from the phone without fuss. Brother has Apple 5 and over the time I've come around to understand why it sells. Apart from Mahdi and brand name and all that, it is a wonderful phone! No my d1ck is greater than yours kind of specs flaunting but necessary hardware+software to do those tasks with ease for which phones are generally bought.

You just discovered what is meant by good UX (User Experience). UX is not User Interface (UI) onlee. And when someone engineer comes along proudly claiming that 'UX doesn't matter blah blah'....I realize why FruitCo makes money hand over fist and why people are ditching Sammy phones. Claiming UX doesn't matter is just a shitty ass excuse to do a bad or lazy engineering job, that's all. A consumer product which is well engineered all around will have good UX.

---
Singha saar, I claim copyright of all uses of 'turd' in context of CE devices especially when used in context of Sammy.

[SaiK]

Err.. yama r, UX does not necessarily mean it is UX best experience by any standards.

UX is sometime very personal.. for example, when we do a save as in MS Word, the new document is kept as current. if you have a scenario where 99% of your work time you want to take snapshot of document version every 5 minutes as say for some org specific needs, you can't just click save as, and proceed with the original document to create another history milestone of the document . you have to close the new document, and open back the original document every time.

what an UX you say!?!?
it all depends on what you do with it. your X is not same as mine!


============

currently, i am facing harrowing experience with this touch behavior and mouse pad sensitivity, and mouse pointer invariably reaching to the right side, takes the focus off edit area let say.. it happens every 1 minute at least once.

what micky what X!?

[Raja Bose]

You might be facing accidental contact mitigation (ACM) issues with touchpad - a bane of all capacitive touch interfaces especially touchpads.

[Mort Walker]

You just discovered what is meant by good UX (User Experience). UX is not User Interface (UI) onlee. And when someone engineer comes along proudly claiming that 'UX doesn't matter blah blah'....I realize why FruitCo makes money hand over fist and why people are ditching Sammy phones. Claiming UX doesn't matter is just a shitty ass excuse to do a bad or lazy engineering job, that's all. A consumer product which is well engineered all around will have good UX.

---
Singha saar, I claim copyright of all uses of 'turd' in context of CE devices especially when used in context of Sammy.

Eh? People are ditching Sammy phones? The iPhone 5s is #1, ahead of the Sammy S5 which #2, by a couple of million, but Sammy has the S4 at #3, and Note 3 at #4. I would say Sammy is doing pretty good. Sammy flagships are decent phones, it is just everything else which is woefully neglected as Sammy knows all phones are throw away devices even though they cost nearly $700+. Now where the hell is my Sammy Galaxy fridge, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer? Get to it Sammy - chop, chop.

[flame on]
If anything is a turd it is WP as you don't have the apps you want/need.
[/flame off]

[Mort Walker]

OK. Bought the NEXUS 5. And loving every bit of it.

Was using Samsung S2 as temporary phone ever since my LUMIA 800 met untimely death and have to say this - ANDROID looks and feels beautiful on NEXUS 5. This is how phones should be. Simple and be able to do those general tasks which 99% of us expect from the phone without fuss. Brother has Apple 5 and over the time I've come around to understand why it sells. Apart from Mahdi and brand name and all that, it is a wonderful phone! No my d1ck is greater than yours kind of specs flaunting but necessary hardware+software to do those tasks with ease for which phones are generally bought.

The other device with really superlative performance is Note 3. It is simply awesome. The amount of stuff you can do with that phone is awesome and it can be a different device for different people.

Google has another fan in me - will keep a look out for next iterations from Google.

Anujan: I tried the MOTO X and no wonder, it is a great phone. But NEXUS 5 was available for INR 3K more and has better features. So, decided to go with it.

Congrats and welcome to the club. The Nexus 5 is close to perfect. With the update to 4.4.3 then 4.4.4 the dialer has become slow in responding - this has become my biggest issue with it now.

[Raja Bose]

You just discovered what is meant by good UX (User Experience). UX is not User Interface (UI) onlee. And when someone engineer comes along proudly claiming that 'UX doesn't matter blah blah'....I realize why FruitCo makes money hand over fist and why people are ditching Sammy phones. Claiming UX doesn't matter is just a shitty ass excuse to do a bad or lazy engineering job, that's all. A consumer product which is well engineered all around will have good UX.

---
Singha saar, I claim copyright of all uses of 'turd' in context of CE devices especially when used in context of Sammy.

Eh? People are ditching Sammy phones? The iPhone 5s is #1, ahead of the Sammy S5 which #2, by a couple of million, but Sammy has the S4 at #3, and Note 3 at #4. I would say Sammy is doing pretty good. Sammy flagships are decent phones, it is just everything else which is woefully neglected as Sammy knows all phones are throw away devices even though they cost nearly $700+. Now where the hell is my Sammy Galaxy fridge, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer? Get to it Sammy - chop, chop.

[flame on]
If anything is a turd it is WP as you don't have the apps you want/need.
[/flame off]

Heh heh I guess Sammy or the stockholders didn't get your memo

Samsung Warns of Profit Drop on Weaker Demand

Samsung Electronics Co.'s warning of a third-straight quarter of profit decline highlights the pitfalls of the South Korean technology giant's reliance on smartphone sales.

While strong smartphone sales have propelled the company's growth over the last two and a half years, the reliance on them is a double-edged sword. When sales are good, the benefits trickle down to its other businesses, including components.

But Samsung said Tuesday that its operating earnings in the latest quarter likely fell by 22.3%-26.5% from a year earlier, hit by a glut of unsold smartphones, which also hurt the performance of the businesses that make microprocessors and displays used in its mobile devices.

That's what happens when you make turds. People ditch you the 1st chance they get. Yup UX doesn't matter indeed, it's all the about the ability to make your own SoCs, displays and what-not, isn't it?

[Mort Walker]

^^^Oh no dost. I never said UX didn't matter. It is just UX perception is different for people.

Sammy is getting hit on the upper and lower end for phones. There is competition. It will make Sammy stronger. They are a big 700 lb. gorilla and aren't going anywhere just like M$FT .

[Singha]

I have nothing personally against samsung , but the way they treat developing markets like india where not many can afford a 20k+ phone is unfair and deserves punishment at the marketplace.
in the 10-20 band
- they sell a bunch of underspec phones that were able to manage when competitors were lacking, now not so.
- they make no effort to close the hw gaps to the competition and make phones that really set the ball rolling like motoG or motoE, no effort to lead and transform, despite VAST hw and sw resources including dev center in India.
- their phones are not in any way smoother or better sw than the competition
- no care about quick updates to the next version of android, just minor bugfix releases within same version

all they care about is Note, and the latest two iterations of the galaxy...all priced out of indian middle class orbit.

and even there I believe the latest android will not come in S3 due to some unresolved issues found in test they dont care to fix.

just look at their screen, plastic,chassis and bezel design...I cant detect any change in last 5 yrs from the basic template. they introed fingerprint scanner after apple did.

I really wonder why khan people still buy them when good options like Nexus, Oppo, oneplus, xiaomi, LG, leonovo(moto) et al are now starting to come on strong. I hope they get crushed at the high end also.

great example of a cash rich lazy incumbent like a govt owned entity who just wants to run on inertia, marketing budget and TINA factor.

the other miracle I see is SONY...the news media is always full of market share loss reports and missteps by SONY. yet somehow they survive and maintain footprint and keep chugging along like a rhino with a thick hide. they even make very good experia phones too

[Raja Bose]

^^^Oh no dost. I never said UX didn't matter. It is just UX perception is different for people.

Sammy is getting hit on the upper and lower end for phones. There is competition. It will make Sammy stronger. They are a big 700 lb. gorilla and aren't going anywhere just like M$FT .

Nice downhill skiing. Koi baat nahin....I enjoy pulling your leg

[member_20292]

^
you miss out on the one very important feature that takes money and time and cycles to get right, but no one thinks too much about it, as a customer.

QC. The manufacturing quality of a reputed brand like the Moto, is light years ahead of a Micromax/Karbonn or even a Gionee/Xiaomi.

er...its all CM onlee. So you pay money, chipanda will do high-end QC. You don't, they won't.

And every factory has the knowledge of QC through all levels? Not So. Older manufacturers have an advantage here. Eg. Nokia

[krishnan]

maybe they have some good markets somewhere , its been long time since i saw a sony mobile in anyone's hand here

[negi]

Imagine if Chacha had bought Nokia instead of Motorola , Nokia's lumia range with Android would have definitely captured much bigger market than Lumia with Windows, imagine INR 10-12k Lumia 520 runing Android.

Looks like Chacha is not too big on phones as margins in this area seem to be wafer thin .

[Singha]

behold gentlemen, the Mi4 announced today. for just $320!!this is how you become a giant from a dwarf!!

http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/22/xiaomi-mi4-launch/

Having sold 26.11 million phones in the first half of this year, the beast from the East that is Xiaomi is back again with a new flagship Android phone: the Mi 4. For the first time ever, the company is adding a touch of metal -- SAE 304 stainless steel, to be exact -- to the phone's frame, which is sandwiched between

a flat 5-inch 1080p screen and a swappable, slightly curved plastic back cover. The internal specs are as you'd expect: 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 SoC, 3GB of RAM, 16GB/64GB of internal storage, 13MP f/1.8 main camera, 8MP selfie camera, LTE radio (at last), 802.11ac WiFi plus a 3,080mAh battery. As a bonus, you also get an infrared transmitter to play with the TV (which Xiaomi also sells). As usual, the Mi 4 will be very affordable: Just CN¥1,999 or about $320 for the 16GB version, and CN¥2,499 or about $400 for the 64GB version (both off-contract, of course).

Admittedly, from afar, the black Mi 4 does remind us of the iPhone 5 or 5s, but you have to give credit to Xiaomi and its partners -- Foxconn and HiP -- for the extra work gone into crafting the metal parts. The shiny chamfer alone takes more than six hours to finish, apparently, and they've also added a nano-coating to the sides to deter fingerprints and liquids. The result is a 67.5mm-wide body -- beating the Smartisan T1's 67.74mm -- that sits comfortably in your hand, and the phone only weighs 149g.

The Mi 4 will be available for pre-ordering in China as early as July 29th, and you'll also be able to pick up one of the many back covers to suit your taste -- be it bamboo, wood, leather, cloth or even stone textures. On top of that, you can add CN¥99 or about $16 for an annual insurance for broken screen plus accidental liquid damage. Sadly, Xiaomi reps told me that there's no info regarding the phone's global availability just yet, so stay tuned.

The boost in Xiaomi's sales figure is helped by the company's expansion into other parts of Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and, very recently, India. You can thank ex-Googler Hugo Barra for that, who has been very hands-on with this project.

On a related note, there are now 65 million activated MIUI users, who will be able to upgrade to version 6 as of August 16th. After 26.11 million phones -- which translates to 33 billion yuan or about $5.32 billion -- so far this year, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun expects to sell a grand total of 60 million phones in 2014, which would be more than twice of that from 2013. With that price point and Lei's promise to keep a tighter grip on the supply chain, this will no doubt be a walk in the park for Xiaomi.

Update: Xiaomi's also launched a $13 fitness band alongside the Mi 4. We have a feeling that it's going to sell very well.

[Singha]

Moto is also hard at work on the G2. said to be similar size but slightly better components and better camera.
rumours its price is going to be lower than G.
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and ... ks-1258262
the CEO is said to have asked , why cant this thing cost $50?

sammy seems frozen in place at the low/mid end like a engrish batsman with dale steyn steaming in from one end and mitchell johnson from the other. boo boo.

[BhairavP]

Saar, make that Ishant at the other end..