Samsung is all set to launch Galaxy M42, its first mid-segment 5G smartphone in India, later this month that will be priced between Rs 20,000-Rs 25,000, industry sources said on Monday.

Galaxy M42 will be the first ‘M’ series smartphone with 5G connectivity.

Industry sources told IANS Galaxy M42 is tipped to be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G processor and is likely to launch in 6GB and 8GB RAM variants.

Galaxy M42 will also get ‘Knox Security’, the first for a Galaxy ‘M’ smartphone.

Samsung Knox offers multi-layered security to smartphones and defends the most sensitive information from malware and malicious threats.

Galaxy M42 5G will be available on Amazon.in and Samsung.com, besides select retail channels.

Samsung has launched a number of 5G smartphones in India this year in the premium segment.

Samsung’s most premium foldable smartphone Galaxy Z Fold2 comes with 5G connectivity in India.

All three variants of Galaxy S21 launched in India support 5G connectivity.

Samsung also launched the 5G variant of Galaxy S20 Fan Edition in India recently.

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In yet another bid to offer top-of-the-line specifications packed in a stylish machine, market leader Lenovo has brought a new laptop — Yoga Slim 7i Carbon — to India that will appeal to both entrepreneurs and millennials.

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon, a Windows 10 Home laptop, comes in two CPU options — 11th-Gen Core i5 and 11th-Gen Core i7.

This is paired with either 8GB/16GB LPDDR4X RAM clocked at 4266MHz, up to 1TB PCIe Gen 3 NVMe SSD, integrated Xe GPU to handle the graphics.

It is now available at a starting price of Rs 1,19,990.

According to the market research firm IDC, Lenovo led the global traditional PC market (including desktops, notebooks and workstations) in the first quarter of 2020 with a 24.3 per cent share, as the worldwide shipments grew 55.2 per cent (on-year).

The new Yoga Slim 7i Carbon laptop, which weighs 0.97 kgs, is powered by the latest 11th-Gen Intel Tiger Lake CPUs. It is also Intel EVO certified, which brings the perfect combination of performance, responsiveness and long-lasting battery life to the laptop.

We used the laptop for a few days and here’s how it performed.

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Private equity fund manager True North has sold a part of its holding in PolicyBazaar to five buyers after selling the first stake in October 2020.

True North said it continues to be invested in the company after selling its stake to Ashoka India Equity Investment Trust, Triumph Global Holdings, Serum Institute of India, IIFL Special Opportunities Fund Series 8 and India Acorn Fund .

“We’ve had a great partnership with PolicyBazaar over the last three years. We are extremely pleased with the company’s sustained growth momentum and efficiency in delivering great results in spite of the challenging market conditions. We will continue to support PolicyBazaar as it heads towards public markets in the next 12-15 months and scripts many more success stories,” said Divya Sehgal, Partner at True North.

“True North has been and continues to be a good friend, advisor and has supported us as an investor through the last few years. We are grateful for that, and glad to see them having a good partial exit, we welcome on board the new shareholders. True North continues to be an investor and we thank them for the confidence,” said Yashish Dahiya, CEO, Policybazaar.

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PumPumPum, a startup that gives used cars on lease, has secured Rs 5.5 crore in a funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures. Lets Venture & Agility Ventures were other investors in the round.

The company will use the money for consumer awareness, technology development, brand building and expansion. “Car leasing and subscription is fast catching pace in the country and has a great future ahead. To take this niche category to newer heights, we are consistently expanding our reach along with tech disruption and high decibel consumer awareness. We are committed to offer a hassle-free smart car experience with zero down-payments, zero maintenance charges and zero insurance premiums,” said Tarun Lawadia, founder and chief executive officer of PumPumPum.

The company’s monthly subscription ranges between Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh “We are confident that the capital infusion will help us in category disruption and strengthen our product development, marketing and expansion plans,” said Lawadia.

Average ownership of firsthand used cars in India is approximately 24-30 months. Leasing a car for a year is affordable and hassle-free, said the company, which was conceptualized by Lawadia and Sameer Kalra.

“The new age workforce mantra is to lease assets like house, consumer durables and even cars so that it keeps them detached and mobile when changing jobs or home base. This is the new customer segment that PumPumPum is aiming to capture and we believe its potential will explore in the coming 5 years,” said Vinay Bansal, Founder & CEO, IPV.

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By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) – Apple Inc said it plans to argue that it faces abundant competition in the market for video game transactions to defend itself against antitrust allegations by “Fortnite” maker Epic Games, the iPhone maker said on Thursday.

Epic sued Apple last year in federal court in California, alleging the 15% to 30% commissions that Apple charges for the use of its in-app payment systems and Apple’s longstanding practice of exercising control over which apps can be installed on its devices amount to anticompetitive behavior. The dispute arose after Epic tried to implement its own in-app payment system in the popular “Fortnite” game and Apple subsequently banned the game from its App Store.

The case is to be heard in May in Oakland, California, by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who will have to rule on which notion of a “market” is the correct one for analyzing Apple’s moves for signs of anticompetitive conduct.

Epic has framed its case around the idea that Apple’s iPhones, with an installed base of more than 1 billion users, represent their own distinct market for software developers. Epic has argued that Apple has monopoly power over that market because it decides how users can install software on the devices and says it abuses that power by forcing developers to deliver their software through the App Store, where developers are subject to fees on some transactions.

In a filing that Apple planned to make Thursday, the company rejected that notion and said the proper market to analyze the case is the video game transaction market, which includes platforms such as Nintendo Co Ltd and Microsoft Corp’s Xbox gaming consoles, which also limit the software that can run on their hardware and charge fees to developers.

Apple said it plans to argue that consumers have many choices on how to carry out video game transactions, including purchasing virtual tokens from game developers on other platforms such as Windows PCs and using the tokens on iPhones with no fees to the game developer.

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Zoom’s decision to stop access to its service for Russian state agencies should lead to the development of domestic alternatives to this popular video communication app, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

“We need to switch to alternatives, they do exist,” Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, according to a report by TASS news agency.

His comments came after Zoom reportedly decided to restrict access by the Russian state-owned companies to its software.

“Of course, our app developers will need to work hard to put the finishing touches on their products. We still have shortcomings in this area. Nevertheless, they (similar services) exist and they will be able to countervail the absence of such a popular service as Zoom. As the saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum,” Peskov explained.

“In general, we can only express our regret and bewilderment as to why Russian state institutions and higher educational institutions are now deprived of the opportunity to renew existing corporate contracts (with Zoom) and sign new ones,” the Kremlin spokesman added, commenting on the situation.

Earlier, Russia’s Kommersant daily reported that Zoom Video Communications had prohibited its distributors from selling its online conference services to government agencies and state-owned firms in Russia.

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Realme C20, Realme C21, and Realme C25 will make their India debut on Thursday. They are all budget phones. The brand has been trying to expand its portfolio in India, recently launching the Realme 8 series smartphones. A virtual live event has been scheduled for the launch through the company’s social media accounts.

The three smartphones are already available in other parts of the world. While Realme C20 made its debut in Vietnam in January, Realme C21 and Realme C25 were unveiled in March in Malaysia and Indonesia.

The India launch event for Realme C20, Realme C21, Realme C25 will start at 12:30pm IST and the smartphones will be available on Flipkart.

Realme C20 specifications

The Realme C20 smartphone comes with a 6.5-inch HD+ (720×1600 pixels) IPS display. It’s a dual sim (nano) smartphone and it runs on Realme UI which is based on Android 10. The smartphone is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio G35 SoC which is supported by 2GB of RAM. It has an internal storage capacity of 32GB and supports expansion up to 256 GB. In the camera department, the smartphone has an 8MP camera at the back with LED flash and a 5MP selfie camera at the front. The phone is packed with a powerful 5,000 mAh battery.

Realme C20 price

The India price has not been revealed yet, but we can roughly guess the price from its launch in other markets. The Realme C20 was launched in Vietnam for VND 2,490,000, which in Indian Rupee converts to approximately Rs 7,900.

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HMD Global new smartphone will be launched in India on Thursday. It is likely to be a new Nokia C20, according to media reports. The company has not revealed much detail about the smartphone. The Nokia C20 has appeared on many certification websites.

The entry-level smartphone will replace the Nokia 1.X series and it is likely to have four variants based on storage capacities. It has bagged Bluetooth SIG certification, meaning the phone will come with a Unisoc processor under the hood.

Nokia C20 specifications

HMD Global has not revealed much about the phone yet. However, leaked reports suggest that the phone will have a 5.99-inch LCD IPS display with a pixel density of 269 ppi. It will be a dual sim (nano) smartphone which will support 4G. It will run on Android 10 and will be powered by Unisoc SC9863A processor. It is expected to have 1 GB of RAM and an internal storage of 16GB which can be expanded up to 128 GB.

In the camera department, the smartphone will carry an 8MP primary camera at the back along with LED flash and a 5MP selfie camera at the front.

The phone will be powered by a 3,040 mAh battery. It will also have a micro-USB port. The phone will come in 2 colours — black and gold. For connectivity, the phone will have USB charging, microUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.2, and WIFI 802.11. The phone will also have a 3.5 mm audio jack.

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SanDisk has launched iXpand Flash Drive Luxe, a storage device with a lightning port on one end and a USB Type-C port on the other end.It can be used with iPhones and iPads with a lighting port, and with the modern iPads with a USB Type-C port. The SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive Luxe can also be used with most Android smartphones, tablets, and laptops with a USB Type-C port.Once files are on the drive, they can be transferred using the USB 3.0 connector to a USB Type-C-compatible computer.

For privacy, users can also password-protect their files and photos with the iXpand Drive app. The app can also be used to free up space on an iPhone or to automatically back up photos, videos, documents, and contacts. The drive is available in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB storage variants, allowing more space for photos, videos, and games.

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By Joyce Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co Ltd likely saw a 45% jump in profit for January-March on robust sales of smartphones, TVs and home appliances, though chip division earnings are seen tumbling after a storm suspended production at its U.S. plant.

Spending more time at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, consumers have splashed out on an array of high-margin consumer electronics which in turn has helped cause a global shortage of semiconductors.

Operating profit for the South Korean tech giant in the quarter is expected to have climbed to 9.3 trillion won ($8.2 billion), according to a Refinitiv SmartEstimate drawn from 16 analysts. SmartEstimates assign more weight to forecasts from consistently accurate analysts.

That would mark Samsung’s highest operating income level for the first quarter since 2018. Revenue likely rose 12%.

Samsung is scheduled to announce preliminary first-quarter results on Wednesday.

In particular, its mobile division looks like it had a stand-out quarter, benefiting from the launch of its Galaxy S21 series in mid-January – more than a month ahead of the flagship model’s usual annual release schedule.

The world’s largest smartphone maker is estimated to have cornered roughly 23% of global market in the quarter, thanks to that launch and cheaper-than-usual pricing for its premium devices, according to Counterpoint Research. The S21, for example, was priced $200 lower than the S20.

That compares with 20% market share in the same quarter a year ago and 16% market share in the previous quarter when arch-rival Apple Inc released the iPhone 12.

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