Commenting on the success, Mr. Shabiir Momiin, CEO, Zenga TV, said, “The phenomenal following that Zenga TV content ranging from Mobile TV, Video on Demand and even the latest launch WEB TV has garnered is truly inspiring. I would specially like to congratulate our channel & content partners and advertisers for showing faith in this new platform and encouraging our growth for a truly rewarding partnership. To thank our loyal viewers who have made this success possible, I would like to promise them even more compelling content and service in the year 2012. I would also like to extend my special thanks to content partners, especially Team Viacom 18 for their support and I am pleasantly surprised with their deep knowledge of the latest technology and vision for the future in the digital space.

Highlighting the ingredients for success, Mr. Vikramjiet Roy, Director, Zenga TV, said, “Our focus on delivering the best quality streaming and optimal content presentation and pricing was the key to this growth in viewership. The Zenga TV team worked non-stop to make sure that a glitch free service was constantly delivered and I thank them for this unrelenting effort.

Key findings for Indian automotive industry from this year?s study include:

– The role of the Internet during the vehicle buying process is becoming increasingly important as web usage for both purchasing and research has increased. The number of Indian consumers researching online reached 95 percent in 2011 up from 86 percent in 2010.

– Social media has become more influential. Consumers in India exhibit a higher-than-average use of social media during the vehicle buying process. 78% said they would be likely to purchase a vehicle from a particular car manufacturer or dealer if they found positive comments posted about that vehicle make/brand, manufacturer or dealer.

– Mobile/smartphone applications are poised to become a key channel for vehicle ownership communication between consumers and manufacturers, consumers and dealers, and consumers and their vehicles. Apps considered most useful by respondents include remote support features such as remote locking and unlocking of vehicle doors, care information like service reminders about when maintenance is due and car care tips.

– Aftersales servicing is growing as a factor in vehicle decisions. Servicing is taking on a bigger role for many consumers with aftersales service climbing up the list of important factors in choosing a vehicle. In addition, servicing can influence future buying decisions. In vehicle service contracts, Indian customers focus on extended warranty and vehicle insurance, followed by customer care.

– Increasing demand for new, non-traditional approaches to vehicle buying and ownership. Nearly 52% of respondents would consider alternatives such as vehicle-sharing, up from 49% in 2010. Another alternative ? mobility package typically provides access to a wide range of vehicles, services and accessories that can be used as needed by the consumer for a fixed price and a specified time frame. 64% respondent said they would consider mobility package as an alternative as compared to 57% in 2010. Ride-share services as an alternative grew from 54% in 2010 to 57% in 2011.

– Consumers becoming more demanding about dealerships. Another finding shows that car buyers continue to be more demanding about dealerships as only 45% of respondents in India are willing to travel more than 10 miles to purchase a vehicle. 39% respondents said they are willing to travel only 5-10 miles to a dealership to purchase a vehicle. The remaining 16% was willing to travel less than 5 miles to purchase a vehicle.

Social gaming, a relatively new phenomenon in India, is a concept that promotes social networking via online games. Already a popular culture in many parts of the world, social gaming has seen increased popularity among the Indian community. By including local nuances into the gaming environment, most of the social games are becoming more realistic as they represent the users? daily endeavours. These games not only help to bring the communities closer, the real-time rewards further entice users? participation.

“Over 500 million people worldwide play social games and in India alone, more than 10 million or over 50 per cent of India?s Facebook users play social games,” says Mr. Ashish Khoria, Country Manager of MOL India.

Today, users in India are investing more time and money on online games. Many users play free social games like ?Farmville? and ?Pet Society?. Spending real money to enhance the gaming experience is growing.

Ganesh Kumar Bangah, CEO of MOL says, ?The audience and revenue growth forecast is tremendous and this presents an opportunity for marketers to promote their brands through social games. The user growth we are witnessing continues to increase beyond expectations. This is really a good time for companies to explore social gaming initiatives in India?.

In the inaugural address at the Summit, Shri Arvind Kumar, former Joint Secretary (Broadcasting), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, said, ?Fortunately, now, there is a general consensus amongst all the stakeholders, from broadcasters to cable operators, that digitization is the need of the hour and that it should be implemented in a time-bound manner. The Ministry in consultation with TRAI has now finalized a way forward which includes amendments to the Cable Act, timelines for a four phased transition, increase in FDI limits and other incentives required to be given to the industry.?

Today, just about 5 percent of the broadcast channels is transmitted in HD and a little over 30 percent of the television households have access to digital television services in India. Frost & Sullivan notes that India will be an emerging and potentially high-growth market for digital media companies in the next 5 years, though not without its share of challenges.

The challenges faced by this market include a slow regulatory process to define digitization deadlines for cable multiple system operators (MSOs) and broadcasters, inadequate drive among stakeholders to increase investments in digitization, rapidly changing technologies in recent times that slow CAPEX decisions, and legacy of content on tape across various verticals.

Vidya S Nath, Global Industry Manager, Digital Media, says, ?The Indian digital story is dichotomous. On one hand, there are some cable MSOs and large broadcasters who understand and absorb the benefits of complete digitization. They lead the industry from the front, trying to orchestrate a digital makeover for India, creating successful businesses. On the other hand, there are tens of thousands of cable operators and hundreds of broadcasters who perceive digitization as a novel story with few returns.? However, she believes that this industry still operates largely on ?word of mouth? and that many companies are waking up to understand the benefits of advanced digital technologies and solutions.

Frost & Sullivan?s research indicates that the biggest challenge is the legacy of tape and the requirement of rapid digitization, along with efficient asset management solutions. End users in this market want a centralized content repository, fast and intuitive search, easy-to-use UI, seamless and collaborative workflows for creative and business aspects of digital media, asset security, ability to manage and transform the maximum possible media formats, meaningful analytics and reporting for asset workflows, and cross-channel content publishing, and monetization.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the world digital asset management market is expected to cross $530 million in 2011 and grow at over 20 percent CAGR from 2011 to 2016. Cloud-based services are a fast-growing segment within this market, and Indian companies such as Tata Communications, Prime Focus Technologies, and Airtel are eyeing this space for future prospects.

Another trend that is fast catching up and is likely to change the dynamics of digital media in the Indian sub-continent is OTT or multimedia video consumption. With over 100 million Internet subscribers and about 900 million mobile subscribers, India exhibits a high usage of broadband/mobile-delivered content, prodding several content companies to capitalize on this media. However, OTT video delivery requires an efficient set of technologies and infrastructure to abet seamless delivery, along with a growing emphasis on online advertising and video analytics. The video content delivery networks market globally is expected to cross $540 million in 2011 and grow at a healthy CAGR of nearly 30 percent from 2011 to 2015, while online video advertising market is expected to cross $4 billion in 2011 and quadruple by 2015, globally.

Frost & Sullivan?s Digital Media ? India Summit 2011 brought together some of the finest minds from a wide spectrum of the industry to discuss myriad topics such as asset management, cloud-based services, OTT video delivery, digital cinema technologies, and key areas for investment opportunities for emerging digital technology companies.

Julian Wheeler, Vice President of Global Media and Entertainment Services at Tata Communications commented, ?The media industry in India is rapidly changing, and Tata Communications is happy to play its part in helping bring innovation to the changes that are sweeping the industry. New technologies are being deployed across the board ? from media capture to media storage and management, to broadcasting global content to the Indian audience; the Internet is playing a pivotal role in changing the industry dynamics. With a strong global network connectivity and a dedicated set of solutions for the media and entertainment sector, Tata Communications is ideally placed to cater to these changing needs of the industry. We are glad that Frost & Sullivan is providing an engaging platform for us all to be able to connect with the customers via conversations and debates. This would help us serve our customers better.?

Tata Communications was the platinum partner for the event. Other event partners were NAB Show and EVS, in alliance with Shaf Broadcast Pvt. Ltd. Digital Studio, MediaNama, Sati TV, and Satellite@Internet India were the media partners for the event.

Seventy-nine percent of kids in India said that they have had a negative experience while online. Six in 10 (60%), however, have had a serious negative experience online, such as receiving inappropriate pictures from strangers, being bullied or becoming the victim of cybercrime. The report also shows that kids who are active on social networks open up more doors for content or situations that can be tricky for them to handle: in India, 84 percent of kids on social networks find themselves in unpleasant situations online, compared to 58 percent who stay away from social networking.

Parents are setting ground rules, however, for online use, which helps kids have a more positive experience. The Norton Online Family Report shows that 39 percent of Indian parents have rules for how their kids may use the Internet. For those households where rules exist, while the “good kids” who follow the rules stay relatively safe with 75 percent having had a negative experience online, the percentage increases to 91 percent among rule-breakers.

“Kids are developing their online identity at an earlier age than ever before,” said Vanessa Van Petten, youthologist and author of “Radical Parenting,” “and they need parents, teachers and other role models to help them figure out where to go, what to say, how to act and perhaps most importantly, how not to act. Negative situations online can have repercussions in the real world—from bullying to money lost in scams to giving strangers personal information.”

Teachers at Risk of Cyberbaiting

One of the more shocking examples of using social networks for bad behavior is cyberbaiting, where students first irritate or bait a teacher until he or she cracks, filming the incident on their mobile device so they can post the footage online, embarrassing the teacher and the school. One in two teachers has personally experienced or knows another teacher who has experienced this phenomenon.

Perhaps because of cyberbaiting, 67 percent of teachers say being friends with students on social networks exposes them to risks. Still, 69 percent continue to “friend” their students. Only 67 percent, however, say their school has a code of conduct for how teachers and students communicate with each other through social media. Eighty three percent of teachers call for more online safety education in schools, a position supported by same amount (83 percent) of parents.

Raiding Mom’s Digital Purse

One fifth (20 per cent) of Indian kids say they sometimes dip into mom or dad’s credit card to shop online for music, magazine subscriptions and event tickets without their parents knowing. And almost three quarters of parents (73 percent) reported that their child has sometimes used their online store account without their permission.

But saving money isn’t the only reason to set clear guidelines about online shopping and safe Internet behaviors. Ninety two per cent of Indian parents whose children have been the victim of cybercrime have also been victims themselves—a steep increase from the global average of 69 percent among online adults across the world. (Norton Cybercrime Report, 2011)

“Parents and teachers play an enormous role in keeping kids—and themselves—safe online, and this year’s Norton Online Family Report shows a real need for further education,” said Effendy Ibrahim, Internet Safety Advocate & Director, Consumer Business, Asia, Symantec. “While 57 percent of Indian parents say they talk to their kids about online safety, 43 percent still secretly check their children’s online use and over a third look at their social network use behind their backs. Having an open dialogue with kids in a safe environment like at home or school can be much more effective, along with arming children with the tools they need to stay safe.”

ASUS is known for their range of factory overclocked graphics cards that give them the performance edge over reference designs while at the same time not compromising on the reliability of the product. Recent technological innovationslike DirectCU II which is based on ASUS DirectCU, that uses copper heat pipes in direct contact with the GPU core for up to 20%* cooler performance, DirectCU II adds a custom cooler that uses twin 100mm fans for a massive 600%* increase in airflow on HD 6970, HD 6950, GTX 580, and GTX 570 DirectCU II cards. The new DirectCU II graphics cards also include exclusive ASUS Super Alloy Power technology, which uses a unique alloy formula in power components such as chokes, capacitors, POSCAPs and MOSFETs to ensure a 15%* performance boost, 35°C* cooler operation and 2.5* times longer lifespan. In addition, ASUS Voltage Tweak allows you to boost GPU voltage via ASUS SmartDoctor to achieve up to 50% faster clock speed.

ASUS also launched special high performance graphics cards from their Republic of Gamers line like the Matrix GTX580 Platinum and the limited edition MARS II with dual GTX580 GPUsin India this year. Encouraged by the positive growth in 2011, ASUS now aims at capturing 30% of the graphics cards market in 2012.

TUV issued its certification after rigorous testing of LG’s 3D display which the agency said resolved the flickering problem which has plagued all other previous 3D notebooks. Flickering screens cause discomfort when viewed for a prolonged period of time.

“Recognition from TÜV Rheinland is especially welcome given the organization’s focus on quality and safety,” said J.J. Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of LG Electronics PC Business Unit. “Official certifications from leading third party authorities only help to confirm our belief that LG’s 3D technology is second to none.”

Thanks to LG’s proprietary Film Patterned Retarder (FPR) screen with Full HD 1920×1080 resolution, images on the LG A530 are significantly brighter than on shutter glasses-type 3D notebooks, meaning the LG notebook offers richer, more vivid games, movies and pictures.

The LG A530, which was introduced in Korea two months ago, is currently the top seller in the local 3D notebook segment. Behind products such as the A530, LG is well positioned to lead the global market in 3D notebooks and will be making its presence known worldwide in the coming year.

Sling Media’s innovative SlingPlayer™ software connects consumers on all types of computing platforms to their Slingbox, giving them complete control over their living room TV. The Slingbox also gives consumers the ability to control practically any audio/video device including, a digital cable box, satellite receiver, digital video recorder (DVR), DVD player, gaming system or even a still video camera.

On Sling Media’s association with eBay India, Rediff.com and Infibeam.com, Raman Venkatachar, General Manager and head of operations said, “I see great potential in online shopping as it gives the customer the freedom to shop at ease and choose from a wide range of products, all under one roof. We at Sling are extremely happy to be associated with eBay India, Rediff.com and Infibeam.com and believe this association will help us see online traction in terms of accessibility of our products to our  customers, especially with the festive season around the corner, where gifting is a prominent trend.”

eBay India, Rediff.com and Infibeam.com will provide a platform where buyers can purchase the video place-shifting Sling media products for best possible prices and avail discounts. The products include Slingbox PRO-HD for Rs.14,999, Slingbox SB 120 for Rs.7,999 and SlingLink Turbo for Rs. 4,999.

eBay India (www.eBay.in), India’s leading eCommerce marketplace, is India’s No. 1 online shopping destination where thousands of Indian entrepreneurs list a wide range of products across Electronics, Lifestyle, Collectibles and Media categories. eBay India is a 100% subsidiary of eBay Inc.

Rediff.com is a news, information, entertainment, and shopping portal. It was founded in 1996 as “Rediff on the Net.” Rediff is one of the top Indian web portals for news, information, entertainment, and shopping.

Infibeam.com is an online shopping destination in India that offers the largest product selection with PAN India free shipping at guaranteed lowest price. It makes online shopping easy & fun with a user-friendly shopping interface with the best possible payment options.

In just three years, Evernote has grown to over 11 million users by allowing individuals to easily capture their life’s work using any computer, phone or tablet. The company also has a large, worldwide developer community comprised of over five thousand developers building Evernote-integrated applications, services and devices.

“The fast pace of our organic growth, adding more than a million users in just the past month, shows that people really want to manage and simplify their lives,” said Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote. “And even though we’ve built a profitable and successful business in the past three years, we still have a long way to go to achieve our goal of becoming everyone’s second brain. Having this new investment and Sequoia Capital as a full business partner will allow us to improve and multiply our products in exciting ways.”

“People are flocking to Evernote and, more importantly, are intensely loyal and active users of the service,” said Roelof Botha, Partner at Sequoia Capital. “Phil and his team exemplify what can occur when a compelling and distinctive product, that consumers happily pay for, is matched with a rapidly growing market in mobile computing. Evernote is a true cross-platform, cross-geo service that delights its users everywhere.”

In order to expand its offering, Evernote has hired Ken Gullicksen to lead its corporate development and acquisition strategy. Prior to joining Evernote, Ken was a partner at Morgenthaler Ventures and served on the board of numerous technology companies, including Evernote.

“It’s rare to see a company develop so many high quality products, rapidly grow its user base into the millions and become profitable in such a short period of time. This is a testament to Evernote’s leadership and team,” said Ken Gullicksen, Vice President of Corporate Development. “With the right strategic decisions, Evernote is in a position to go from popular app to fundamental technology. I’m thrilled to come onboard and be a part of the company’s next phase.”

Evernote is hiring!

Evernote is looking for talented individuals to help build its global platform for human memory. For more information on available positions, please visit Evernote’s job page.

Evernote Trunk Conference

Evernote has announced its first one-day conference in San Francisco on August 18th for developers, partners and users. To learn more, visit the Evernote Trunk Conference site.

Amongst major challenges those SMBs face are managing IT services and scaling at a rapid rate. While not being a core competency, IT services requires considerable investment of resources and bandwidth to run it smoothly. The role of IT services becomes even more important if the applications are deployed on-premises, leading to constant headaches associated with maintenance, upgrades, downtime etc. Limitations on technology could also prove to be a bottleneck when it comes to scaling. What if there are not enough licenses? What would be the training cost to familiarize a new joiner with the custom legacy systems? How should the fluctuations in headcount be accounted for?

Cloud based applications not only remove all the above hassles – the system is hosted and managed by the vendor or its affiliates – but also provide a simple solution to the “scaling problem”. Says Shashank Dixit, CEO and Co-Founder at Krawler Information Systems – “ The Indian market is maturing and the business owners are looking at implementing solutions that not only solve their problems now but also would be able to handle the changing demands in the future…. this is where SaaS steps in.”

The SaaS (software as a service) model solves both problems with one shot by the virtue of its architecture. The hosted nature with on demand capabilities is exactly what SMBs had wanted. It provides them with the option to

? Focus completely on their core competencies rather than worry about IT issues.
? Easy to scale up as it is On-Demand. They could go up to 200 employees from 50 without any additional investments on server upgrades, maintenance, data backup etc.

Effectively no overhead costs in the SaaS model makes it ideal for an SMB

With the supply and demand ratio skewed in the favor of the customer, this is the best time for them to pick and choose, and they are doing exactly that .Most providers of cloud based SaaS applications, like Salesforce( www.salesforce.com) and Deskera( www.deskera.com), know that the supply- demand curve is skewed and this is leading to providers dishing out attractive offers and promotional campaigns to attract customers.

The future is Cloud. Its ease of implementation, zero maintenance, on demand pricing model and the abundance of choice means we won’t be seeing a drop in the spending from SMBs on SaaS enterprise applications in the near future.