As predicted by us, Samsung has started the price war in all seriousnous
The Tab 2 WiFi + 3G is now available for just 15K odd.
http://cgi.ebay.in/271163025383
This will take on 3G tabs from HCL, iBall, MMX, etc.
Why settle for a el cheapo for just a couple of thousand less when you can get the genuine item for a little more.
And the Galaxy S Advance Phone is also available for about 15K
http://cgi.ebay.in/121070227756
This is aimed at MMX, Karbonn and Xolo phones.
The S Advance features :
- Dual Core Soc
- 4” Amoled Screen
- 5 MP Back Camera
- Andoid 4.0
If you ask me I would prefer this over the silly MMX Canvas serious phones of dubious quality and poor CS (zero software upgrades) and Warranty.
Expect to see a price drop in the Galaxy Grand in 2-3 months when the initial hype dies down.
Now the challenge for the indigenous brands is innovation, unless they can add some value over what their Chinese OEM factories are giving, they will soon be out of business.
27th February 2013
For Tablets, budget or otherwise, year 2012 was dominated by Single Core tablets, mostly the Allwinner A10 and the A13 Soc.
In late 2012 Rockchip debuted the Dual Core RK3066 which got instant success.
But other manufacturers like Allwinner and now Action have straight left from the single cores to the quad cores. Allwinner has the powerfull A13.
Even MTK has jumped from the Single Core 6575 to the quad core 6589. There was a brief space when the 6577 and it sibling 8377 was launched by February 2013, the 6589 is all set to take the upper end of the market.
Phones with MTK 6589 have started appearing. Our own Micromax has introduced the inanely named Canvas A116 HD which is currently in pre booking stage. However the chinks are ready with the quad cores. Pandawill is displaying brands such as Zoppo and Isa. There are also reports of quad core with 2GB ram. So the A116 HD is already under powered on launch with is feeble 1 GB Ram.
All A31 Quad Core tablets default come with 2GB ram. Same with the newest Samsung Phones and tablets. So in second quater of 2013 Quad Cores will come with 2GB ram.
We hear from sources that Samsung is now gearing up for a price war on low cost Android Mobiles and Tablets.
After having captured the High End of the Mobile Phone and Tablet market, Samsung is now focusing on the Low End of the Market which is dominated by Players such as MircoMax and Karbonn and such similar brands across the globe.
Their first shot is the Samsung Galaxy Grand Mobile Phone priced at about 20k. A huge drop from their 30-40 range fore the S3 / Note 2 devices.
How they are playing the game?
With a dual core processor instead of a quad core and a basic screen of just 800 x 480 instead of premium screen of 1280 x 720 on the S3 and Note 2.
Now we hear they will be repeating the same with the 7” and the 8” tablets.
A new 8” Samsung Note tablet is expected at the MWC and price in India should be about 15K.
A serious challenge to all the MMX, HCL and iBerry who are currently ruling in the 10-15 band.
Many users primarily use tablet pcs in the homes for games, internet, facebook, email, etc. However many also want to use the tablet on the go.
Hence tablets come in two flavors - Wifi Only and WiFi + 3G.
If you primarily want to use your tablets on the go, I will suggest you purchase a tablet with built in Sim Card. These are available very cheaply these days. The 2G version costing as less as 5000 odd and the 3G version about 8000 odd. VeeDee does not currently have Built in Sim Card tablets in its portfolio.
However you have already purchased a WiFi only tablet and you are desperate to use it with internet on the go.
In such cases I would generally recommend use with a GSM wifi Router - like the MicroMax MMR 400.
It is available on veedeedirect.com for Rs.2490/- http://bit.ly/VhCq2A
If you already have a 3G Modem with you, I would suggest a battery operated 3G router like the 5 in 1 MPR - M1 which we have for sale for as low as Rs.1190/-
http://bit.ly/142A0VS
Benefits - No issue of modem compatibility. No setting. Longer battery life. You can also charge your tablet if it battery wears off as the MPR-M1 also acts as a powerbank.
Now you may ask why I am not suggesting using a modem directly into the tablet as most android tabs do support modems.
- Most tablets do not have a Full USB port and hence you use a connector which causes it owns problem.
- Modem consume power and hence battery back up will be very less
- Inserting connector into Mini USB port and using it on the go is prone to damage the small mini usb ports in latest tablets (this will also void warranty)
- Finally Compatibility issues - Modem with even the same model number have different chipsets, so a manufacturer can never confirm compatibility
- MTK Quad Core SoC which combines the 3G module with BT and GPS
- 5” HD (1280 x 720) IPS Screen
- 1GB Ram
- 4GB Flash Memory
- 8 MP Camera with LED Flash
- 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the Box
We were hearing the news about a quad core chipset from MTK just a few days back. The chinese brands have to yet to launch a mobile with the Soc. Most of these are on pre-order the like the Cubot one:
But MicroMax goes on sale before anyone else and pricing too seems to be very agressive, just 15K. Compare this with the 35K for the Galaxy S3 and only word which comes out is WoW.
As I had said in a post a few days back, Watch out the Chinks are coming.
In India the China are in the form of local players like Micromax and Karbonn.
Added on 24/01/2012
Oh! This is just an announcements, stocks will be available only in February, the time all the other Chinese Manufacturer’s will release theirs. It seems now Micromax is working closely with MTK. All SoC manufacturers had a set of big brands to whom the release the new chipsets first before making them open.
First it was the Germans who had the quality edge electronics and technology.
Slowly the Japanese caught up and brands like Sony and Panasonic ruled the world.
After that next wave was the Korean with giants like Samsung and LG coming out with quality products are low prices.
The next wave is going to the the Chinese. All these years the Chinese have made copies and are of generally poor quality. But now after years, the Chinese are mastering new technologies and are not leading in quality and innovation too.
- The fastest trains in the world are now Chinese.
- Chinese built the fastest building in the world
- Chinese have their own Nuclear and Military Technology.
- They built their own fighter aircrafts.
- The 3 longest bridges in the world are in China.
Chinese are no longer lacking in technology. They just need the finesse to make and market the latest cutting edge consumer technology products. Now some smaller chinese companies are emerging with with products which can put even Samsung and Apple to shame.
Here is a preview at what is now available from China.
Oppo Find 5 - Mobile phone with full HD 1920 x 1080 screen. 13 MP Camera
http://www.oppo.com/index.php?q=mobile/product/newtpl&name=find5
The price in China of this phone is just - Rs.25,000/- Compare to the 40K odd of the Samsung Note II with lower specs.
Onda V972 - Entirely Chinese Made Tablet
All winner Quad Core CPU stated better than Samsung Exynos.
Retina like Dispay. 2048 x 1536 display.
4K decode and HDMI output. The highest standard of digital TV.
2 GB Ram
http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/07/onda-v972-tablet-jelly-bean-240/
All this just for $240 against ipad II pricing of $499
In a post as back as August 2012, we have mentioned :
“if someone could just plonk in a 3G module in a Dual Core IPS Screen 7 incher and you would have a real alternative to the Galaxy Tab 2 and would make the Nexus history.”
http://veedeedirect.tumblr.com/post/29107756343/ips-screen-dual-core-3g-ultimate-tab
Now an Indian company is doing exactly that.
iberry is mating a rk3066 dual core soc with an ips screen of 1280 x 720 resolution.
Will it be a market beater? We wish the best to the iberry team. We have both grown from ebay. iberry was and is still primarily an ebay seller.
Now something about the tablet they are launching.
The earlier iberry 3G tab was a huge disaster with problems with poor signal strength and poor battery life.
Hope that is resolved with the new Tab. But on first looks we are think not.
RK3066 is a battery drainer. Second the Casing iberry has chosen is very slim and hence only a very small battery can be put it. iberry has always mislead its customers by overstating the battery capacity. It says 4100 Mah for this one but it seems to be than 2500 Mah. The slim 8.6 mm body cannot support a bigger battery!
The 1280 x 720 screen will also put tremendous strain on the battery.
We hope the network strength issues have been taken care by iberry. It seems they are using a Taiwanese 3G module instead of the earlier Chinese one.
The 10” one looks more promising with a quad core Samsung SoC.
Anyways, all the best to iberry. And hats off to them for taking the bold step to introduce the latest technologies in India even before Samsung.
As the year comes to a close I would like to reflect on the VeeDee story so far.
- 2006 - Started with import of Digital Camera in 2006 much before budget digital cameras were introduced by the known brands
- 2007 - Started importing and branding MP3 players. The only other brand available at that time was Apple. VeeDee as a brand is born.
- 2008 - 2010 - Mostly trading of Notebooks, routers, computer peripherals
- 2011 - Launch of tablet pcs. The VeeDee D10 is the first capacitive touch screen tablet - Indian below Rs.10,000/-.
- 2012 - VeeDee introduced D10e and D10s variants of the D10
- 2012 - VeeDee continued with D13 and E10 tablets.
What does 2013 have in store?
- Dual Core and Quad Core VeeDee Tablets
- Android Mini Pc - Single Core and Dual Core
- Possibly a tablet with calling function
- Bluetooth Speakers, 3G and WiFi routers
- Mobile Phone Cases and other accesories- premium.
- Arm based ChromeBooks and Mini PCs!
Expect the best. Focus on 2013 is Quality and Innovation.
We have been the first to introduce new technologies to the market and will continue to do so with increased focus on innovation and packaging.
What differentiates VeeDee from the hazaar other electronics brands?
VeeDee Care -
- Only Brand to have a forum for its users
- Regular Firmware updates for all its models.
- Custom Firmware Development.
- First in India to introduce Pick up and Drop warranty as early 2007.
It seems Karbonn is out to grab some serious market share with its Duple series of devices.
The Karbonn A9+ is a serious phone at an insane price of Rs.8000/- odd.
For this you get
- Dual Core Qualcomm Soc
- 4” Multi Touch Screen
- 5 MP Camera
- Antutu score of 5500+
A similar specified handset from Samsung or Sony is priced at more than double.
The newly released Cosmic tablet is also a killer in pricing
For Rs.10,000/- odd you get:
- 9.7-inch 1024x768 capacitive touch display
- 1.5GHz dual-core processor
- 1GB DDR3 RAM
- 2-megapixel rear camera, VGA front-camera
- Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), USB (with dongle support), Bluetooth, HDMI
- 6000mAh battery
- Android 4.1
Compare this with the pricing of the ipad mini which has a much smaller form factor of 8 inches and you will notice the difference.
The only problem we see with Karbonn devices is that they give an insufficient amount of inbuilt memory - just 1.5 GB. And out of this available for apps will be only about 500 MB. Many apps cannot be moved to SD and hence the usability of these great devices will be very limited. Seems strange. Apne foot par kulhadi?
Most VeeDee devices now have and internal memory of 8 GB out of which about 1GB is available for apps. Devices with more internal memory run much faster than devices with external memory as the memory used internally is of very high speed as compared to the cheap memory cards available.
We are very pleased to announce a custom Rom for the VeeDee E10. It has been developed by HCH, a famed rom developer whose work with the Via 8650 SoC is legendary. His forum Techknow - ( http://www.techknow.t0xic.nl/forum/ ) has more than 48,000 members.
We have only sponsored the Hardware to him for developments of custom roms. We will continue supporting him with hardware.
Such an initiative is an Industry First, where most manufacturers just launch a tablet and forget all about it.
The VeeDee D10 received 4 software updates, from 2.3 to 4.0.4.
The E10 already has an update in version 1.4 from version 1.1, a new stock release will be available in a couple of days version 1.52.
In the meanwhile customers can try out the Custom Rom from HCH which is based on version 1.51
This rom can be found at : http://veedee.in/forum/index.php/topic,204.0.html
