Micromax to offer Windows Phone smartphones later this year

Domestic handset maker Micromax has
partnered with Microsoft to offer
Windows Phone 8.1-powered
smartphones in the country.

The deal -
that was announced on Wednesday at
Microsoft's Build 2014 conference in
San Francisco - is expected to
intensify competition in the
smartphone space in India.

Microsoft Executive VP (Operating
Systems) Terry Myerson on Wednesday
said: "We are thrilled to welcome 11
new Windows Phone partners since
Mobile World Congress in February,
with the addition of Micromax and
Prestigio just announced today".
Delhi-based Micromax's revenues were
Rs. 3,168 crores for the financial
year 2012-13 and it expects to clock
revenues of $1 billion for the last
fiscal-ended March 2014. The mobile
manufacturer is expected to release
its first Windows Phone smartphone
later this year.

Micromax, which is the second largest
smartphone player in India, held about
16 percent market share in Q4 2013,
according to IDC data. Some its top-
selling models were the entry level
smartphones like A35 Bolt and A67.
Besides, the software giant has also
announced that it will offer its
Windows operating system free to
smartphone and tablet makers (for
devices with screen-sizes less than 9-
inches), a move that will help the firm
compete with Google's Android and
Apple's iOS in the fiercely competitive
smart devices market.
This offering also enables hardware
partners to provide their customers a
one-year subscription to Office 365 .

The move, though surprising, will led
to a fiercer competition in the
smartphone and tablets space,
especially in the backdrop of its plans
to acquire the handset business of
Finnish phone maker Nokia for $7.2
billion.

Microsoft's third CEO, Satya Nadella,
since his appointment in February
has been emphasising the company's
focus on mobile and cloud.

Steve Wozniak Imagines Future Apple- Google Partnership

Apple co-founder and life-size teddy
bear Steve Wozniak is again chiming in
on Apple matters. What’s on his mind
this time? How about a potential
Apple-Google partnership? In an
interview with BBC’s technology show
Click, Wozniak compliments Google’s
increasingly intelligent search engine—

its speech recognition technology in
particular—saying Apple would benefit
from teaming up with Google to improve
its own Siri personal assistant.
Talking about Android’s voice software,
Wozniak admits Siri is often the
inferior service, and predicts Google’s
own technology is the “future of
intelligence.”

“That is actually the future of
intelligence probably for computers
getting smarter and getting artificial
intelligence,” Wozniak said. “I wish to
God that Apple and Google were
partners in the future.”

Expanding on why he believes a
partnership would be beneficial,
Wozniak said sharing information
“would benefit everyone to develop the
best technology.” It’s a sentiment most
neutrals, and even die-hard fans,
share; a landscape where the smartest
companies share and further push
technology together.

“I wish everybody just did a lot of
cross-licensing and sharing the good
technology, all our products would be
better, we’d go further,” Wozniak said.
Wishful thinking, but something we can
all agree on. For how quickly the
market moves forward, imagine where
it would be if companies were more
willing to work together.

Over the past few years, Apple has
publicly distanced itself from relying
on Google services, most notably
dropping Google Maps. But if Woz were
in charge, “it would be pretty likely”
there’d be a partnership between Apple
and Google, though he admits there
are possible “business concerns” that
could hold the hypothetical deal back.
“One thing you’ve got to remember is a
company has always got to make
money,” Wozniak said.

'Steve always searched for fatherfigure': JOBS director

Director Joshua Michael Stern says the late Apple Inc co-founder Steve Jobs was constantly in search of a father figure. Stern has helmed forthcoming movie "JOBS", based on the life of Steve Jobs, who brings revolution with his technology. Actor Ashton Kutcher plays the lead role in the biopic. 

One key facets of Jobs' life that underlies much of the film was how he dealt with being put up for adoption by his biological parents. "Steve always searched for father figures - always felt abandoned on some level by his father," Stern said in a statement. Perhaps related to that, was Jobs' never-ending search for a creative partner he felt he could trust - be it engineering genius Steve Wozniak, investor Mike Markkula, or marketing virtuoso John Sculley, suggests Kutcher. "All three men represent different aspects of that, and somewhere along the way it didn't work out with each of them, to put it mildly. We all spend our lives looking for partners," Kutcher said. 

"As a sort of backbone of this movie, you've got a guy who wants to create something, who wants to change the world, who wants to make a difference, and is looking for the right partner to do that with," he added. "JOBS" explores Jobs' life from the keenness and self-discovery of his youth to his rise as a veritable icon that changed technology as we knew it. It chronicles his darkest days, biggest triumphs, his dreams, hopes and passions and his aspiration to change the world and question the impossible. " JOBS" is set to hit Indian theatres Aug 16.