Vodafone will provide its female postpaid customers 2GB of data for free as part of a Women’s Day promotion. The offer, however, is limited only to women Vodafone Red subscribers in Delhi-NCR. It is a one-day offer, and the free 2GB data will be added automatically added to the users’ plan. If the data is not credited, the Vodafone Red user can head to a Vodafone store to ask for it.
But telecom aside, here's a look at what else made news in the technology industry today:
Nokia 3310 variant with gold, titanium build costs more than Rs. 1 lakh
While the new Nokia 3310 is yet to hit the market, Russian firm Caviar has created a premium variant of the smartphone made with gold and titanium, complete with Russian President Vladmir Putin's face embossed at the back. Named Nokia 3310 Supremo Putin comes in black with gold plating, dotted titanium housing, and Putin's face in gold on the back; below the embossing is a quote from the Russian national anthem on a gold plate. Featuring the Russian Federation’s coat of arms on the home button, the Nokia 3310 Supremo Putin edition costs RUB 99,000 (roughly $1,700 or Rs. 1,13,200).
Lenovo K6 Power available with discount, exchange offer in open sale
Lenovo K6 Power is now available in an open sale on Flipkart; both variants of the smartphone (3GB RAM + 32GB at Rs. 9,999, and 4GB RAM + 32GB storage at Rs. 10,999) are available as part of the open sale. Until Tuesday midnight, Lenovo K6 Power is available with an exchange offer that slashes the price by up to Rs. 9,000, depending on the device being exchanged. Additionally, Flipkart is offering Rs. 600 off on purchases made via HDFC Bank credit cards, or 5 percent off for Axis Bank Buzz credit card holders.
Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ release reportedly pushed back to April 28
Samsung has reportedly pushed back the release of its Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones to April 28; the two handsets were earlier rumoured to hit the market on April 21. In other Samsung Galaxy S8 news, the company in a tweet promoted the Dual ISP (Image Signal Processing) of the Exynos 8895 chipset, which is widely rumoured to be used in the upcoming smartphones. Samsung has confirmed that it will launch the two models on March 29.
Xiaomi India to bolster rural retail network
Xiaomi plans to strengthen its offline retail network in rural areas in 2017 in search of growth. The company’s India head Manu Jain said that company will expand its offline network in Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets. Xiaomi products are currently available in 8,500 stores, but only 10 percent of its sales come from offline channels, while online sales account for the remaining 90 percent.
Paytm valued at $4 billion as Reliance Capital sells 1 percent stake
Reliance Capital, the financial services arm of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group, has sold its nearly 1 percent stake in Paytm to Alibaba Group. The company had purchased the stake for Rs. 10 crores and sold it for Rs. 275 crores. This stake sale values Paytm, India’s largest digital payments startup, at $4 billion (Rs. 26,655 crores). However, Reliance Capital has reportedly retained its stake in Paytm E-Commerce, which was valued at $1 billion in the latest fundraising round.
Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 with curved AMOLED display, fingerprint scanner in front leaked
Xiaomi Mi MIX 2, the successor to the Mi MIX concept smartphone, will reportedly feature an AMOLED display with curved edges to maximise screen real estate. The report further says that there will be a thin black bezel at the bottom that will house the fingerprint sensor. The original Xiaomi Mi MIX had fingerprint sensor on the back and no curved screens. Lei Jun, the Chinese company’s CEO and founder, had earlier confirmed that the Mi MIX 2 is under development.
GSMA refutes reports of Indian Mobile Congress
A day after the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said that the GSM Association (GSMA) will collaborate with it for the Indian version of the Mobile World Congress, the GSMA has refuted claims of the collaboration. The mobile expo, to be called Indian Mobile Congress, is scheduled for September this year and has the backing of the Department of Telecom and the Ministry of Electronics and IT. Participants expected to attend the Indian Mobile Congress include telcos operating in the country, as well as Facebook, Huawei, Ericsson, and Cisco.
iVoomi iV505 with 4G VoLTE support, 3000mAh battery launched at Rs. 3,999
Chinese electronics company iVoomi has entered the Indian market with its iV505 smartphone, available via ShopClues at Rs. 3,999. Highlights of the new iVoomi iV505 include support for 4G VoLTE and its 3000mAh battery. The new iVoomi smartphone sports a 5-inch display with 540x960-pixel resolution, Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system, 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 8GB internal storage, 128GB microSD card support, 1GB of RAM, and 5-megapixel rear and front cameras. The company plans to launch four handsets priced between Rs. 4,000 and Rs. 10,000.
Disclosure: Paytm's parent company One97 is an investor in NDTV's Gadgets 360.
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