The year 2011 truly belonged to the digital consumer. Social networking sites became the meeting point for almost anything &mdash; from finding friends to protesting against corruption. In 2011, India touched the 100-million mark in terms of internet users, 85 million being active users. The numbers may be relatively small compared to other markets, but this is a significant base for online firms. For LinkedIn, India is the second-largest base after the US.

Networking ties

Business Standard

Marketing challenges apart, 300 firms sprout in past 5 years in Tier-2, -3 cities.

Software product start-ups rely on smaller cities

If 2010 was the year of dual SIM mobile phones in India, it was the &lsquo;tablet PC&rsquo; that walked away with the title of being the most sought after device in 2011, and technology giants Apple, Samsung and Research in Motion rushed to grab a share of the booming market.

Tablet PCs stole the show in 2011

Press Trust of India

Shopping will become a lot easier when Reasoning Global eApplications, a Hyderabad-based multi-channel solutions provider for the retailing industry, rolls out its native applications (or apps) for BlackBerry, iPhone and Android-based platforms by the end of the current financial year.

Now, shop on the move with the help of apps

Faced with competition from low-cost locations and inefficiencies associated with unwieldy growth in head count, Indian IT companies are exploring non-linear growth strategies.

Moving up the value chain

Much has been written about the power of social media and how marketers can use it successfully. The trick is to make sure one doesn&rsquo;t go overboard.

Make the right connect

When social media isn&rsquo;t handled correctly, it can do more harm than good. Striking a balance is key, but equally important is using it properly.

Look before you leap

Popular micro-blogging site Twitter reportedly crashed yesterday as it was overloaded with New Year messages. In Britain, the website crashed at 3 PM (local time) and was out of action for over an hour. It coincided with midnight celebrations in Japan when revellers were said to be sending a record 16,197 tweets per second.

Twitter crashes in new year

An app that acts like a musical postcard enables users to capture and share musical moments with friends and family and to discover great songs along the way. Called Soundtracking, the free app lets users share song clips, along with their thoughts, location and a photo to help convey their experiences.

App wishes you were here with a musical postcard

Reuters 

Samsung Electronics Co and Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's largest companies, told employees to brace for intense competition in a weak global economy as the government called for contingency planning. &quot;South Korea's economy is facing increased uncertainties this year, and the global economy may rapidly deteriorate if the European debt crisis worsens,&quot; Finance Minister Bahk Jae Wan said in a New Year statement released on Monday. &quot;Contingency plans to prevent contagion from Europe's crisis should be strengthened.

Samsung and Hyundai workers brace for crisis

Quite a few reasons have made 2011 a significant year for the Indian information technology (IT) services industry.

Challenging outlook for IT giants 

The TouchPad tablet from Hewlett-Packard was one of the most closely watched new gadgets of 2011 - and quickly turned out to be the year's biggest flop. The TouchPad, which was supposed to be a rival to Apple's iPad, lasted just seven weeks on the market before HP killed it, citing weak sales.

In flop of HP TouchPad, an object lesson for the technology sector

In a strong rebuttal to telecom operators on the issue of 3G roaming, the government has alleged that service providers have &quot;not come with clean hands&quot; and that they have &quot;suppressed material documents&quot; before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal.

3G roaming: Telcos suppressed facts, DoT tells tribunal 

With the growth of mobile phone and internet users, consumers of digital music have increased manifold.

2012: The year of digital music 

The Supreme Court today sought response of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the guidelines framed by the Centre for tightening the process of verification for providing pre-paid and post-paid connections by mobile phone operators.

SC seeks Trai response on mobile connection norms

The Telecom Ministry will raise a demand of over Rs 1,590 crore from five telecom firms, Tatas, Vodafone, Reliance Communications (RCom), Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular for under-reporting revenues, as per a special audit report, for the assessment years starting from 2006 to 2008.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will send show-cause notices to these operators in this regard, sources in the know said, adding that &quot;but prior to sending notices, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal may

DoT to demand Rs 1,593 cr from cos for under-reporting revenue

Global master data management (MDM) software revenue is likely to rise by 21% to $1.9 billion in 2012, research firm Gartner said today.

Global MDM software revenue may rise by 21% in 2012

In more trouble for private telecom players, Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) today accused them of acquiring 3G subscribers by entering into &quot;illegal&quot; inter-circle roaming agreements in circles without having designated spectrum.

3G roaming: BSNL accuses telcos of illegally adding subscribers

Will Wright, the designer behind successful video game simulations including &lsquo;SimCity&rsquo;, &lsquo;The Sims&rsquo; and &lsquo;Spore&rsquo;, is at it again. But this time, rather than controlling virtual people, the protagonist of &lsquo;HiveMind&rsquo; is the actual player.

Q&A: Will Wright, Video game designer

Rivals to vie for market share with competing products.

Intel, Qualcomm in for a Las Vegas showdown 

The 40 million Facebook users in India should brace themselves for more targeted scams in 2012. Researchers at Websense, a web security vendor, claimed spammers are once again attacking Facebook users through rogue browser extension as a mode for circulating malicious code. A message saying that the plug-in is required for enabling video content viewing on the social networking site is received by the user.

Now, a browser plug-in scam that targets Facebook users

Tech News: Latest Techn news & updates on Smart Watches, Gaming Console, iOS updates with launch date and price straight from Business Standard.com.

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