Tag: india mobile technology

The ubiquitous nature of smartphones among students is starting to cause concerns over the potential for cheating.

In India, a new concern has arisen with regards to the use of mobile technology among students, as the risks of the spread of copies of the HSC (higher secondary school certificate) exams throughout the web continue to grow.

Officials are now considering the implementation of more strict regulations with regards to the use of mobile devices.

The hope is to reduce the use of mobile technology by students and exam supervisors throughout the examination process. Currently, there is already a regulation from the state board that bans students from carrying cell phones into the exam halls. According to a divisional board standing committee member, Uday Nare, “It is dangerous for both students and supervisors to carry mobile phones to the exam hall, as it could lead to cheating. Although we have rules to prevent it, they should be stricter.”

Equally, most exam centers have permitted mobile technology devices to be carried in as long as they are turned off.

Mithibai College, Vile Parle principal, Swapna Durve, explained that student mobile devices can be very expensive, nowadays, and the exam centers are hesitant to “take any chance by asking them keep the phones in their bags outside the classrooms. So, we ask students to switch off the phone and keep it in their pockets.”

Unfortunately, there have been problems that have arisen with this honor system based policy. On March 4, a student was caught by an exam supervisor. That student had been using a cell phone to cheat during the Vile Parle exam center’s SSC examination.

These types of issues are popping up as colleges are, understandably, not frequently willing to actually frisk the students to ensure that they are not carrying any mobile devices. The principal at the Jai Hind College in Churchgate, Jyoti Thakur, explained that “We cannot frisk students, as girl students might raise objections.”

In order to help to overcome some of the mobile technology related issues, some of the centers have now hired women staff specifically to be able to check female students for devices before they enter the exam halls.

The market in the country has belonged to that Korean manufacturer, but it is losing its grip.

Samsung is continuing to hold the lead in the cell phone segment of the mobile devices market in India, but at the same time, the Korean handset maker is starting to lose ground as it faces a growing amount of competition from rivals that are driving forward at full tilt.

Among the competitors that are moving forward in that market are Microsoft (Nokia), Karbonn, Micromax, and Lava.

CyberMedia Research (CMR) has recently released data that has stated that Samsung is currently “losing its earlier firm grip”. It has watched its share in India fall from having been 20.3 percent at the start of 2014, to reach a much lower 16.5 percent by the close of December. The firm’s data was published within its India Monthly Mobile Handsets Market Review, for last year. In the country, mobile devices increased by 4 percent to reach 257 million units more having been shipped in 2014 over the same figure for 2013.

Of all of the shipments of cell phone mobile devices, Samsung shipped 16.5 percent in India.

Microsoft (Nokia) and Micromax each shipped 13.3 percent of the total shipments. That said, CMR released a statement that indicated that “However, Samsung was seen to be losing its earlier firm grip on market, as its share of the market showed a downward trend during the year, as compared to Micromax that gained primarily in April-June 2014, but then continued to remain flat during the rest of the year.”

When the data was collected for that market for the January through March quarter, last year, Samsung had held onto a 20.3 percent share of the shipments, while Microsoft (Nokia) had 17.6 percent of the shipments, and Micromax had 11.2 percent in India.

Approximately 77 million smartphones had been shipped by Samsung last year, making up about 30 percent of the entire cell phone mobile devices market in India. That segment of devices as a whole experienced a growth of 46 percent when compared to the shipments that it had experienced the year before.