Apple’s Q4 2023 performance in India paints a picture of strong measured progress in a crucial growth market….reports Asian Lite News
Riding on the premiumisation trend in India, iPhones grew 28 per cent from 4 per cent market share in 2022 to more than 6 per cent in 2023, according to latest industry data.
In the fourth quarter of 2023 alone, iPhone shipments saw seven per cent growth in India, according to CMR data accessed by IANS.
Apple’s Q4 2023 performance in India paints a picture of strong measured progress in a crucial growth market.
“The 28 per cent YoY growth in iPhone shipments in 2023 underlines Apple’s long-term growth potential in India. I believe India will power Apple’s growth over the next decade, just like China did in the previous one,” said Prabhu Ram, Head, Industry Intelligence Group at CMR.
The iPhone 15 grew on the back of the rising premiumization trend in India.
“The continued significance of older generation iPhones, including the iPhone 14 and 13 series underscores the effectiveness of Apple’s affordability initiatives and targeted retail strategies in appealing to a broader spectrum of Indian consumers, contributing to the overall growth,” Ram told IANS.
As India doubles down on local manufacturing, Apple assembled iPhones worth more than Rs 1 lakh crore in India in 2023, according to industry data.
However, according to industry sources, the actual market value of the iPhones manufactured/assembled in India could be much higher, depending on taxes in other countries.
Apple’s manufacturing in India is part of the goals set under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.
Led by Apple, India is set to cross $15 billion (over Rs 1,24,000 crore) in mobile phone exports in the current fiscal year (FY24), posting a growth of 35 per cent over the last fiscal year.
Apple’s revenue in India hit nearly Rs 50,000 crore in FY23, with sales increasing 48 per cent to Rs 49,321 crore and net profit rising 76 per cent to Rs 2,229 crore — fastest growth of net profit for Apple in India in the last five years.
The design facilitates a wide range of content creation tasks and video editing applications, including image-to-video, video inpainting, and stylised generation…reports Asian Lite News
Google has introduced a new video generation AI model called Lumiere that uses a new diffusion model called Space-Time-U-Net, or STUNet. Lumiere creates 5-second videos in one process instead of putting smaller still frames together.
This technology figures out where things are in a video (space) and how they simultaneously move and change (time).
“We introduce Lumiere — a text-to-video diffusion model designed for synthesising videos that portray realistic, diverse and coherent motion — a pivotal challenge in video synthesis,” said Google researchers in a paper.
“We introduce a Space-Time U-Net architecture that generates the entire temporal duration of the video at once, through a single pass in the model,” they wrote.
The design facilitates a wide range of content creation tasks and video editing applications, including image-to-video, video inpainting, and stylised generation.
Lumiere can perform text-to-video generation, convert still images into videos, generate videos in specific styles using a reference image, apply consistent video editing using text-based prompts and create cinemagraphs by animating specific regions of an image.
The Google researchers said that the AI model outputs five-second-long 1024×1024 pixel videos, which they describe as “low-resolution.”
Lumiere also generates 80 frames compared to 25 frames from Stable Video Diffusion.
“There is a risk of misuse for creating fake or harmful content with our technology, and we believe that it is crucial to develop and apply tools for detecting biases and malicious use cases to ensure a safe and fair use,” said the paper authors.
The 12 startup business plans covered a variety of verticals, including AI safety, AI for health, AI for social good, and more.
The inaugural Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) Entrepreneurship Courses concluded with 12 AI-based startup business plans presented at an on-campus event in Masdar City.
22 students gained the entrepreneurial skills, tools, and networks needed to commercialise their AI solutions in the UAE, and three startups were fast-tracked for financial grants from MBZUAI.
Jointly launched by MBZUAI’s Incubation and Entrepreneurship Centre (MIEC) and startAD, the Abu Dhabi-based startup accelerator powered by Tamkeen and anchored at NYU Abu Dhabi, the programme aims to boost the AI startup ecosystem in Abu Dhabi.
The top three AI-assisted technologies and applications are Audiomatic, which provides automatic and emotionally intelligent audio production for video content, including customised scores, sound effects, and narrations; Limb, an application providing accessible physiotherapy information such as exercise correction and pain management features; and Momzo, a complete AI assistant for women’s maternity to motherhood powered by generative AI.
“These are the first AI-focused entrepreneurship courses at the university and in the UAE and come on the eve of an expected AI startup boom led by generative AI,” MBZUAI’s Vice President of Public Affairs and Alumni Relations Sultan Al Hajji said.
He added, “The entrepreneurship courses actively encourage students to take advantage of the favourable entrepreneurial environment in Abu Dhabi and ignite the potential to transform their research and engineering know-how into a business. The startup pitches highlight specific-industry and application-use cases and have the potential to make a significant impact on society with their bold, sophisticated, and innovative concepts.”
Managing Director of startAD Ramesh Jagannathan said, “The MBZUAI IEC programme immersed AI innovators in the exciting world of innovation and entrepreneurship, where they learned to apply business literacy heuristics to their ideas. According to an Accenture Report, AI will add $182 billion in annual gross value to the UAE’s economy by 2035. These startup projects demonstrate high potential and are poised to strengthen the UAE’s knowledge economy.”
The 22 graduates represent more than ten nationalities, with 41% being women. All participants graduated from the intensive five-week entrepreneurship courses, which included eight workshops and three community engagement events covering topics such as idea generation, market discovery, prototyping, and pitching.
The 12 startup business plans covered a variety of verticals, including AI safety, AI for health, AI for social good, and more.
The top three pitches were named by a panel of expert judges, including Jean-Luc Scherer, business incubation expert and advisor at Sandooq Al Watan; Mariam Al Badr, director of outreach at Khalifa Fund; Dr. Ramzi Ben Ouaghrem, director of research development and engagement at MBZUAI; Michael Huang, acting director of strategy and IEQA at MBZUAI; and Selim Tira, investment representative at Shorooq Partners.
Despite registering a profit of $1.3 billion last quarter, eBay said that there is a “need for change.”..reports Asian Lite News
E-commerce platform eBay is sacking around 1,000 employees, or 9 per cent of its full-time workforce, and the company will also lay off an unspecified number of contractors “over the coming months.”
Despite registering a profit of $1.3 billion last quarter, eBay said that there is a “need for change.”
“Our strategy is the right one, but there is more we can do to ensure our success. We need to better organise our teams for speed – allowing us to be more nimble, bring like-work together, and help us make decisions more quickly,” said Jamie Iannone, President and CEO, eBay.
He announced to reduce the current workforce by approximately 1,000 roles or an estimated 9 per cent of full-time employees.
“Additionally, we plan to scale back the number of contracts we have within our alternate workforce over the coming months,” the CEO said in an internal memo late on Tuesday.
The company is implementing organisational changes that align and consolidate certain teams to improve the end-to-end experience, and “better meet the needs of our customers around the world”.
“Leaders will communicate the news (of layoffs) directly via Zoom, and your VP or eLT member will send an email once the notifications in their group have been completed,” the company informed.
eBay asked all US employees to work from home on January 24 “to provide some space and privacy for these conversations”.
“We’re committed to treating everyone with respect and empathy through this transition and providing impacted employees with support and resources,” said the CEO.
eBay said it hired too quickly. “While we are making progress against our strategy, our overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business,” said Iannone.
The job cuts happened mostly in the sales and advertising division…reports Asian Lite News
Chinese short-video making app TikTok has joined the Big Tech layoffs, asking a certain number of employees to go to reduce costs.
The job cuts happened mostly in the sales and advertising division, according to a company spokesperson.
The affected employees worked in Los Angeles, New York, Austin and some at global locations, reports NPR, which said 60 employees were being asked to go.
However, other reports mentioned “at least” 100 workers were laid off at TikTok.
TikTok was set to organise a town-hall meeting in the wake of the layoff announcement, the report mentioned.
TikTok has about 7,000 employees in the US, and has more than 150 million active users in the country.
The move follows a string of job cuts from other tech companies this year, including Google, Amazon, Unity, and Discord.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has reportedly warned employees to brace themselves for more job cuts this year.
YouTube is also reportedly laying off at least 100 employees from its creator management and operations teams.
Nearly 62 tech companies have laid off more than 10,000 employees this year.
Tech companies, including startups, around the world fired more than 425,000 employees in 2022 and 2023, with more than 36,000 employees being sacked in India in the same time frame.
The Asia-Pacific region also saw quite a slump, with investment falling to $18.8 billion in Q4 — the lowest level since Q1 2017…reports Asian Lite News
Global VC investment sank to $344 billion across 37,808 deals in 2023 from $531.4 billion across 51,894 deals in 2022 amid geopolitical, macro-economic and other challenges like high interest rates and inflation, a parched exit environment, and ongoing concerns related to startup valuations.
The Americas accounted for more than half of VC investment this year ($183.6 billion), while the Asia-Pacific region attracted $92.4 billion, and Europe $62.3 billion, according to the KPMG Private Enterprise’s ‘Venture Pulse’ report.
The fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023 was a particularly soft quarter for the VC market, with global investment falling to $74.9 billion across 7,572 deals — the lowest levels since Q3 2016, respectively.
The Asia-Pacific region also saw quite a slump, with investment falling to $18.8 billion in Q4 — the lowest level since Q1 2017, said the report.
“The Indian economy is quite strong — capital markets at an all-time high, favourable demographics, strong GDP and a stable and active central government. However, the VC investments in the last few quarters have been muted as compared to quarters before,” said Nitish Poddar, Partner and National Leader, Private Equity, KPMG in India.
“This is not an indication of slow-down but the post Covid-19 euphoria dying down where there was excess money supply in the system.
“With expected easing of interest rates, I am very confident that there will be a strong bounce back in the VC investments in the country,” Poddar added.
As VC investors globally continued to pressure their portfolio companies to reduce costs and enhance their focus on profitability, both VC investment and deal speed slowed significantly.
The one major light in an otherwise dim quarter was artificial intelligence (AI) where investments were incredibly frothy as investor interest accelerated.
AI-focused startups accounted for three of the $1 billion+ funding rounds this quarter. “The exit values in 2021 for VC-backed companies stood at a massive $1.5 trillion.
Since then, exits have faltered — with only $225 billion in exit value this year,” said Conor Moore, Global Head, KPMG Private Enterprise, KPMG International.
In the US, AI-focused companies attracted six of the 10 largest VC deals of the quarter. Europe also saw three very large AI deals. “AI will likely remain one of the most attractive areas of VC investment well into the year, while M&A activity could see some pick-up as opportunistic buyers look for bargains,” said the report.
Sriharikota : ISROs LVM3 at the launch pad, ahead of the launch of 36 satellites on Saturday, October 15, 2022. (Photo:IANS/ISRO Twitter)
The Indian space agency and NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL) , the commercial arm of Department of Space, have begun the work to make the LVM3 under PPP mode….reports Asian Lite News
After its two rockets — Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) – the Indian space agency is now looking at making its heaviest rocket LVM3 under the public-private-partnership (PPP) model.
The LVM3 is Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) heaviest rocket with a maximum carrying capacity of four ton to Geo Transfer Orbit (GTO) and eight ton to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
The Indian space agency and NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL) , the commercial arm of Department of Space, have begun the work to make the LVM3 under PPP mode.
A stakeholder meeting was recently held by NSIL and ISRO in which representatives from over 30 companies participated.
In 2022, NSIL had engaged Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd-Larsen and Toubro Ltd consortium to make five numbers of PSLV rockets.
Last year, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) had issued an Expression of Interest (EoI) for making ISRO’s small rocket SSLV.
The status of the EoI for SSLV is not known till now.
And now, ISRO has started preparations for making LVM3 under PPP mode.
NSIL has engaged the services of IIFCL Projects Limited (IPL) to explore the potential PPP partnership options for LVM3 production through Indian industry.
According to NSIL, the need for PPP mode of partnership with Indian industry for realising more numbers of LVM3 to meet the global launch service demand is essential to stay competitive and relevant in the market.
Towards this effort of NSIL and ISRO, Indian industries should come forward and become the risk sharing and investment partner as part of the programme, the company said.
Global launch service market assessment for the decade clearly indicates that there is enough demand for launching communication satellites in GTO and satellites for mega constellations in LEO.
LVM3 has a great potential and opportunity to capture this niche global launch service market in the coming years, NSIL said.
It is heartening to see that the Galaxy S24 Ultra with a 6.8-inch flatter display has turned its focus back on the phone’s most fundamental role: communication…reports Asian Lite News
Artificial intelligence (AI) is here and when it comes to devices around us, the role of this new technology to boost productivity, creativity and overall daily-life experiences is now being explored by various original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). For the record, Samsung has taken a leap with its new ‘Galaxy AI phones’.
From breaking language barriers with AI-driven text and call translations to maximising creativity with its ‘ProVisual Engine’ that comes with AI-powered tools for images, the new Galaxy S24 Ultra has gone beyond incremental changes we have been witnessing in premium smartphones lately.
With the gesture-driven ‘Circle to Search’ feature with Google, the company has transformed the way online searches for shopping, travel and other tasks are done.
It is heartening to see that the Galaxy S24 Ultra with a 6.8-inch flatter display has turned its focus back on the phone’s most fundamental role: communication.
With the ‘Live Translate’ feature, you can chat with another student or colleague from abroad without any language concern.
You can book an Uber or a dinner reservation at your favourite restaurant while on vacation in another country where language can be a problem.
The ‘Live Translate’ is a two-way, real-time voice and text translations of phone calls within the native app. No third-party apps are required, and on-device AI keeps conversations completely private, according to Samsung.
Galaxy S24 series marks a milestone in the history of search as the first phone to debut intuitive, gesture-driven ‘Circle to Search’ with Google.
With a long press on the home button, you can circle, highlight, scribble on or tap anything on Galaxy S24 Ultra’s screen to see helpful, high-quality search results.
If you see a friend wearing a stunning jacket, you can just focus on the jacket, use the ‘Circle to Search’ feature and the AI-driven search will offer multiple options when to buy that jacket from online, without having to leave the app.
Depending on your location, for certain searches, generative AI-powered overviews can provide helpful information and context pulled together from across the web, and you can ask more complex and nuanced questions.
With the ‘Interpreter’ feature, live conversations can be instantly translated on a split-screen view so people standing opposite each other can read a text transcription of what the other person has said. The feature even works without cellular data or Wi-Fi.
For messages and other apps, the ‘Chat Assist’ feature can help perfect conversational tones to ensure communication sounds as it was intended: like a polite message to a coworker or a short and catchy phrase for a social media caption.
AI built into Samsung Keyboard can also translate messages in real time in 13 languages.
The Indian organisations will also get a big boost with ‘Note Assist’ in Samsung Notes, featuring AI-generated summaries, template creation that streamlines notes with pre-made formats and cover creation to make notes easy to spot with a brief preview.
For voice recordings, when there are multiple speakers, the ‘Transcript Assist’ feature uses AI and speech-to-text technology to transcribe, summarise and even translate recordings.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform. The device offers superior usability and faster and smoother gameplay, alongside the Ray tracing module for a more immersive gaming experience.
Galaxy S24 Ultra design utilised titanium for the first time for a premium feel and enhanced durability. The thinnest model yet, the device features a flat front edge display compatible with the S Pen and a more vivid and durable screen with even bezels.
Now comes to the camera. The ‘ProVisual Engine’ is a comprehensive suite of AI-powered tools that transforms image capturing abilities and maximises creative freedom, taking care of shaky, pixelated images taken from far away.
Galaxy S24 Ultra’s Quad Tele System, with new 5x optical zoom lens, works with the 50MP sensor to enable optical-quality performance at zoom levels from 2x, 3x, 5x to 10×10 magnification, thanks to Adaptive Pixel Sensor. Images also show crystal clear results at 100x with enhanced digital zoom.
With upgraded Nightography capabilities, you will find that photos and videos shot on Galaxy S24 Ultra’s Space Zoom are brilliant in any condition, even when zoomed in.
You will also be able to capture more light in dim conditions with Galaxy S24 Ultra’s larger pixel size, now 1.4 micrometre, which is 60 per cent bigger compared to S23 Ultra.
Blur is reduced on Galaxy S24 Ultra with wider optical image stabiliser (OIS) angles and enhanced hand-shake compensation.
When recording videos, both front and rear cameras are equipped with ‘Dedicated ISP Block’ for noise reduction.
To give you even more creative freedom, ‘Generative Edit’ can fill in parts of an image background with generative AI.
When a picture is crooked, AI will fill in the borders. When an object needs to be slightly moved to be in the perfect position, AI will let you adjust the position of the subject and generate a perfectly blended background in its original spot.
For gamers, Galaxy S24 Ultra offers an optimal thermal control system with a 1.9 times larger vapour chamber, improving device surface temperature.
The Corning Gorilla Armor display is optically enhanced and demonstrates superior durability against damage caused by everyday scratches.
In India, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra in Titanium Gray, Titanium Violet and Titanium Black colours starts from Rs 129,999 (12GB+256GB variant).
The 12GB+512GB variant costs Rs 139,999 and 12GB+1TB model of Galaxy S24 Ultra will come at Rs 159,999.
In India, customers pre-booking Galaxy S24 Ultra get benefits worth Rs 22,000 and the effective price can go pretty low with device upgrade and other offers.
Conclusion: In a saturated smartphone market, Galaxy S24 Ultra promises fresh air, with practical, real-life use cases of AI that will make your life easy.
Remember: The primary use of a smartphone is to communicate and Galaxy S24 Ultra does exactly that with the help of AI, in a much smarter way.
Thadimarri has been elevated to executive management team with additional responsibility of treasury, corporate finance, and corporate audit…reports Asian Lite News
Homegrown B2B e-commerce platform Udaan has seen another top-level exit as its Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Aditya Pande who has decided to pursue opportunities outside of the company after three years.
The CFO’s role will now be taken care of by Kiran Thadimarri, Group Finance Controller, and Vishnu Menon, who heads corporate strategy and investor relations (IR), the company said on Monday.
“I would like to thank Pande for his invaluable contribution to the organisation and wish him the very best in his future endeavours,” said Vaibhav Gupta, CEO and co-founder, Udaan.
Thadimarri has been elevated to executive management team with additional responsibility of treasury, corporate finance, and corporate audit.
Menon will take on the additional responsibility of business finance, as part of the organisational changes.
“Both Kiran and Vishnu will work towards further strengthening the financial and governance practices at Udaan with the objective of enabling the company to achieve operational profitability and public market readiness in the next 12-18 months,” the company said in a statement.
In September last year, the startup’s Chief Business Officer (CBO) Vivek Gupta and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Gaurav Bhalotia had left as the company merged its essentials business with the discretionary business.
Udaan’s valuation has dropped by nearly half to around $1.8 billion in a down round. The Bengaluru-based startup was last valued at $3.2 billion in January 2021, according to latest reports.
Last month, the B2B e-commerce platform raised $340 million (a mix of equity and convertible notes) in a Series E round led by UK-based savings and investment firm M&G Prudential, and participated by existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global.
The fresh funding “enables our continued journey of growth and profitability, positioning us well to be public-market ready in the next 12-18 months”, said Gupta.
In the same month, Udaan had laid off more than 100 employees as part of a restructuring exercise.
This imperative move by InterGlobe is to strengthen its current leadership team as it moves ahead with its ambitious and diversified global plans…reports Asian Lite News
InterGlobe Enterprises on Monday announced the appointment of Aditya Pande as its Group Chief Executive Officer, with effect from March 1, 2024.
“With the exception of IndiGo, Aditya will have overall responsibility for setting InterGlobe’s strategic agenda and to oversee and continue to strengthen the leadership of the company’s line businesses and the corporate staff functions,” said the company in a statement.
“Aditya will report to Rahul Bhatia, and all the others would, in turn, report to Aditya,” it said.
This imperative move by InterGlobe is to strengthen its current leadership team as it moves ahead with its ambitious and diversified global plans. The company official said that Aditya is a senior professional with diverse and multi-functional experience of over 25 years.
“He has held Business Strategy and Finance roles in various companies, driving operations with a focus on productivity & profitability. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer at Udaan, India’s largest B2B e-commerce company. Prior to this, he worked at IndiGo, General Electric, and Arthur Andersen. Aditya brings with him rich experience of engaging with business partners, investors, and analysts,” said the official.
On Monday, Homegrown B2B e-commerce platform Udaan has seen another top-level exit as its Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Aditya Pande who has decided to pursue opportunities outside of the company after three years.
The CFO’s role will now be taken care of by Kiran Thadimarri, Group Finance Controller, and Vishnu Menon, who heads corporate strategy and investor relations (IR), the company said on Monday.
