TECHNEWS

NEW DELHI:  Smartphone  sales are set to break records for the festive season this year, shrugging off the effects of a plunging  rupee , say analysts, with some even pegging online to outpace brick-and-mortar stores for the first time ever in the October-December quarter, on the back of aggressive launches and a slew of offers. Smartphone sales are expected to rise 24% in October over last year’s festive month, which is likely propel growth in the three-month period ending December, which typically contributes about a third to annual sales of companies, say analysts.  “Online is growing faster than the offline channel for  smartphones  in October. The online channel is set to grow 30% year-on-year, while offline will grow 20%. Further, there is a 10% jump in overall handset launches over last year,” Anshika Jain, a Counterpoint research analyst, told ET. The expected growth will dispel fears of some that the weakening rupee may force smartphone...

It seemed obvious that HTC was waiting for a supply of Qualcomm's hot new Snapdragon 835 processor, and so we advised anyone interested in the HTC U Ultra for its looks to hang on for a little while before spending Rs. 60,000. The HTC U11 is already here and not only is it a lot more powerful than the U Ultra, but it also costs less. With a launch price of Rs.51,990, the HTC U11 is significantly more appealing than the U Ultra was at Rs.59,990. It's also got HTC's brand new "squeezable" Edge Sense feature to set it apart. One big thing that the U11 lacks compared to the U Ultra is its secondary screen. However, this makes it slightly smaller, which a lot of people would, in fact, consider a good thing. With all of this to consider, we spent some time with the brand new U11 to figure out whether HTC has managed to get it right in round two. HTC U11 Design We liked the fact that HTC had done something completely new and different with its d...