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Xiaomi Mi 3 to go for sale exclusively on Flipkart at Rs 13,999 starting July 22

Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is moving into the Indian operations with the launch of the Xiaomi Mi 3. The Xiaomi Mi 3 will be launched exclusively on Flipkart at the price of Rs 13,999.

This is the third Xiaomi smartphone to enter the Indian market, after Redmi 1S and Redmi Note priced at Rs 6,999 and Rs 9,999 respectively.

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Xiaomi Mi 3 to launch on Flipkart

Xiaomi’s flagship device, Mi 3, will go for sale first on July 22. To buy the device on Flipkart, you will have to register yourself on the Flipkart website between July 15 and July 21, confirming that you will be buying this device in July 22.

Xiaomi Mi 3 comes with high end specifications at a low price tag. It comes with a 2.3 GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and has 2 GB RAM.

This 5 inch 1080p LCD device is packed with a 13 MP camera at the rear, a dual LED flash and a 2 MP camera in the front for video calling purposes. It has 16 GB internal memory and sadly, there is no external storage slots.

It comes with Android 4.4 out of the box and has Xiaomi MIUI on the top of Android 4.4.

Buying suggestions

If you are planning to get a daily driver with a decent hardware and software specifications, Xiaomi Mi 3 is one good device to go with.

Other alternatives in the price range can be Moto G, Sony Xperia M 2 Dual. But if you are rooting for a device that can actually perform faster and better than other similar devices, Xiaomi Mi 3 is your best shot.

Success in sight for Xiaomi?

If you didn’t know, India is the third largest smartphone market, after United States of America and China. With Samsung dominating the smartphone market in India, Android is the most widely used mobile platform.

With Xiaomi’s launch, chances are that the company might see success like Motorola which recently sold 10 lakh smartphone units in India in the past five months. On the other hand, Nokia sold a relatively smaller figure of 7 lakh smartphone units.

Huga Barra, an ex-Android engineer joined Xiaomi last year and is the International Vice President of Xiaomi. Based on reports, he claims that the company isn’t expecting profits in the near future. But, considering that Android is the Indians’ favorite smartphone OS, Xiaomi Mi 3 might really find success in this new market. Also, the other two budget smartphones Redmi 1S and Redmi Note will be going for launch in the mid August and late August respectively.

Xiaomi has also setup 20 service centers in some of the biggest cities of India. There are also 2 exclusive Xiaomi centers in New Delhi and Bangalore. A 24/7 hotline is also setup.

Are you buying one? Do let us know if you’re ordering one on Flipkart. Tell us in the comments.

Link : Xiaomi Mi 3 on Flipkart

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Flipkart to sell Moto E at Rs 6999, How Motorola is playing smart

Flipkart is again the exclusive launch partner for yet another Motorola smartphone. Moto E is all set for launch on May 14 0000 hours. This time Motorola has placed the price tag really low. Moto E is available at a very cheap price of Rs 6999.

Moto E, a 4.3 inch device, is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual core Snapdragon 200 processor and a Adereno 302 GPU. It is also packed with a 5 MP camera at the back and has 4 GB internal storage. You can expand the storage till 32 GB with external storage cards.

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Also, Motorola has used the Corning Gorilla 3 glass on this latest smartphone. Also, the device has water repellent features.

Talking about the software part, the device comes out of the box with Android 4.4 KitKat. The device is a dual SIM smartphone.

Offers on Flipkart

Flipkart is offering 3 offers with the launch of Moto E.

Flat 50% offer on Transcend 8 GB memory card, flat 50% offer on Moto E cases and e-books worth Rs 1000 come prepacked with the device. You will have to download the Flipkart e-books Android app to access the e-books.

Blow at the other Indian manufacturers and sub-10000 smartphones

With the launch of Moto E, without doubt, Motorola is playing the aggressive game perfectly. It is believed that Moto E will be immensely popular among the budget smartphone buyers.

For the price tag, Moto E comes with really impressive hardware and software configurations. As for India, Android updates are pushed really slow to the users. A majority of the Android users in India are still running Gingerbread. The launch of Moto E with Android 4.4 KitKat might attract lots of Indian buyers.

Some of the other top smartphones in this price range include Lumia 520, Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2, Karbonn Titanium S5 Plus. Even Micromax’s smartphones are not priced as low as Rs 6999.

Also, Motorola is now covering all the segments of smartphone based on price – the low budget Moto E, Moto G priced a little high at Rs 12,499 and the high end Moto X at Rs 23,999.

Moto G LTE version

Also, Motorola announced a LTE version of Moto G at the London event. Moto G 4G also comes with an external SD card slot for expanding memory till 32 GB.

What’s your thought on Moto E? Do you think it will be as popular as Moto G and Moto X? Do tell us if you are buying one.

Link : Moto E on Flipkart

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Flipkart fights Amazon with Flipkart First – Free shipping and more

Flipkart is launching Flipkart First – a premium annual subscription service. It offers services like free, quick deliveries, 60 day replacement guarantee and more.

This is the first of this kind in the history of Indian e-commerce. If you are an user of Amazon, you will notice that this is exactly like Amazon Prime – a premium subscription service offered by Amazon. It offers free two day delivery service, unlimited video streaming and free access to Kindle books.

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Getting back to Flipkart First, Flipkart is yet to launch this product. A dedicated web page has already been setup for Flipkart First. There are no in depth details on when this service is launching and how much this service will cost.

Features of Flipkart First

Flipkart First is offering 5 features for now. More will be coming soon.

Flipkart First users get Free delivery on no minimum purchase, free In-a-day delivery, discounted price on Same-day delivery, 60 day replacement guarantee and higher prioritized customer support.

Similar to quick deliveries, Flipkart is limiting this service to products sold by WS Retail for now. There are no reports on whether Flipkart will bring this service to products sold by other sellers.

To get more details on Flipkart First, enter your email ID at the Flipkart First web page. You will be added to the mail list and notified when Flipkart First launches.

As an introductory offer, Flipkart is picking 75,000 users and offering 3 month free Flipkart First subscription service.

What do you think about this new service by Flipkart? Do you think you will use this? Do tell us.

Link: Flipkart First

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Flipkart launches Same-day delivery in 10 cities at Rs 200 per item

Back in January, Flipkart launched In-a-day delivery. And now, Flipkart is offering Same-day delivery in a view to deliver better services to the customers and compete with the fast growing Amazon India.

Starting from today, Flipkart’s Same-day delivery will be available for deliveries to 10 cities : Delhi, Chennai, Faridabad, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Manesar and Kolkata. Flipkart’s In-a-day delivery covers 27 cities as of now.

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Order before 12 noon and get it delivered the same day

If you place an order before 12 noon on a business day, the product will be delivered by 9 pm on the same day. As a promotional offer, Flipkart is offering Same-day delivery at just Rs 140 per item and this offer is only from April 28 to 30.

Also, Flipkart is offering Rs 5000 in Flipkart wallet if the courier partner fails to deliver the product on the same as promised. You can make this cash for future purchases at Flipkart. This cash is not refundable to your bank account.

Before you make the purchase, make sure to check if your pincode is covered by this service. Also note that only a few products by certain sellers are qualified for this service.

Similar to In-a-day delivery service, the shipment price will be collected as a part of the order and will be refunded to your Flipkart wallet if the order is not delivered as promised.

Pricing by other companies

The pricing is little high when compared with the One-day or Two-days delivery service offered by Amazon India. Amazon India offers One-day delivery at Rs 90 per order and Two-days delivery at Rs 70 per order.

On the other day, Snapdeal and Tradus are offering One-day delivery services free of charge.

Related : Comparison of One-day delivery services offered by Flipkart, Amazon India, Snapdeal and Tradus.

Link : Flipkart Same-day delivery

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Moto X selling on Flipkart at Rs 23,999

It’s official. Just like Motorola hinted, Moto X has come to India. Flipkart is the launch partner of Moto X and has begin selling the device: five colored and two wood variants of Moto X.

The five colors are Black, White, Royal Blue, Turquoise and Cherry. The two wood variants are Walnut and Teak. The plastic variants are priced at Rs 23,999 and the wood variants at Rs 25,999.

The Black and White pieces are available in stock right now, while the wood variants will be on pre-order and be delivered in the second week of April.

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Moto Maker and Moto Skip, the wearable device to easily unlock your Moto X without punching your pin/password every time, will not be available in India for now.

Flipkart will be selling only the 16 GB version of Moto X for now. The device is a single SIM variant.

They will also be offering cash on delivery (COD) and In-a-day guarantee irrespective of the payment option.

Similar to Moto G launch, Flipkart is bringing many interesting launch day offers. The three launch day offers are :

  • Rs 1000 cashback on purchase using the 6 months EMI option.
  • Flat 70% offer on Moto X cases.
  • 10 lucky winners get 100% cashback. Just like Moto G launch, the cashback will be provided in the Flipkart Wallet.

These offers will be applicable for orders placed today only.

Will Moto X launch in India be successful?

Moto X has a display of 4.7 inch. It is powered by a 1.7 GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, Adreno 320 GPU and 2 GB RAM. It comes with a 10 MP camera at the rear and a 2 MP camera at the front.

It will run Android 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box and that’s one of the selling points.

Motorola has kept the Stock UI for most part, adding a few exclusive features like ActiveDisplay, Touch Less control and Quick Capture Camera.

First, the device is too late to the Indian market. It was announced in August, 2013 in the United States.

Next, looking at the price tag, the Nexus 5 from Google costs an additional Rs 6000, but comes with better hardware. Also, Nexus devices promise latest software updates.

Nexus 4 can be a good choice too at this price.

Looking at the bright side, Google cut the price tag from the announced $550 to $399 in the United States in January, 2014. It was done to have a bigger impact at the markets outside the United States. Priced low in India, it could actually have a good impact despite the late arrival to the India markets.

Are you buying one today on Flipkart? Do tell us if you win the freebies.

Link: Moto X on Flipkart

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Moto G in India – Flipkart and Snapdeal offers

As reported earlier, Flipkart is the official launch partner of the Moto G. The device will be launched tomorrow on Flipkart.

This is the dual sim version of Moto G.

In addition to Flipkart, Snapdeal will also be selling the device. The company has already begun the process of pre-ordering the device. As per the reports, more than 1000 pre-orders were placed within 2 hours on Snapdeal.

You can still pre-order Moto G on Snapdeal at 0 INR.

Snapdeal will be shipping the device by the third week of this month, while Flipkart will be shipping the device on the same day, February 6.

Snapdeal’s offers

Snapdeal is offering 1 GB Airtel 3G data, back panel for Moto G, free 1 year accidental warranty and free 1 year support warranty.

Flipkart’s offers

Offer 1 : It is offering 500 INR offer on purchases of eBooks of 501 INR and above.

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Offer 2 : It is offering 1000 INR offer on purchases of apparel of 1001 INR or above.

Offer 3 : It is offering 70% offer on colorful Moto G shells. The Moto G shells add beauty to your Moto G.

Offer 4 : It is giving 100% cash back offer in the form of Flipkart credits. 100 random winners will be chosen and given the cash back.

Other online retailers are expected to start selling the Moto G soon.

Links : 8 GB variant on Snapdeal | 16 GB variant on Snapdeal | 8 GB variant on Flipkart for 12,499 INR | 16 GB variant on Flipkart for 13,999 INR

Are you buying a Moto G? If yes, do let us know if you win the freebies!

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Flipkart to start selling Moto G from February 5

It’s official finally. Moto G is here. It is scheduled to be available from February 5, 2014, report various blogs. It is said that Motorola won’t be selling Moto G in brick-and-mortar shops. It would be selling the Moto G only online and Flipkart looks like the official launch partner for the device.

The Moto G page on Flipkart does not mention the launch date or the price tag. But it says, ‘Buy a Moto G on the day of launch and avail incredible offers‘ For a country like India, it should be that Flipkart is bringing in some quality EMI payment options as it is the norm here.

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During the launch of Moto G in November, Google announced that Moto G would be coming to India in January. And here it is now, a month late. Maybe that’s because of the recent selling of Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion.

Talking about purchase and services, it looks like Motorola will be handling those as it is just a few days since Lenovo bought Motorola. There are no official updates on this though.

The Moto G comes with a 4.5 inch 720p display and has 1.2 GHz quad core Snapdragon 400 processor. It has 1 GB RAM and is available in two variants : 8 GB, 16 GB. It will be available with Android 4.3, Jelly Bean, straight out of the box. But a 4.4 KitKat update is promised.

Being a mid range device, the device is supposed to be priced at 15,000 INR. It is available in the United States at $179 for the 8 GB variant and $199 for the 16 GB variant.

Are you buying one? Do let us know in the comments!

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Comparing Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and Tradus One-Day Delivery Services

A few months back, Amazon announced ‘Guaranteed one-day delivery’ service and Flipkart followed suite with ‘In-a-day delivery’ service And now, here are Snapdeal and Tradus with the same.

Snapdeal’s Express Delivery and Tradus’s same day delivery services are special. They are offered for free while Flipkart and Amazon offer for additional charges.

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Here’s how the e-commerce giants differ in one-day delivery services :

Price

  1. Flipkart – 90 INR per item.
  2. Amazon – 99 per order for one-day delivery option and 79 per order for two-days delivery option.
  3. Snapdeal – Free
  4. Tradus – Free

Obviously, Snapdeal’s and Tradus’ free one-day delivery service is only for a limited time. They’ll start charging additional bucks soon.

Location

  • Flipkart – Offers in 13 cities for. Pune, Hyderabad, Delhi, Noida, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Ghazidabad, Faridabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Nagpur. Will expand to other cities soon.
  • Amazon – Offers in selected pincodes. The cities include Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune.
  • Snapdeal – Offers in Delhi and Gurgaon for now.
  • Tradus – Offers in Delhi and NCR for now. Other cities to join the list soon.

Products available

  • Flipkart – All products on Flipkart are eligible for In-a-day delivery service.
  • Amazon – All Fulfilled by Amazon products are eligible. No minimum purchase.
  • Snapdeal – As of now, only some products are eligible for this delivery option and such products are marked with an yellow tag on the website.
  • Tradus – Only on mobiles and tablets.

Cut-off time

  • Flipkart – You’ll have to place the order before 6 pm to receive the product the next day.
  • Amazon – Cut-off time is till midnight for Mumbai and Pune. The cut-off time is 3 pm for other pincodes.
  • Snapdeal – You’ll have to place the order before 1 pm.
  • Tradus – No reports on that.

Logistics used

  • Flipkart – Flipkart has it’s own logistics operation. So, it’s easy for Flipkart to ship the brought immediately.
  • Amazon – Amazon’s recently tied-up with India Post and guaranteed one-day delivery works well for Amazon too.
  • Snapdeal – Uses third party logistics to ship the product.
  • Tradus – Uses third party logistics to ship the product.

Snapdeal and Tradus are in a tough position because they’ll have to work a lot in the back-end with the third party logistics partners to make the delivery on time.

Payment options

  • Flipkart – All payment options are available, including cash on delivery (COD)
  • Amazon – All payment options are available, including COD.
  • Snapdeal – No reports on payment modes. But, my guess is that all payment options should be available.
  • Tradus – All payment options are available, including COD.

Refunds

  • Flipkart – For COD, additional delivery charge will be collected as per the order, but will be refunded to your Flipkart wallet.
  • Amazon – Automatic refund of the shipping charges if the product is not delivered as promised.
  • Tradus – No reports on refunds.

So, what do you think about Snapdeal’s and Tradus’ one-day delivery services. Will you use it?

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Flipkart finally launches a native Android app

Flipkart has finally revamped it’s Android mobile app. It was just a mobile version of the Flipkart website put as an app earlier. But this upgraded version has been built from scratch and offers a beautiful user interface. The app comes packed with almost every Flipkart feature.

The user interface is now much improved. The slider menu on the left side makes navigation easy. Easily search products in various departments, search for products using text/voice and even scan barcodes. You can also sort/filter the products based on popularity, price (low to high and high to low), and discounts.

You can also check the products’ images zoomed in, check out the user reviews and ratings.

Screenshot_2013-09-22-18-17-16 Screenshot_2013-09-22-18-17-23

You can also buy things right within the app. Payment is by Cash on Delivery, Debit/Credits cards, Net Banking and EMIs – just like the payment options on the Flipkart website. Once purchased, you can track the status of your orders right within the app. This is a big improvement.

There is something interesting that Flipkart brought in this updated Android app. You can check the details of the recently viewed products even when the network is not available.

Also, Flipkart gives you an option to share your purchases with your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social networking site friends.

Link: Flipkart on Google Play

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Flipkart to shut down Flyte and the reason is not piracy

Flipkart_Flyte_GooglePlayFlipkart’s digitial store called Flyte when launched looked like a hopeful breakthrough in India digital market. It was being touted as the piracy killer. Today Flipkart sent out emails to users that it will be shutting down Flyte. The Flyte store will be closing down on June 17.

If you are using Flipkart’s Flyte then there are two important dates to remember. First is June 17. That is the day the Flyte store will stop allows users from purchasing MP3s and books.

The next important date is August 18 when users will not even be able to download MP3s from their digital library.

I caught some tweets lamenting Flipkart’s Flyte being a victim of India’s penchant for piracy. But there are actually deeper reasons than the anecdotal idea, that India is not a market that is ready to buy their music legally. The reasons are probably a lot more old fashioned and the name of that reason is ‘competition’.

What killed Flipkart’s Flyte?

India is not really against buying music online. India is a country where people spend a lot of money on caller tunes. This is a form of buying digital music too. So why are people not lining up to make purchases on Flyte?

It is difficult to pin the exact answer as I am not privy to the inside workings of Flipkart. But selling music is not just about creating an online store. It is about working out deals with music companies and offering them lucrative revenues.

In India, the music industry is not exactly independent from the movie industry. This is because much of the mainstream popular music in India is from movies. In a way it means anyone selling music in India has to have tie-ups with the big movie producers and studio too.

Flipkart has major competition there from the likes of Apple which has recently started selling Hindi music and movies. There is competition from Google’s Play store which is also renting out latest Hindi movies. The fact that these companies are staying invested means they believe India as a market is ready to pay for online content.

This is where Flipkart simply might not have had the leverage that Google or Apple might have. It also might not have the deep pockets to stay invested in an immature digital market of India.

It is sad to see the demise of Flyte but it is probably not a case of pirates killing the pirate killer but the case of competition from bigger companies.

Special thanks to Varun Krish who tweeted about Flyte store closing down.

What are your thoughts on Flipkart’s Flyte store? Do drop in your comments.