MasterCard launched mobile wallet in UK

MasterCard has launched its MasterPass wallet service in United Kingdom, for the first time in a European country.

The service had already been launched in the United States, Canada, and Australia, but the consumers in Europe were yet to experience it.

MasterPass, which can be used online, in-store or elsewhere, enables the consumers to store all their payment, loyalty, store card, shipping and billing address details in one place.

The consumers can access the wallet of their choice and authenticate a transaction by clicking on a Masterpass button and entering a registered password for checkout. The credit card details aren’t needed to be entered to finish the transaction.

MasterCard said that the consumers can also add other branded credit, debit, prepaid and private label cards to their wallet.

Initially, the service is available with UK retailers Prezzy Box and The Hut Group but it will be available on website Boots.com next week and House of Fraser in the next month. The retailers do not pay for the service and instead card payment provider pays fee to MasterCard.

In the physical stores, the MasterPass checkout service works with both physical cards and mobiles. In case of devices, the payments are made via Near Field Communication (NFC) and QR codes, MasterCard said.

The MasterPass linked wallets provide retailers, banks, and other partners with their own branded MasterPass wallets. Alternatively, the existing wallets can also be connected to the MasterPass acceptance network.

The MasterCard is planning to launch the MasterPass wallet across Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East by 2014.

For more information on the world head to Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, taking place from 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for best in qualityaccommodation, marketing and event management, venues, hotels near the Fira Gran Via. 

Samsung unveils Exynos 5 Octa chip with ARM technology

Samsung has launched its latest top-of-the-range smart device processor – Exynos 5 Octa – which it says has 20% more power than its predecessor.

The South Korean electronics giants claimed that the four 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 cores and as many 1.8GHz ARM Cortex-A15 processors in the chip allow it to boast 20% more CPU processing power than in the earlier Exynos 5410, used to power some versions of its Galaxy S4 handset.

The firm said that the mobile chip is capable of almost doubling the graphical prowess of the devices. The chip uses a new image-compression solution to reduce the power consumption.

The extremely powerful chip offers “desktop-quality” video editing and supporst 1080p high-definition video playback at 60 frames per second, it said.

Exynos 5 is the first production-ready chip to feature ARM Holding’s latest GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) architecture. The potential of GPUs has not remained limited to video games graphics and they are widely being used to handle the general computing tasks today.

Though GPUs are relevantly slower at performing single calculations than CPUs, their advantage is that they can carry numerous calculations at the same time. Specifically they are capable of handling the highly “parallelizable” tasks such as running augmented reality apps and applying filters to photographs effectively.

Using GPU isn’t very popular among the smart device manufacturers and the vast majority of smart devices use ARM-designed CPUs. The Cambridge-based ARM accounted for about 20% of the overall Android phone sales last year.

The newly-developed chip will replace Exynos Samsung’s current octa-core processor as the firm’s flagship chip. Octa-core processor was used in Samsung’s flagship device Galaxy S4 but despite of its remarkable success, Exynos chips failed to attract the attention of most of tech firms, who continue to favor Qualcomm Snapdragon and Nvidia Tegra chipsets.

For more information on the world head to Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, taking place from 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for best in quality accommodation, marketing and event management, venues, hotels near the Fira Gran Via.  For further information, click here.

Moroccan property market attracting wealthy investors

The Moroccan luxury property market is attracting domestic as well as wealthy foreign investors, a new report has found.

The report from Aylesford International says that the country has witnessed significant economic growth over the last decade thanks to the strong macroeconomic policies.

Morocco is one of the few countries in the wider North African region that have rarely experienced social unrest. Tourism and home industry are the most prolific industries of the country and are the keys to its economic stability.

The report also says that there is now a considerable expat community in Morocco and the foreign residents are mainly from the European and Latin American countries.  The country’s liberal inheritance laws, moderate property transaction costs and the provision of excellent, high-end properties are the key reasons behind their attraction towards it.

However, recently, the economic performance of Morocco has witnessed deceleration due to the slow growth in European Union, particularly in Spain and France who are its main export partners.  To that end, Morocco’s Budget in 2013 has imposed taxes on buying and selling the property.

When buying a property, there is an agent commission of 2.5%, VAT of 10% Notary fee of 1% plus a Notarial tax of 0.5%. Additionally, there is also land registration fee of 3%-4%.

When selling a property there is no particular inheritance tax but gift tax like Capital Gains may be levied at a flat rate of 20%. The minimum 3% has been imposed on the transfer of property.

The Properties that are attracting foreign buyers include a 5-bedroom villa in Marrakech with two guest houses, a three hectare garden, tennis courts and pool priced at €2.9 million and a 4-6 bed villa in a private estate that includes a spa, a luxury boutique hotel and an 18-hole golf course, priced at €1.91 million.

For more information on the global property market, head to MIPIM 2014 in Cannes. Contact EAS for the best in meeting space, special events, hotels, rental apartments, luxury accommodation, marketing and event management. For further information, click here.

Smartphone shipments in India grow 167% between Jan-Apr

Smartphone shipments to India grew by 167% in January-April from the same period a year earlier, the latest report released by research firm Cyber Media Research (CMR) has stated.

According to the report, nearly 10 million Smartphones were shipped within the South Asian country during the first three months of 2013.

South Korea-based Samsung retained its top-spot in Smartphone shipments by selling some 4 million units during January-April and making up about 40% of the total market share.

The homegrown companies Micromax and Bangalore-based Karbonn, who operate within the Rs 7000 to Rs 16,000 price point, occupied the second and third places respectively at 19.3% and 8.6% market shares respectively. This was the first time in the country’s history that two major domestic Smartphone manufacturers came in among the top three positions.

Cyber Media said the skyrocketing growth rate of the Smartphone is an indication that an increasing number of mobile phone users are migrating from feature phones to the entry-level Smartphones which offer internet browsing and content downloading. The feature phones witnessed a growth rate of just 2.4% during the three month period.

Nokia retained the leadership in the overall mobile shipment in the country, making up 20.3% of the market share, while rival Samsung pursed closely behind with 14.2%, up from 5% a couple of years ago.

The total number of mobile handset shipments in India for the first four months of 2013 propelled to 4 million units, up 11% compared with the same period last year.

The Smartphone users in India have now reached 108 million (calculated based of 850 million mobile phones users in the country), the report said.

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Hewlett Packard plans to dive back into Smartphone Market

Technology giants Hewlett Packard (HP) has announced that it plans to re-enter into the Smartphone market with a new flagship device.

Yam Su Yin, the Senior Director of Consumer PC and Media Tablets Asia Pacific, at an event in Beijing told news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) that the company is planning to cash the lucrative Smartphone market. However, he didn’t reveal when the company will come up with its new handset.

Yam said that HP is studying all the current offerings in the Smartphone market and is attempting to discover what it can offer that other players in the market don’t.

The Palo Alto-based company has dabbled in the Smartphone market in the past, when it acquired Palm and its webOS platform for $1.2 billion in 2010. By February 2011, it released the two WebOS Smartphones – the HP Veer and the Pre 3 – but the poor sales caused the company to scrap the operating system and hardware associated with it.

In the wake of the failure of WebOS, HP is likely to feature Google’s Android operating system, which accounts for the 69% of worldwide market share, in its future mobile devices. The company has already launched a number of Android-powered products, including seven-inch tablet and a Chromebook.

HP, the parent company of Plano-based HP Enterprise Services, is currently working on segments like all-in-one PCs, tablets and notebooks.

Hewlett Packard would face fierce competition by the rulers of the Smartphone market – Apple Inc. and Samsung – who together make up the majority of Smartphone market share.

According to IDC, the Smartphone shipments are expected to raise 32.7% annual attainment 958.8M units this year, increased from 722.5M units shipped in 2012.

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Samsung launched mid-range Android Galaxy Core Smartphone in India

Samsung has officially released its mid-range Android Smartphone – Galaxy Core – in India. The flagship device will be available for sale at a best buy price of Rs. 15,690 (€ 200) from July 1.

Packed with strong hardware features like 4.3-inch screen with a 480×800 resolution, 1GB of RAM, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 5-megapixel rear camera and a VGA front facing camera, the new flagship device runs on Google’s Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system. The 8GB of internal storage of the phone can be expanded through a microSD card. The phone supports up to 480p video playback.

The connectivity options of the device include Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi, and Global Positioning System (GPS).  The phone comes with an 1800mAh battery and the FM Radio functionality. Thanks to the smart dual-SIM functionality of the device, the users can receive calls on one SIM card even when they are operating the second SIM.

The device also features the high-end Smart Stay function that uses the advanced facial recognition to identify when a user is looking away from the phone and when the user is, it dims the screen and powers down the other active components to save the battery life. The Smart Alert feature notifies the user about the messages and missed calls instantly when the phone is picked up.

Galaxy Core is currently available in white and black color will soon offer additional colors.

As a special introductory offer, the company is offering a Digital Wallet of Rs. 5000 valid for 90 days applicable on Games, with the device. The user can subscribe the service by sending SMS ‘MyOffer’ to 56886, getting a link for my Services and launching the application.

For more information on the world head to Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, taking place from 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for best in quality accommodation, apartments services in MWC 2014, marketing and event management.  For further information, click here.

Huawei unveiled world’s slimmest Smartphone

Huawei Technologies Co, the telecom-network equipment giants, unveiled the world’s slimmest Smartphone – Ascend P6 – at an event in London on Tuesday.

Just over 6mm thick, Ascend P6 will be available for sale in China this month and in Western Europe in July, with the recommended price of €449 (£385).

Ascent P6 is packed with strong hardware features like 4.7-inch display, 1.5 gigahertz quad-core processor, dust-proof metal casing, a powerful 5 megapixels front and 8 megapixels rear camera. The device runs on a customized version of Google’s Android Operating system.

P6 is made up of glass and metal unlike its predecessors, the new version isn’t compatible with the 4G networks. The device comes in white, black and baby pink colors.

The touch screen of the phone is extremely sensitive and it responds only to the gloved hands.

The London event, held at Camden’s Roundhouse, was the first stand-alone global product launch of Huawei, who previously unveiled its new phones rather silently at the trade shows such as the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Huawei has been most successful as the maker of telecom-network equipment such as antennas and base stations, surpassing American and European competitors to become the second largest vendor after Sweden’s Ericsson.

However, the company’s smartphone business is competing with an uphill battle. The release of a new Smartphone shows that the Shenzhen-based company is aspiring to establish itself as a customer brand by increasing its marketing efforts.

The analysts believe the latest flagship device will determine the future of the company’s Smartphone business.

The company is planning to release P6 in 19 countries including China, Germany, Italy and France by the end of July and 100 more afterwards.

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Sony unveiled giant waterproof Xperia Z Ultra Smartphone

Japanese Electronics giants Sony have launched a waterproof Android Smartphone – Xperia Z Ultra – with a 6.4in screen (16.3cm), describing it as  the ‘slimmest large-screened handset on the market’.

The new device is 6.5mm thick – slightly deeper than the thinnest device on the market, Ascend P6, launched recently by the Chinese telecom-network equipment giants Huawei.

Like original Xperia Z, which was unveiled in January, the enhanced version is also equipped with stunning features, one of which is that in addition to an optional stylus, it also accepts notes or sketches written using metal-tipped pen or a standard pencil.

Xperia Z ultra comes up with a 1080p resolution screen with in-built software to upgrade lower definition photos and videos. It has an 8 megapixel rear camera, and a powerful battery that offers up to 11 hours talk time. The 16 GB of internal storage of the device can be expanded to 64GB with the support of microSD cards.

The Ultra follow-up is highly water-resistant and can be submerged to a deeper limit – 1.5m (4.9ft) in freshwater for up to 30 minutes.

Xperia Z Ultra will be available for sale in Singapore and China sometime in July-August and in Europe from September.

Sony said it aspires to challenge Samsung’s supremacy of the jumbo-sized handset sector with its new flagship device.

The firm is not alone in seeking to grind down the lead of Korean Electronics giant. Several other players in the market have also jumped into the competition with their large-screened handsets. These devices include Huawei’s 6.1inch Ascend Mode, Acer’s 5.7inch Liquid S1; ZTE’s 5.7inch Grand Memo; Asus’ 6inch FonePad Note and Lenovo’s 5.5inch Ideaphone K900.

For more information on the world of mobile, head to Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, taking place from 24-27 February, 2014. Contact EAS for the best in quality accommodation, marketing and event management.  For further information, click here.