Kim's jewellery:West surprises at Kim's jewellery launch

West surprises at Kim's jewellery launch:

Rapper-turned-fashion designer Kanye West, who is reportedly engaged to socialite Kim Kardashian, flew to Toronto to support his girlfriend at the Canadian launch of her jewellery line.

The couple has been spotted together many times. West was a surprise guest at the debut of her Belle Noel range at The Bay's flagship store Friday, reports showbizspy.com.

"She showed up and looked stunning. Everyone was so excited to see her. And then everyone went wild when Kanye West showed up," showbizspy.com quoted a source as saying.

"No one knew he was coming. It was a total surprise and everyone loved it. We were shocked and thrilled when he walked in. They look very happy together, very sweet. They're the real deal for sure," the source added.

Kardashian married basketballer Kris Humphries last year, but the relationship lasted only 72 days, after which they filed for divorce.

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Nokia to launch Asha 202, Nokia to launch Asha 202 in India tomorrow

Nokia to launch Asha 202 in India tomorrow, offer special data plans with 5 carriers:

Nokia is likely to launch the Asha 202 in India tomorrow. First announced at MWC 2012, the Asha 202 features a 2.4-inch QVGA resistive touchscreen, a 2.0 MP camera, FM radio, a microSD card slot and dual-SIM. Nokia is also likely to bundle 40 free games from EA that can be downloaded from Nokia’s app store.

Mary McDowell, Nokia’s EVP for Mobile Phones, let the announcement slip in a Reuters feature on Nokia’s dwindling market share in emerging countries. She said that the company would be announcing data plans for the Asha 202 with five carriers in India on Monday.
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Apple’s New iPad:Starting At Rs. 30,500 Apple’s New iPad Hits Indian Market

A whole month after the international release Apple has finally allowed Indians to purchase their latest iPad.

Though it’s a third generation iPad, Apple has refrained from calling it iPad 3. However, specifications wise, there has been significant upgradation.

What does the new iPad have? Any tablet’s most important aspect is its screen. Apple simply leaves other tablet makers far behind with 2048×1536 resolution Retina Display. The screen size is same as before i.e. 9.7 inch but it has 44% more color saturation. At 3.1 Million pixels, it’s 4X the amount as compared to older iPad2. Under the hood is Apple’s proprietary A5 Quad-Core chip, which is supposed to have market-leading processing capabilities. Furthermore the older version had just 3G, the newer has the faster 4G module built into it.

However, no Indian mobile telecom operator has so far endorsed the faster standard of internet built into the iPad. Hence it will wise to wait till some Telco confirms that the iPad works on their network.

In the age of affordable tablets, Apple is going the other way with premium features & a price tag to match. The basic edition with 16GB storage & no 4G capability will cost Rs. 30,500 (US$ 575).

The other versions are priced as below:
 ■32GB –  Rs. 36,500
 ■64GB -   Rs. 42,500

iPad Wi-Fi + 4G
 ■16GB –  Rs. 38,900
 ■32GB –  Rs. 44,900
 ■64GB –  Rs. 50,900

Apple has also bumped up the camera resolution. The camera can now shoot HD videos & 5MP stills. It will be truly interesting to see how the Apple’s newest toy fares in the market that is primarily driven by price. However, if cost is not a matter, then the latest iteration from Apple just might be worth indulging in. Would you a buy Apple’s newest iPad or wait for the iPad 3?
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Ebay Gears Up To Face Rising Local Competition

Ebay has been offering merchandise across multiple sales partners & distributors. With the growing threat from local players, it has now made a strategic decision to jack-up their spending on technology & promotional activities.

Ebay.in has always taken a more conservative & cautious approach of doing business. All the while smaller firms made mega-budget advertisements. However, Ebay.in was never out of the market or sit along the sidelines confirms Muralikrishnan B, Country Manager, “Most of the new business models are just waiting to implode. We have chosen the cautious route, unlike a lot of Indian businesses who are blindly investing money without having an eye on sustainability or profitability”.

Given the fact that Ebay possesses the worlds most preferred payment system Paypal, gives it a stronger edge. However, with local banks too matching the security aspect, it might be a bit difficult to convince Indians to shift their buying & paying methodologies. Additionally, the Indian Govt. has never been kind to PayPal.

Ebay is a quite a formidable player, reveals some interesting statistics. It clocks Six Transactions per minute (IAMAI report). With such brisk business, why should Ebay even try to lure customers? The fact that Indian online retail market is expected to reach dizzying heights of US$ 70 Billion within next 5-7 Years is really great news for all those involved.
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Thailand, China most online shoppers in APAC

China and Thailand lead in online shopping in the Asia-Pacific market as percentage of users shopping online surpasses those in the mature markets, notes new report.

According to the MasterCard worldwide online shopping survey released Thursday, 80 percent of the respondents in China and Thailand have shopped online, making the two countries the leader in online shopping among other Asia-Pacific countries. At 74 percent, Japan ranked third in online shopping, followed by Korea with 71 percent and Australia at 68 percent.

The global survey was conducted across 25 markets between Dec. 5, 2011 and Feb. 6, 2012. In the Asia-Pacific market, 7,373 respondents from 14 markets, namely Thailand, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, India and the Philippines, were polled about their online shopping habits.

"This survey shows that the markets once considered to be emerging in Southeast Asia are now in fact challenging--and in some cases overtaking--traditional and mature online markets in the region," said Philip Yen, group head of emerging payments for Asia-Pacific, Middle East, Africa at MasterCard Worldwide.

Rise of mobile shopping:
While acknowledging that 71 percent of the respondents said they would rather use a laptop for online shopping, the report noted that the use of mobile phone as the device of choice for online shopping has been "rising rapidly" in emerging markets.

In Thailand, 59 percent of the respondents chose mobile as their preferred online shopping method. China, Vietnam and India followed at 37 percent, 32 percent and 32 percent respectively.

At 57 percent, most of the respondents chose mobile shopping because of its convenience while another 46 percent do so because of the growing availability of apps which makes mobile shopping easier.

Apps and music, at 31 percent and 24 percent respectively, were the top mobile purchases, followed by coupon deal sites at 17 percent, retailers for clothing and accessories at 17 percent and cinema at 16 percent, noted the report.
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Banking, shopping and job hunting online

Banking and keeping track of finances, shopping and searching for jobs are the main tasks of Internet users around the globe, according to a new international survey.

Nearly 60 percent of people in 24 countries used the web to check their bank account and other financial assets in the past 90 days, making it the most popular use of the Internet.

Shopping was not far behind at 48 percent, the Ipsos poll for Reuters showed, and 41 percent went online in search of a job.

"It is easy. You can do it any time of the day and most of the transactions don't have fees," said Keren Gottfried, research manager for Ipsos Global Public Affairs, about banking online.

Swedes were the biggest online bankers with almost 90 percent of adults using e-banking. But it has also caught on in a big way in France, Canada, Australia, Poland, South Africa and Belgium, where about 75 percent of people bank online.

But the Germans and Britons take the top prize for shopping on the web. Seventy-four percent of people in both countries have bought something online in the past three months, followed by 68 percent of Swedes, 65 percent of Americans and 62 percent of South Koreans.

"It is telling that the top four countries are all traditionally developed western countries," said Gottfried. "It's really been under 10 years that this technology has been around."

Almost half of people around the world have shopped online and an even bigger number, 61 percent, search the web for information about products they are thinking about buying.

Online shopping was the least popular in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Hungary and Russia, where 28 percent or fewer people buy online.

And in an indication of how far things have changed from looking for work in the classified ads in newspapers, 41 percent of people said they used the Internet to search for work.

Poles were the most likely to log on to look for a job, with 61 percent searching online for work, followed by Hungarians, South Africans and Mexicans. But only 17 percent of Japanese and a quarter of South Koreans and French have chosen the web for their job search.

Gottfried said the findings shadow very closely the number of people who said they knew someone who has lost or is looking for a job.

"For almost all of them (countries) it mirrors who has the most job anxiety," she explained.

Older people, between 50-64, with higher incomes and education were the most likely to do their banking online, the poll showed. Online shoppers were also better educated and bigger earners.

But about half of online job searchers were under 35 years old, unmarried and had smaller incomes.

Iposos interviewed a total of 19,216 adults in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Indonesia,Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.
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