All Posts in Mobile

|In: Infographic|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Spam calls have been on the rise ever since the advent of mobile phones. In its strive towards protecting its users from unwanted calls and potential fraud, Truecaller released a report revealing the top 20 countries that have been most affected by spam calls in 2017.

Image Source – Spam Calls

One of the revelations that came from this report was that an overwhelming majority of spam calls were received by India. According to the report, India’s topped this list because its spam call issue majorly lies with operators and financial services, most of whom are seeking to provide special offers for free data, or unlimited calls.

Tying in for second place amongst top spam-plagued countries are The United States and Brazil. The report also divulges into common categories that tie all these spam calls together. These range over, operator, debt collection, bank, political, health, spam, telemarketing, financial service, scam and insurance.

top 100 spammers in each region for the month of May.

Category Key

  • Nuisance: Due to this being a broad spectrum of calls, it is generally calls that is unwanted, disturbance for users, harassment, pranks.
  • Telemarketing: Promotional calls from companies, surveys, political/robo calls, new client outreach for services, subscriptions, etc.
  • Operator: Telecom companies upselling data plans, promotions, etc.
  • Financial service: Banks, credit unions, credit card companies etc.
  • Scam: Fraud attempts, money swindling, unknown links, etc.
  • Insurance: Companies that specialize in selling different types of insurances.
  • Debt collection: Organizations that specialize in payments of debts owed by individuals or businesses, bounty hunters.
  • Political: Campaign calls to secure votes for parties, robocalls.
  • Health: Hospitals, private practices.

Further information can be found on the TrueCaller Blog

|In: Mobile|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Truecaller have rolled out its latest update to iOS, bringing Flash Messaging to iPhones. With a simple swipe and tap, Flash Messaging is a shorthand way for users to communicate via pre-defined messages, phrases and emojis.

Over 41 million users have upgraded to the Flash-embedded version of Truecaller 8 for Android, and now iOS users can communicate with one-tap responses. Truecaller offers users who are unable to take a call or have a full conversation on text, a one-tap solution to answer yes-or-no-questions, share a location or call back. It also allows users to customize flash messages for in-built responses.

Simplifying communication into a minimalistic user interface, Flash Messaging helps users avoid cluttered SMS inboxes and ten-second calls. Another advantage of Flash Messaging is that looks like an incoming call, but unlocks as to be an incoming message, ensuring closure in communication. It maintains the urgency of a phone call with the effortlessness of a message, bringing simple answers to simple questions.

|In: Mobile|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

InFocus, a pioneer in projection and display technologies have launched the InFocus Turbo 5 (#InFocusTurbo5) for the power hungry users of India. The special feature of this budget smartphone is the massive 5000 mAh battery. The InFocus Turbo 5 would be exclusively available on Amazon.in from the 4th of July in two different color variants – Mocha Gold and Pure Gold.

The phone comes with a hybrid dual-SIM (Nano+Nano/microSD) support and has a beautiful all-metal design which might make it the ‘most powerful’ smartphone in the prize range of below Rs. 8000/-. It also has a fingerprint sensor at the back for enhanced security and the company claims that the fingerprint sensor is extremely fast & can unlock the smartphone in less than 1 second.

Talking about the specifications, the InFocus Turbo 5 is powered by the 64-bit Mediatek MT6737 processor that can be clocked maximum to 1.25 GHz and has Mali T720 MP1 GPU support. In terms of storage, the phone would be available in two different options – 2GB RAM/16GB ROM priced at Rs. 6,999/- and 3GB RAM/32 GB ROM at Rs. 7,999/-. The InFocus Turbo 5 also has the reverse charging feature i.e. it can act as a USB Host and hence can be used as a power bank for charging other devices.

InFocus Turbo 5 specifications

The smartphone sports a stunning 5.2-inch HD display with a display resolution of 1280*720 pixels with a 2.5-inch curved glass on the top. Though the main USP of the InFocus Turbo 5 is the huge 5000 mAh non-removable battery, the smartphone is extremely comfortable in hands inspite of having a 5.2- inch display as it weighs only 164 grams. The length is 149.5 mm and the thickness is 8.95 mm. The smartphone is also apt for one hand usage since it does not look or feel bulky!

It has 4G or VOLTE support. As far as the cameras are concerned, the InFocus Turbo 5 has a 13-megapixel autofocus rear camera with LED flash with f/2.2 aperture and 5-megapixel front/selfie camera with f/2.2 aperture. The smartphone has Android 7.0 (Nougat) out of the box. In terms of connectivity, the InFocus Turbo 5 comes with 4G VOLTE support, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, FM Radio, A-GPS, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Light sensor and range sensor. It also has 3.5 mm audio jack support.

Without a doubt, the core feature of the InFocus Turbo 5 is the massive 5000 mAh battery pack that makes it an ideal smartphone choice for social-media junkies, watching videos or listening to music, playing games, etc. The super-long lasting battery is 1.6 times more powerful than what is available on other phones. The 5000 mAh battery pack is rated to last for around two days on a single charge and can deliver up to 34 days of standby time, 23 hours of video calling. The InFocus Turbo 5 is ‘Made in India’ product and is manufactured by Foxconn that is a long-standing technology partner with InFocus.

InFocus Turbo 5 pricing and availability

The power-packed InFocus Turbo 5 would be available in a limited edition Mocha Gold variant and Pure Gold variant exclusively on Amazon. The sale starts from 4th July,12 PM. The variant with 2GB RAM & 16 GB storage is priced at Rs. 6,999 and the one with 3GB RAM & 32 GB storage is priced at Rs. 7,999.

According to you, what features would make the InFocus Turbo 5 an excellent smartphone? Do drop your points in the comments section of the article.

|In: Mobile|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

When it comes to smartphones, two features that matter the most are – Performance and Battery. It goes without a doubt when you consider buying a new phone along with these two main requirements, you would also need a phone that sports a good camera, has an awesome display, supports 4G, should be secure and should feel good in your hands. In a nutshell, the phone should have the most sought after features but should also be rightly priced.

Talking about smart-phone and innovation, InFocus is one company that has been at the forefront of it. It is a pioneer in projection as well as display technologies. The main specialization of InFocus is that it offers low-cost smartphones with same high-end specifications as compared to its competitors. It made its foray into the crowded and highly competitive smartphone market in late October 2016 with the launch of InFocus Epic 1. It is back with another beast of a phone called InFocus Turbo 5 (#InFocusTurbo5).

InFocus Turbo 5 comes with a 5.2-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 720 by 1280 pixels. The 4G mobile is powered by Mediatek MT6737 processor that is clocked at 1.25 GHz. It comes with 2 storage options – RAM: 2GB/3GB and ROM: 16GB/32 GB. As far as the cameras are concerned, the InFocus Turbo 5 has 13-megapixel rear camera with 2.2 aperture. The rear camera resolution is 4280*3120 pixels and it also supports 1280*720 pixels video resolution. The front/selfie camera is  5-megapixels. The front camera resolution is 2592*1944 pixels and it supports maximum 640*480 pixels video resolution. It has a fingerprint scanner

The InFocus Turbo 5 runs on Android 7.0 and measures around 149.5mm*74mm*8.95mm [Length*Width*Thickness/mm]. It also supports expandable storage via micro SD Card. All the standard connectivity peripherals like WiFi, Bluetooth [4.0], FM Radio, A-GPS, Sensors [Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Light] are available on the InFocus Turbo 5.

Though the phone looks interesting, according to our initial review these are some of the standout features of the phone:

  1. Powerful Battery – The InFocus Turbo 5 comes with a power packed 5000 mAh Lithium-Ion battery. With such a monster battery, you can expect the battery juice to last at least for a couple of days!
  2. Comfortable Screen Size – There is no specific mantra when it comes to choosing a right screen size for a smartphone. However, the display in InFocus Turbo 5 is rightly placed at around 5.2 inches due to which it is easy to use even in one-hand operation mode. It is one phone that can comfortably fit in your jeans pocket. It also makes reading as well as typing a delight.
  3. Mocha Gold Variant – In today’s time, most of the smartphone owners want to choose the color that suits their personality. This is one of the primary reasons why smartphone companies offer phones with different color variants. In Focus Turbo 5 would be exclusively available in Mocha Gold color that would make the entire phone stand-out in the crowd.
  4. Light in hands yet more powerful – Though the InFocus Turbo 5 sports a 5.2-inch touch display with 5000 mAh battery, it still feels light in hands. The length is 149.5 mm and thickness is 8.95 mm which does not make the phone look bulky. Though the phone has a metal body, it does not add to the overall weight of the phone. The weight of the phone is only 164 gm.
  5. Made in India, manufactured by Foxconn – InFocus and Foxconn leverage each other’s technical know-how and have a long-standing partnership. Production and assembly are handled by Foxconn’s world-class engineers. This is the ‘Seal of trust’ for InFocus Turbo 5!

Is InFocus Turbo 5 the best VOLTE smartphone available in the below 8000 price segment? The InFocus Turbo 5 goes on sale from the 4th of July, 2017 on Amazon.in. What according to you are the major features that excite you about InFocus Turbo 5, do leave your points in the comments section.

|In: Mobile|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Consumption of cricket-related content exceeded 0.75 billion on UCWeb Platforms – UC News and UC Browser, for the latest edition of IPL 2017 and the recently-concluded ICC Champions Trophy 2017, according to a data report, titled Insights into India’s Cricket Frenzy, released by UCWeb.

Image Source – UC Web

More than 50 percent of the country’s population logged on to the UCWeb platforms over the last 3 months for cricket scores and updates. More details in the report below

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Gaming has been a crucial part of the mobile industry since the launch of the App Store in 2008. For seven years in a row, gaming apps have been used more than apps from any other category. Consequently, mobile gaming has truly shaped how we engage on our smartphones today. However, since 2015, gaming sessions have been on the decline. Does that indicate the end of the mobile gaming era ?

Flurry Analytics reviewed the gaming industry based on app usage [Flurry Analytics tracks over 940,000 apps across all app categories which provides insights into 2.1 Billion devices]. To investigate current mobile gaming trends, they examined gaming categories combining iOS and Android data and bundled related gaming categories together.

Who are the heavy gamers ?

The top 5 mobile gaming countries [United States, India, China, Brazil and Russia] are driving 50% of all global gaming sessions. While the United States, India, and China take the top positions for gaming sessions, other countries are also showing a growing percentage of gaming addicts. For example, the United States accounts for 20% of all gaming sessions globally, but only 13% of all U.S. app sessions are games.

According to Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, users who are spending more than 5 hours per week in mobile games in North America are 52% female, 38.6 years old, and use both a smartphone and a tablet for gaming in 60% of all cases. While the real gaming addicts are in Europe [users in Netherlands and Sweden spend both 31% of all their app sessions in games], these countries don’t have a significant attribution to the overall global gaming sessions. In fact, Netherlands only accounts for 2% and Sweden for about 1% of all global gaming sessions.

Key Gaming Categories in Decline

For the second year in a row, gaming sessions are declining year-over-year. Three years ago, arcade, casual and brain games were driving 55% of all gaming sessions. Since then, there has been substantial declines in two of those categories – Arcade and Casual games. Arcade games, which accounted for 24% of all gaming sessions in 2014, decreased by 34%, and casual games by 50%. The declines of those two very large gaming categories were a key factor for the overall game session downturn within the last two years. A lot of those sessions simply dropped and were not spent in other gaming categories.

Are there any winners in a time of decline ?

While mobile gaming sessions have declined by 10% year-over-year, some categories continue to gain traction in usage. This year, card & casino apps reached a spot in the top three gaming categories. Sessions grew by 22% since 2014, and the category now accounts for 15% of all gaming sessions. Separately, the growth of smaller app categories is driving diversification for the industry. For example, board and strategy games grew 29% year-over-year from 2016 to 2017 and sessions are up 80% since 2014. This rise increased the category’s session share of all gaming apps from 1.6% to 4.0%.

They also identified similar trends in other smaller categories such as racing. Racing grew by 26% year-over-year and increased its game app session share from 1.6% in 2014 to 2.1% in 2017.

Fewer but longer gaming sessions

Flurry data shows that time spent in gaming apps has remained steady over the last year [+1%]. The average US consumer spends 33 minutes per day in mobile games, and our data showed that the average session length grew from 6 minutes and 22 seconds in 2016 to 7 minutes and 6 seconds in 2017. This is a significant advance, considering that the average session length never exceeded 6 minutes in 2014 or 2015. Additionally, the latest year-over-year session length growth equals an increase of 44 seconds (+12%) per session, which indicates higher in-game user engagement than in previous years. These statistics reveal that while more gamers open gaming apps less often, they often spend more time playing games during each session.

Size does Matter

In the gaming industry, one thing remains true : the bigger the screen, the greater the engagement.

When users play on-the-go, they take their medium-sized phone or phablet. However, if they are purposely dedicating time out of their day to mobile gaming, they are more likely to pick up their full-size tablet device, which explains average session lengths of over 10 minutes on full-size tablets.

With regard to the hours of the day that are most popular for on-the-go versus on-the-couch gaming, tablet gaming showed a steady peak in the morning. Most users carry their phone with them during the day, especially in the morning as they commute to school or work, so this is when many gamers play on-the-go. On the other hand, the use of tablets for couch gaming peaks in the evening, as more users log in from the comfort of their couch or bed. While gaming time on the phone still peaks in the evening, it’s important to consider that overall phone usage peaks at that time as well.

New users reflect increased revenue opportunities

As noted above, the reported shift in time spent on apps leads to more engaged attention spans at a time, which creates new monetization opportunities. Recently, SensorTower disclosed that the combined mobile gaming app store revenue on iOS and Android increased from $7.8 Bn in Q1 2016 to $11.9 Bn in Q1 2017. This equals a 53% year-over-year revenue growth. Besides different gameplay periods, users are becoming more comfortable spending money in apps, which is positively impacting mobile game revenue. SensorTower also found that download to revenue conversion on iOS has increased by 38% from January 2016 to January 2017. All of these observations lead to the conclusion that the mobile gaming industry still has high potential to drive revenue.

Mobile gaming beyond 2017 and tips for app developers

The gaming industry remains a very attractive category for app developers, especially as revenue conversions are growing. We’re seeing that longer session lengths are opening up new opportunities for innovative engagement and monetization tactics. For example, the peak usage hours on mobile devices are between 6 and 9 pm, which app developers can leverage to target specific users with acquisition or engagement campaigns.

Looking ahead, Flurry anticipates new technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality to open a new chapter of mobile gaming and to enhance the in-app experience as a whole. And gamers are ready – they are already having longer game-plays on their favorite gaming apps than ever.

The complete report can be downloaded from here

|In: Infographic|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Quikr has released an interesting & insightful report titled ‘Used mobile phone market in India’.

Some of the key highlights from the report are below:

  • Quikr offers two services for used mobile phone transactions : a) Quikr Doorstep: Service to ensure secure transactions between two consumers with delivery handled by Quikr  b) Quikr certified: Quikr Certified phones go through 35+ points rigorous quality checks and come with replacement guarantee.
  • Mobile Post Ad grew by 216% from 2016 vs 2014 indicating an increase in online supply of second hand phones
  • As newer technologies come, consumers are changing their habits and looking to upgrade phones sooner resulting in shorter replacement cycles

The report throws light on the most preferred brands and the cities that are most active in used phone market. It also spots trends such as – 4G becoming popular, selfie phones not going out of fashion and increase in demand for high end phones.

Quikr Used Mobile Report

 

|In: FloChat|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The mobile phone has become an indispensable part of our lives but most of the smartphone owners face common problems. The problems are shortage of storage space due to the installation of the innumerable number of apps, power/battery management, app hopping (jumping from one app to another), etc. This is the problem that startups are trying to address so that the there is more stickiness to the app since it provides more services under one roof.

Yagerbomb Media plans to address this problem with its app FloChat. FloChat is a hybrid chat platform that lets you connect with your friends, colleagues, etc. via its instant messenger and also gives you the freedom to browse and share content from across apps from its own context. Today we review FloChat on Android that can be downloaded from here, so let’s get going…

FloChat: Hybrid Messenger + Multiple services via micro-app integrations

FloChat is India’s first hybrid messenger which is simple, private and comes up with a personalized experience. The major USP of FloChat is that it brings context to conversations, thanks to its partner ecosystem [Zomato, Uber, Ola, BookMyShow, DineOut, Goibibo, Jugnoo, CouponDunia, Bing, YouTube, and Tenor].

The size of the FloChat App is only 27MB which means you can save 100’s of MB that would otherwise have been occupied by its partner apps!

FloChat: Express yourself with Reaction and EmoGIF

With FloChat, you can discover, browse, chat and transact and that too without leaving your chat window!! Users can express themselves using Reaction [#facepalm, #oops, #thankyou, etc.] or via EmoGIF. The company has partnered with Tenor that brings personality to your conversations.

Some of the salient features of FloChat are below:

  • Group Chat: Create groups and add any number of people you like, no limit on the number of people who can be added to a group.
  • Multimedia Messaging: Send video, image, text, gifs, memes and voice messages.
  • Secret Chats: With this feature, chats would disappear or self-destruct in a *poof*
  • GIF Gallery: Hundreds of free GIF’s to express your feelings available from some of your favorite shows and movies.
  • Better Privacy: It gives you the highest level of control over your privacy. You would need to add people before they can message you.
  • Edit messages after you have sent them: Have you ever misspelled your messages or auto corrects have caused more mistakes than corrections? Now you can edit messages after you have sent them.
  • Free Voice & Video Calls (Coming Soon): High-quality free calls anywhere in India including group audio and video calls.
  • Real-time Location (Coming Soon): Instead of having to tell others where you are, just use real-time location sharing.
  • Payments (Coming soon): This is one of the most anticipated feature which is expected to release in the future versions of the app since it would bring Payments integrated into chat.

Some of the screenshots from the FloChat app are below

FloChat: Floda – Chat meets AI

FloChat also comes integrated with Floda which is an AI based chatbot. Floda can help you out with booking tickets, getting your generic queries answered or even suggesting you the best place for a romantic lunch/dinner 🙂 We asked some generic questions to Floda like temperature in Mumbai, to book movie tickets, etc, and results were accurate. The overall experience was breezy since Floda could decode our requests within a few seconds.

FloChat: Closing thoughts

FloChat is a feature packed hybrid instant messenger app that helps you stay connected with your loved ones. The power of FloChat lies in the premise on how you can get things done all within the chat! With integration of Floda, it brings more meaningful context to conversations. If you are searching for an app that is not demanding on storage space but helps you stay connected with friends, then you should download FloChat.

[FloChat App Download link]

If you are an existing user of FloChat, please share your feedback in the comments section…