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Mobile commerce firm finds impressive success in India

Snapdeal may soon be able to outpace its competitor, Flipkart

Snapdeal, an online retailer based in India, has been seeing strong growth over the past several months. The company is on track to compete with Flipkart, which is another online retailer that is well known throughout India. Snapdeal has been able to find success among consumers due to its focus on mobile commerce. Many people throughout India are making use of their mobile devices to shop and purchase products that they are interested in.

Snapdeal reaches the $1 billion in sales milestone a year ahead of schedule

Snapdeal CEO and founder Kunal Bahl has announced that the company has reached more than $1 billion in sales a full year ahead of its target. Initially, Snapdeal had expected to reach this milestone at some point in 2015. Competitor Flipkart has recently reaches a similar milestone, but Snapdeal is expected to outpace its competitor in terms of capital this year. Bahl suggests that Snapdeal is one of the fastest growing and most capital efficient companies in India’s mobile commerce sector.

Indian consumers show their favor for mobile commerce as smartphones become more available

Mobile Commerce - Success in IndiaConsumers throughout India are finding it more convenient to shop from their mobile devices than it is to visit a physical store. Many of these consumers typically commute to their work and home, making visiting a physical store somewhat difficult. As smartphones become more available, more people are using these devices to engage in various mobile-centric activities, including shopping. Companies like Snapdeal and Flipkart are poised to take advantage of the growing interest that consumers have when it comes to mobile commerce.

Snapdeal focuses on efficiency and convenience, much to the joy of consumers

Snapdeal was established in 2010 and has managed to grow by 500% over the past year. The company’s growth is being attributed to allowing retailers to offer their products to consumers directly. This means that Snapdeal holds no inventory itself, unlike its competitor Flipkart. Snapdeal has also adopted a focus on efficiency and convenience, two things that Indian consumers have shown a great deal of support for.

Augmented reality wearable tech assets purchased by Microsoft

In a deal that has been reported to be worth up to $150 million the Xbox maker is in even more deeply.

Microsoft is making technology news headlines with the latest rumors that have surrounded its move toward augmented reality, as claims are now being made that the company has paid as much as $150 million into the purchase of assets relating to AR and head mounted wearable technology.

It is believed that the assets were purchased by Microsoft from the Osterhout Design Group (ODG).

ODG is a technology company that creates various types of products for several markets, including consumer, military, and industrial. Microsoft had previously been in discussions to attempt to actually purchase the company, but has instead come up with the deal to purchase some of its IP, instead. The price of this acquisition is believed to be somewhere between $100 million and $150 million. It is strongly believed that augmented reality and wearable technology play a considerable role in this purchase.

This augmented reality and IP technology deal reportedly closed way back in November 2013.

At the same time, the patents were reported to have been handed over to Microsoft in January of this year. Among the patents that were reportedly snatched up by the tech giant are items described as “see-through near-eye display glasses including a partially reflective, partially transmitting optical element,” in addition to “video display modification based on sensor input for a see-through near-to-eye display.”Augmented Reality - Microsoft

By the time that this article was written, Microsoft had not released any official comments about the reports that have been made about the AR technology or the patents. Therefore, it shouldn’t be considered to be carved in stone. However, the reports were made by sources that have been very accurate in the past.

If Microsoft did, indeed, obtain these wearable technology and augmented reality assets, then there are a very broad range of different possibilities for the ways in which they could be used. While some seem to think that it could be for gaming, more specifically for future Xbox releases, others are guessing that it may mean something more comparable to Google Glass. Until something official is actually released, there will be no way of knowing for certain.