Online retailer Flipkart, which took quite a few knocks during its big discounted sale day last October, has started preparing for another such event at the end of this year that will be 'many times bigger' and is working to improve its ability to anticipate demand, deliver goods faster and eliminate sub-standard and fake products.

"The sale emerged as a great learning experience for us and we have already started to implement processes in order to scale up our tech capabilities," said Sachin Bansal, CEO and co-founder of Flipkart.

Almost 1.5 million shoppers bought goods such as phones, clothes and accessories worth over $100 million from Flipkart on the Big Billion Day sale on October 6. However, several buyers looking for bargains found that the products had been sold out or were greeted by glitches on the website. The founders later apologized to their customers and said they were not adequately prepared for the sheer scale of the event.

Flipkart plans to work closely with sellers on its site to improve its ability to predict demand and invest more in automating its supply chain to speed up delivery, Bansal said. The e-tailer aims to double the strength of its technology team in the next 12-18 months. It currently employs about 1,000 people in its engineering division.

"Big Billion Day this year will be many times bigger. We also want to see our mobile platform play a larger role in serving customers during this years' sale," Bansal told ET in an interview. Mobile commerce is growing twice as fast as desktop for Flipkart and currently accounts for over half of the company's sales.

"The pace at which this medium is catching up with and even surpassing desktops is faster than what we have seen in the US or China, where the concept of mobile commerce has been around for longer," he said.

Bansal, fresh off a company-wide strategy meeting, said that in 2015 it will also focus on data analytics to offer personalized experiences across its mobile apps, marketplace platform and supply-chain network.

Flipkart has a large amount of customer data that can be used to improve sales. During the Big Billion Day sale, it generated almost 500 TB of commerce data. "We primarily use data to predict customer trends based on region, gender, wish list etc, to drive an enriching shopping experience," said Bansal.

The online retailer wants to get to 1 lakh sellers on its online marketplace by the end of the year, according to Ankit Nagori, SVP Marketplace at Flipkart. It has tied up with small and medium enterprises, government bodies and co-operative societies to increase the number of sellers on the site.

"We aim to have at least 10,000 sellers become millionaires this year through the sales generated on our platform," said Nagori. WS Retail, a company Flipkart hived off earlier, is still one of the largest sellers on the marketplace but others have been catching up, he said, declining to disclose its share of overall sales.

The company will get stricter with merchants selling sub-standard products on the site, said Nagori. Marketplaces like Flipkart face difficulty controlling the quality of items listed by third-party sellers. Some consumer companies have alleged that counterfeits of their products are sold online.

Sellers blacklisted by other e-commerce portals won't qualify to sell on Flipkart. Currently, there are over 4,000 sellers on the site.The company will ensure that sellers have a registered business and can only offer original products with warranties.

"We also have on-ground teams carrying out quality checks at seller facilities from time to time along with mystery shoppers who are constantly monitoring sellers for product quality, delivery timelines and customer friendly return replacement policies," he said.

The e-commerce company is looking to raise another round of funds at a valuation of $15 billion (Rs 95,000 crore) and to sell goods worth $5 billion by March 2016. It is now valued at $11.25 billion and is set to clock $3 billion in gross sales by the end of the financial year in March.

As the Mobile World Congress (MWC) approaches closer, the news about Samsung’s next flagship device – the Galaxy S6 – have started coming in. According to a report in The Times of India, the Samsung Galaxy S6 is expected to be released by the end of March.

There has been no official confirmation from Samsung about this, but industry sources claim that Galaxy S6 will be unveiled at MWC which is scheduled from March 2-6 in Barcelona and will be out by March end.

Samsung hasn’t had a great 2014, as it saw a 23.2% drop in its annual net profit numbers. The Galaxy S5 did not perform as well as Samsung would have expected and in order to make up for it, Samsung announced its metal-bodied Galaxy Alpha series as well as theGalaxy A series of phones.

As far as other specs of the Galaxy S6 are concerned, it was reported that the smartphone will have an Ultra HD 4k display, 4GB RAM and a 20MP camera. An initial specs list for S6 reveals that the phone may have a 5.3-inch 4K AMOLED display, a 64-bit Exynos 7420 or Snapdragon 810 processor depending on the country, 5 megapixel front camera, and Broadcom’s new sensor chip.

There also has been a confusion over what chipset will be used in the Galaxy S6. Initially, Samsung was testing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, but it was found to cause over heating, which made Samsung drop the idea of using the Snapdragon 810 SoC. Qualcomm has agreed to rework the Snapdragon 810 SoC for Samsung’s flagship device.

It looks like Samsung is all set to release the Galaxy S6 with Exynos 7 and LTE. The S6 will come with Samsung’s own modem which is expected to supports Cat 10 (452.2Mbps downlink and 102Mbps uplink) whereas Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 supports Cat 9 (452.2Mbps downlink and 51Mbps uplink).

According to analysts, the Exynos 7 should enable Samsung to gain a good market share in the mobile applications processor business, which is currently ruled by Qualcomm.

Just yesterday there was a report by Phone Arena, which showed the Amazon page of case-maker Spigen which showed four cases that are specifically made for the Galaxy S6. These cases are listed on Amazon and could actually depict the ‘real’ S6 itself inside. The report also pointed out that Spigen previously revealed the designs of other unannounced (at the time) handsets, including the LG G3, the HTC One (M8), and the Google Nexus 5.

Sony plans to cut around 1,000 additional jobs in its struggling smartphone division as it tries to bring its electronics business back into the black, sources said on Wednesday.

Sony, which has cut its earnings forecasts six times on Hirai's watch, has forecast a 230 billion yen ($1.95 billion) net loss for the business year to March, suspending dividend payments for the first time amid weakness in smartphones.

The cuts would be in addition to the 1,000 jobs Sony already said it would eliminate in its mobile unit, the sources said.

The Nikkei business daily earlier reported that such job cuts would mostly come from Europe and China. The cuts will be announced when Sony reports its latest business results on February 4, the report said.

That would mean Sony's mobile division workforce will shrink by about 30% to 5,000 by the end of the fiscal year ending March 2016.

The company has struggled to gain market share in high-end smartphones, lagging far behind Apple and Samsung Electronics.

A spokeswoman declined to comment beyond reiterating the company's plans to announce a new, medium-term business plan including restructuring by the end of the fiscal year ending in March.

Yesterday, the Chinese startup, OnePlus posted a very interesting teaser on their Chinese Weibo account. If you missed it, the teaser was simply an image of the periodic table along with their now infamous tagline “Never Settle”. Along with the image, OnePlus asked its fans to check back tomorrow to find out what was going on. This immediately sent the rumor mill into overdrive. A number of reports were beginning to suggest that a new back cover for the device might be about to land. Possibly, one made out of metal or something. Following on from this, the company sent out a Google+ post earlier today with another teaser saying “Back to Basics”.
Well, the time has come and we have just heard the teaser had nothing to do with a case at all. In fact, it seems the the teaser was about their new self-built OS. As you will know, OnePlus One’s come with Cyanogen, but due to an issue they had with releasing their device in India, OnePlus and Cyanogen had a bit of a falling out. Since then, it has become clear that going forward, OnePlus devices were becoming less likely to be running Cyanogen. This seemed even more apparent, when we reported a couple of days ago about OnePlus Ones turning up in the U.S. without Cyanogen branding on them.
In terms of today’s news, OnePlus are just confirming the introduction of their first full and finished operating system. The big headline will be the name of the OS. If you remember, OnePlus launched a competition awhile back asking users to suggest a name and it looks the name they have opted for is ‘Oxygen OS’. This is where the teaser from this morning’s periodic table comes in. According to OnePlus “Oxygen is all around us. It’s part of us and everything we do. It creates the water that carves out valleys and moves mountains. By itself, it’s simple and pure—a fundamental building block. But, as a part of something greater, it can do amazing things. Just like us“. So there you go. The new OnePlus operating system is here. What do you think of Oxygen OS? Let us know.

It looks like Samsung is in the process of slimming down its TouchWiz smartphone software and optimising it for its upcoming flagship smartphone, Galaxy S6.

Samsung is removing all add-on features that can be downloaded as apps and making the system software as light as possible according to a report by SamMobile.

While it's not clear what features and apps will be removed, it's possible that apps such as Story Album, S Translator, or S Voice assistant will be made optional downloads, as speculated by the website.

Samsung's TouchWiz software has received brickbats from users and reviewers alike for its bloatware and lag ridden user interface.

The removal of additional apps and optimization of the code are expected to make Samsung's upcoming phone faster by eliminating lag and stutter, and give users more storage space for their own content.

Earlier, a report by Business Korea had also suggested that Samsung was getting rid of unnecessary features and simplifying the UI of its system software, making it as fast and smooth as stock Android on Google's Nexus 6.

The Delhi Transport Department has asked Uber to resubmit its application for a radio taxi licence in Delhi after changing the company's status as a transport provider from a technology company.

San Francisco-based Uber had last week applied for a radio taxi licence in New Delhi by forming a separate subsidiary in India. "We have asked them to change the subsidiary's mode of operations to a transport provider. Only then can we accept the application under our laws," a senior transport department official told ET.

As per officials, Uber will have to change the memorandum of association (MoA) of the newly formed company and resubmit the application to Delhi government, if it wants to restart operations. It will delay the grant of a licence by few weeks, as Ministry of Corporate Affairs has to be informed about change in MoA of any private limited company.

"There have been some issues in applications of each of the new applicant. In one of the applications, the registered address mentioned is not correct. We have asked them to re-submit applications," said the senior official.

An Uber official said that the company was yet to receive any information from the government on the same. As per sources, Uber, Ola, TaxiForSure, NTL Call Taxi have applied for a radio taxi licence in Delhi under the modified scheme. The web-based taxi services were banned in the Indian Capital, last month, after rape of a finance professional by one of the registered drivers with Uber.

According to senior officials, as per current law, even if licence was granted the cabs will have to ply with a fixed meter. "A mobile phone is not accepted as a calibrated meter by the State Transport Authority (STA) under current rules," said a STA official.

Microsoft didn't use skydivers or stunt cyclists to introduce what it hopes will be the next big leap in computing technology. Instead, with its new HoloLens headset, the company is offering real-world examples to show how you might use three-dimensional digital images -- or holograms -- in daily life.

And that might be what it takes to get people to buy a computer they wear on their face.

I got a brief peek at what wearing the HoloLens could be like in different scenarios: performing a simple home repair, pretending to be a scientist studying the surface of Mars and exploring a colorful, animated game that added new dimensions to an unremarkable room.

Microsoft unveiled HoloLens at its headquarters this week, on the same day the company touted its upcoming Wind14LF6TqS88VvaVuoVS8Uadx5Be511ovY4gkHOXTisLpWzkVnZYw7gMIgdxW8XcSWiy1bsp6VuGC0GtGkBSutGL4kDYJyJQ9WHNfcIza0B3OPJB07SD6j3TjIAgbBxWq4EZyo2o8lx8fkhVKUZkKxtlcfVEAHPaQqy0mT5IECc4JhcnQuFIRy8iMchhPaFMmNF1ZLa0MAcYj8hGNvZ7w7wqC0US5sbdiiixu3LHYto0VotjSCA4d6dpSrLQBsa2e5Z6nY3TkrKyUDJnK67ySsKAdHxPetJYzNNse6B3CCs4xpGGJ3EY4LQWfBrTows 10 software release. What I saw of the device seems unfinished, but it shows potential.

A crowded field
Some of the world's biggest tech companies are working on wearable devices that aim to create realistic, three-dimensional representations of alien worlds or imaginary creatures.

Google's computerized eyewear, Glass, isn't technically a virtual-reality device, but it shows the challenges of winning consumer acceptance. Google introduced Glass in 2012 with a Vegas-style stunt that included mountain bikes and skydivers landing on the roof of a convention center. Last week, it suspended consumer sales after many people balked at the notion of wearing a digital camera and internet-connected device on their head.

Meanwhile, Google has invested in a secretive start-up, Magic Leap, that's working on virtual reality. Samsung and Oculus VR -- which Facebook bought for $2 billion last year -- are developing gaming headsets that essentially block the wearer's view and replace it with an imaginary world. Smaller companies have developed headsets for industrial or business uses.

Microsoft's HoloLens was built by engineers who created the Kinect motion-sensing system for Xbox games. It projects a realistic image on a screen in front of your eyes, but the screen is transparent, so you can still see what's in front of you. The holograms respond to gestures and spoken commands, detected by cameras and other sensors in the device.

Walking on Mars
The most striking demonstration involved a project in which Microsoft partnered with scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They've created a vividly realistic, three-dimensional landscape by knitting together photographs and data collected by NASA's Curiosity rover.

When I moved my head, the landscape shifted as if I was actually walking on the planet. I peered under a rock outcropping. I was joined by a digital avatar, playing the part of a JPL scientist. We spoke and used hand gestures to place digital markers on different rocks, in an exercise simulating how scientists might use the system to direct the rover's exploration.

A more whimsical demonstration involved the Microsoft-owned "Minecraft" game. In a small living room, the HoloLens projected three-dimensional structures and animated creatures on an actual coffee table. I summoned imaginary tools and blasted a simulated hole in the room's actual wall -- and was surprised to see cartoon bats fly out.

But another exercise brought home how useful the gadget might be. I was guided through the process of installing an electric light switch. I saw a woman who showed me a series of sketches and talked me through each step. She was working in real time in another room, drawing sketches on a tablet computer and using Skype to talk with me. I could see the sketches, super-imposed over an actual wall outlet and protruding wires, while her face appeared to one side.

What's the potential?
Microsoft engineer Alex Kipman said the company has built programming tools so outside developers can use Windows 10 to create more holographic apps. Kipman called HoloLens "the next step" in moving "beyond today's digital borders." Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said virtual reality will be the next major wave in computing and communications.

Microsoft executives talked about other uses - from helping a surgeon learn a new operating technique to designing objects for 3D printers. I could also see applications in the kitchen, classrooms and retail shops.

But it's not yet clear when HoloLens will be out, or how much it will cost. While executives showed off a sleek prototype, they used a heavier, clunkier version for up-close demonstrations. It had cumbersome straps, wires and extra gear stowed in a pouch around the wearer's neck.

Still, if Microsoft can produce a working product at a reasonable price, it might help move computing to another level.

Just three weeks after announcing the acquisition of Zip Phone, India-based messaging appHike has updated its Android app with a voice-calling feature. When Hike bought Y Combinator-backed Zip Phone, which allows users to make Wi-Fi-enabled phone calls, CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal said that it would allow the company to add free voice-calling, one of its most requested features from users, much more quickly.

Its latest Android update means that Hike has managed to add a voice-calling feature before Facebook-owned WhatsApp, which is significant because WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in India, with over 70 million monthly active users, or about 10 percent of its global user base.

WhatsApp has promised to add voice-calling features by early 2015, but it’s still unclear when exactly it will be available. A folder recently spotted in the latest build of WhatsApp, however, indicates that voice-calling—which is already available in competitors Viber, LINE, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat, in addition to Hike—may be coming soon.

The company said it will add voice-calling to its iOS and Windows Phone apps by the end of this quarter. Android users account for over 90 percent of Hike’s users.

Like other Hike features, including free SMS credits for featurephones, its voice-calling feature is designed to be data-efficient since data plans are relatively costly in India. Hike claims “our users can pack in many more minutes per MB when calling on Hike.”

Hike says it currently has over 35 million users, with 90 percent currently residing in India. The company has raised $86 million from Tiger Global and BSB, a joint venture between Bharti Group and Japan’s Softbank.

It seems Nintendo's world-famous plumber will soon have his adventure in a slightly different way.

A team of researchers at the University of Tubingen, Germany, have created an artificial intelligence project that allows Mario to respond to commands and make decisions based on given instructions.

The AI project mainly depends on voice recognition and uses Carnegie Mellon's speech recognition toolkit. Based on what he knows and understanding the phrases from the toolkit, Mario takes his action.

For instance, Mario is able to learn the outcome of jumping on a Goomba after being told or learning it on his own. When Mario is "hungry", he will seek out coins and when he is curious, he will explore the environment.

Also, he can plan his actions in advance. When asked to reach a location, Mario, calculates his moves including the number of jumps and the direction.

Mario the Plumber, is one of the most iconic video game characters, helping Nintendo maintain its status as top video game maker over two decades, from the era of 8-bit games to the current age of high-definition games. The character has undergone several iterations but has not lost its charm among its loyal followers across the world.

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter has begun rolling out new group chat and video features as it worked to ramp up use of the one-to-many messaging service.

"Private conversations on Twitter are a great complement to the largely public experience on the platform," product director Jinen Kamdar, whose handle is @jinen, said in an online post.

"The group function lets you start conversations with any of your followers and they don't all need to follow one another in order to chat."

Twitter allows users to send direct messages to one another; the new feature expands that capability to allow shared exchanges involving as many as 20 people, according to Kamdar.

The Twitter application for smartphones has also been modified to allow people to easily capture, edit and share videos.

The new feature allows for sharing of videos 30-seconds or less in length.

"In just a few taps you can add a video to unfolding conversations, share your perspective of a live event, and show your everyday moments instantly, without ever having to leave the app," Kamdar said.

Twitter's application for iPhones will also let people upload video from camera rolls on devices, and that capability is to be available soon on Android-powered smartphones.

The new features will roll out to all Twitter users in coming weeks. Twitter last week updated its feeds to give users a recap of tweets missed while not connected to the messaging platform. The service last week also announced a partnership with Microsoft Bing to translate tweets in some 40 'language pairs.'

The enhancements come with Twitter seeking to boost engagement with users amid growth which has been slower than some analysts expected.

In October, Twitter said the number of monthly users grew 23% from a year earlier to 284 million.

A Pew Research Center report showed that among US users, Twitter is behind Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Instagram in the number of users.

The San Francisco-based firm has seen its stock buffeted by worry that it isn't growing robustly enough in terms of numbers of users and the amount of time spent at the service.

BENGALURU: IBM is expected to lay off a few thousand people in India in the coming months as the company moves towards newer technologies such as cloud computing and mobile and as it seeks to deal with dropping revenues and growing margin pressures.

Multiple sources put the likely figure in India at about 5,000 employees, though they also said many of these could be replaced by contract staff. This will help margins, and facilitate just-in-time hiring in the current volatile market.

IBM did not respond to questions about this from TOI till late Tuesday evening.

On Monday, Forbes carried an article by Silicon Valley technology columnist Robert Cringely who said that IBM was planning a transformation project - code named Project Chrome -- that would reduce its global workforce by 26% or 1.12 lakh employees. IBM responded in an email to news agency Reuters that the company had "just taken a $600 million charge for workforce rebalancing" and this equated to job cuts of "several thousand employees, a small fraction of what's been reported (by Forbes)." Most analysts have also dismissed the possibility of a layoff on the scale reported by Cringely.

READ ALSO: After announcing layoffs affecting "several thousand people", IBM denies report

India accounts for about 1.3 lakh employees out of IBM's total workforce of over 4 lakh, and for that reason will likely to have to bear a significant burden of the layoffs. IBM spends over $150 million annually to hire contract IT staff. Contract hiring provides quick access to skilled technical resources and is a cost-effective alternative to supplement existing IT staff without incurring recruitment or training costs.

"There is a strong movement towards contract staffing based on future business dynamics. Companies want to hire project-based staff rather than have permanent employees on their rolls," said Ajit Isaac, chairman and MD of Ikya Global. Four big HR staffing firms -- Web Development Company (part of Manpower Group), Magna Infotech, Artech Infosystems and Collabera -- supply close to 7,000-8,000 people to IBM annually, said sources.

Over the past decade, IBM has hired frenetically in India, making it the company's largest operation, even as it has reduced its US headcount from 1. 33 lakh in 2005 to 83,000 last year. India is the company's core services delivery engine.

IBM's global revenues have dropped for eleven successive quarters. The $93-billion company is focusing on newer digital imperatives like cloud, mobility and analytics. "Previously there was higher tolerance towards mediocre skillsets. That's not something companies want to live with. They want employees to be flexible and take on lateral roles. Many companies hired aggressively in the past and now they are sitting on huge manpower that's not scalable or flexible," said Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder of TeamLease.