Honda & Maruti sales hike

Honda Siel Cars sales jump 6.3% in Jan

Car maker Honda Siel Cars India today said it sold 6,358 units in January this year, registering 6.3 per cent jump over the same period last year.

The company had sold 5,983 units in the corresponding month last year, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) said in a statement.

The January sales comprised 5,059 units of its flagship sedan City, 579 units of hatchback Jazz, 508 units of premium sedan Civic, 174 units of luxury sedan Accord and 38 units of its sports utility vehicle CR—V.


Maruti sales zoom 14.73% in Jan

The country’s largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India on Tuesday reported a 14.73 per cent jump in sales during January, 2011, to 1,09,743 units.

Sales in the same month of the previous year stood at 95,649 units, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) said in a statement.

The company’s sales in the domestic market stood at 1,00,422 units in January, 2011, a 23.84 per cent increase from 81,087 units in the year-ago period, it added.

MSI’s exports in January, 2011, however, fell by 35.99 per cent to 9,321 units from 14,562 units in the same month last year.

Sales of the company’s M800 model also declined by 24.77 per cent to 1,876 units from 2,494 units in January, 2010.

Sales in the A2 segment (comprising the Alto, WagonR, Estilo, Swift, A-Star and Ritz models) witnessed a 23.81 per cent jump to 72,479 units in January, 2011, compared with 58,540 units in the same month a year ago.

A3 segment sales (consisting of the SX4 and DZiRE models) increased by 32.6 per cent to 11,930 units from 8,995 units in the corresponding period a year ago.

The company has witnessed record sales of over ten lakh units in the first ten months of this fiscal, with 10,37,408 units finding buyers, compared with 8,26,592 units in the year-ago period, a 25.5 per cent increase.

Advertisers: cricket World Cup

Advertisers hooked on cricket World Cup

There is optimism surrounding the Cricket World Cup 2011 as advertisers make a beeline to advertise during the tournament, hoping to see the country win the title this time around.

According to officials at ESPN (the official broadcaster), on-air advertising is expected to fetch revenues to the tune of Rs 750 crore with two billion viewers across the world watching the matches being played amongst the top 14 cricketing nations. The country's sizeable population is expected to account for the biggest chunk of eyeballs and sponsors and advertisers are expected to pay rates that could go up to Rs 6.5 lakh for a 10-second slot on channels such as Star Sports, Star Cricket and ESPN for the India-specific matches.

There are 5,100 seconds sold for every ODI on each of the three channels on which the World Cup will be aired. The bulk of the matches will be shown on the Hindi feed in Star Sports and Star Cricket along with ESPN. There are still a few days left for the World Cup to begin and They have already sold 90 per cent of these channels' inventory.

It is the co-presenting sponsors such as Sony Bravia, Vodafone and Hero Honda who have spent the most on this property.  Almost 30 per cent of the ad spends have been by the main sponsors such as Sony Bravia, Hero Honda and Vodafone.

Retail: Yum! Brands

Yum! Brands plans huge expansion in India

Yum! Brands, a restaurant chain is planning extensive expansion in India. The company plans to open 500 KFCs and 400 Pizza Huts by the year 2015, via franchise route confirms a company official. Presently, the company has 110 KFC and 170 Pizza Hut outlets. Yum! has brands like KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, in its portfolio.

The company is also aiming for 1,000 outlets in four years, by 2015 in the Indian subcontinent, which includes Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Mauritius. At present the company has 37,000 restaurants across 110 countries.

Android phones

Top 5 Android phones below  10,000

        

The recent surveys done by top research firms like Gartner point to the growing popularity of the Android operating system (OS). Worldwide, the shares of Android OS have jumped and it is now the second most popular OS after Symbian, as per Gartner's third quarter smartphone data released in November 2010.

The reason for the immense adoption of Android can be attributed to it being an open source operating system that is preferred by handset manufacturers. Plus there is the Android market that houses more than 200,000 apps. Indian manufacturers are cashing on big time in the Android platform and are coming up with new and cheap handsets to cater to the Indian user's taste and sensibility.

We picked top five phones running on the Android platform and are priced below  10,000 that give value for money. 

1. Samsung Galaxy 5 

Running on Android 2.1, the Samsung Galaxy 5 features a 2.8 inch display touchscreen with 240x320 pixel resolution. The phone is powered by a 600MHz processor. It has Samsung's proprietary TouchWIZ UI. The phone has access to the Android market, thus you can download huge number of apps through this. Connectivity wise, the phone scores with packing in 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS support. With an internal memory of 170MB, the phone comes with a 2GB microSD card. The memory can be further expanded to 16GB. It packs in a 2MP camera and its powerful battery gives a long talk time of 9.5 hours.

Price:  8,869 

2. Spice Mi-300 

Having got itself the update from Android 1.6 to 2.1, the Spice Mi-300 has brought itself out of the initial criticism that it faced without the OS update. Sporting a 3.2 inch capacitive display screen, and supports 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth for connectivity, it has a 5MP camera with LED flash option. It comes with 150MB internal memory that can be extended up to 32GB with a microSD card. The battery supports a talk time of five hours.

Price:  9,000 

3. Dell XCD28 

The Dell XCD28 features a 2.8 inch resistive touchscreen and runs on the Android 2.1 operating system. Powered by a 600MHz processor, the device has a 3.2MP camera. The phone weighs just 100 gram and has 256MB of RAM and ROM each. Connectivity wise, the phone has 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth. It ships with an internal memory of 200MB that can be extended up to 16GB.

Price:  7,999 

4. Huawei Ideos U8150 

The Android 2.2 run phone from Huawei has just been released in India in partnership with Aircel. Ideos has a 2.8 inch capacitive touchscreen with screen resolution of 320X240. A 3.2 MP camera is present at the rear of the phone. Connectivity options include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G and GPS. Powered by a 528MHz processor, the phone can function as a Wi-Fi router for eight devices. The memory of the phone can be increased up to 32GB using a microSD card. With the Aircel tie-up, a postpaid subscriber of Aircel is granted 2GB of free mobile data every month.

Price:  8,499 

5. Micromax Andro 

The first Android phone launched by Micromax, the Andro A60 is a full touchscreen smartphone that runs on the Android 2.1 Eclair OS. The phone has a 2.8 inch resistive screen with an auto focused 3.2 MP camera. Powered by a 600MHz microprocessor, the phone comes with an internal memory of 150MB and can be expanded up to 32GB using a micro SD card. Connectivity features of the phone include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. The Andro A60 also packs in an Accelerometer and Gravity sensor for playing the Android-platform based games. The device includes FM radio and is powered by a 1280 mAh Li-ion battery. 

Price:  6,699 

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