LOGITECH FACES TRADEMARK SUIT
Financial Chronicle
Logitech International, the world’s biggest maker of computer mice, was sued for trademark infringement by ClearOne Communications, a maker of videoconferencing software.
SOLAR SEMI SETTING UP SOLAR CELL PLANT AT
Chennai/Hyderabad
Business Standard
Solar Semiconductor, a Hyderabad-based manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) modules, is setting up a solar cell plant at its
According to the company’s vice-president Ravi Surapaneni, the plant will have a capacity of 30 Mw initially and will be ramped up to 60 Mw subsequently. The solar cells manufactured here will be utilised by the company’s PV module-making plant at the
At present, Solar Semiconductor has a photovoltaic module-making capacity of 200 Mw a year, including 130 Mw at the
Solar Semiconductor is expecting the PV modules business to grow at around 30 percent annually. At present, the international price for PV modules is about $3.5 per watt and the global market for PV products is estimated to be $30 billion, Surapaneni said.
Solar Semi is among the few companies that had started operations at the
The company is also pursuing some international private equity players for raising funds to be used for the operations here, Surapaneni said, while declining to elaborate further.
He said the company was certified by Underwriters Laboratories (UL), an independent product safety certification organisation, as a high-wattage PV modules manufacturer. UL India sales and marketing director Manish Bhatnagar said the products of Solar Semiconductor have adhered to the prevailing international safety standards. The certification will allow Solar Semiconductor to access wider markets.
XEROX
Chennai
Financial Chronicle The Financial Express Business Standard
Document management company, Xerox
"For us achieving a leadership position is to have 30 percent market share by this year," Xerox
The company is banking on 'HiQ LED Technology' (High Quality Light Emitting Diode) devices developed by its parent company Fuji Xerox in partnership with Japan-based Nippon Glass, to drive it to the leadership position, he said.
Bhatnagar said the HiQ LED Technology has benefits including high image quality and controlling the colour printing costs.
"Nippon Glass has collaborated with Fuji Xerox in R and D part of the technology, which mainly helps in managing the colour consistently", he said.
He said the LED is less expensive to manufacture.
With 45 percent colour copier penetration in the South Indian market, he said the new technology allows colour printing "the way we want. South Indian market is very matured in this sector."
The price of the devices developed for the Indian market ranges from Rs four lakh for the basic model to Rs six lakh for the top end model, he said.
Commencing from Chennai, the company would launch the devices in 14 cities across the country, he said, adding "it will be followed by promotional campaigns."
RELIANCE DIGITAL PLANS OWN LABEL
Sangeetha G, Chennai
Financial Chronicle
Reliance Digital, the consumer durables arm of Reliance Retail, will launch its private label products within six months.
The store brands will be introduced in a variety of categories, including IT and telecom accessories, small kitchen appliances and consumer electronics, said Ajay Baijal, president and chief executive of Reliance Digital.
“The plan is to introduce private label products within six months, by which time we hope to attain a minimum scale of operation. In 2010, private label products will be available at the stores,” he said.
Private labels work well in categories that have a highly fragmented market and products in which customers look at prices rather than brand value, he added.
However, there are a few challenges in venturing into private labels. “When it comes to providing better prices, quantum of sales should be higher. It is riskier in products that have a higher brand presence and those which are subject to constant price erosion,” Baijal said. But, Baijal also finds opportunity in specific category products for better margins.
The company also finds the 10,000 sq ft to 40,000 sq ft-size stores as most viable among its formats and plans to have 150 such outlets over three years.
The other two formats – Express and iStore — carry more of technology products and cater to a specific group of customers, whereas large-format stores can have around 5,000 store keeping units, including consumer durables, he said.
PEOPLE SHOULD DREAM AND NOT BE AFRAID OF IT
Sulekha Nair
The Financial Express
He lives in the future. Kanwalinder Singh, senior vice-president, Qualcomm Inc, and president, Qualcomm
He is perplexed that most people in
Yet, technology was not something Singh was introduced to in classrooms or workplaces. His association with it began in rural Nangal, famous for the Bhakra Nangal dam in
Singh recalls that very early on he was a detail-oriented person and would do projects on his own. “I remember doing projects with wires lying around. I first used a computer in the ninth grade. Soon I started programming it too. I was comfortable with electronics all along.” It is not surprising then that he went on to pursue graduation in electronics and electrical communication from
When Singh’s doctorate proposal was rejected, it pushed him to work with technology firms and start his career earlier than he had envisaged. “After my masters at Bucknell, I wanted to pursue my doctorate and was all set to have a ‘Dr’ against my name but my proposal on automated software development was not approved.”
However, this proposal got the nod from the team at A&T Bell Laboratories, which had come to
After a long stint in the
When Qualcomm came along, I took up the opportunity to work through the ecosystem and also devices besides the network. The journey has been phenomenal,” he says with enthusiasm inflecting his tone. “CDMA technology then had less than 10 million subscribers and we set out to build a team and a business that grew to become extremely large. We did not envision the kind of growth that we have now. ”
Singh believes that it is his style of handpicking people for the job that has helped him to achieve high growth for the company. Extremely ambitious people attract him. “People should dream and not be afraid of it. The goal here was to get a million subscribers, which was huge then. What we told the team was: ‘No goal is big enough. You have to set incredibly large goals.’ That culture has percolated down.” He does not think that it becomes daunting for some people? “The key is to build relationships within the company and outside and also with end users and then one is working in concert with a lot of people. That is how 40 people here worked to get a one-million subscriber base.”
Singh is now looking to introduce gadgets into the marketplace that make working on computers a smarter and easy choice. “Since we were building mobile devices, especially smart phones and high power devices, we invented chipsets that rival the power of those available in computers. In a mobile world, the handsets are designed for very low power consumption. A person must be able to carry it the whole day and the battery should last. We envision the same for computing– always connected through wireless broadband on which you can access the Internet with all its capabilities; All the software for it would come from the Internet and it would run on battery that lasts the whole day long.”
On the cards are two gadgets. The first is a smartbook for the classic computing world, which is the size of a netbook and has the simplicity of a smart phone and is light in weight.
The other is Kayak, a desktop version with a display and a mouse and is always connected to the Internet. It won’t be able to load software because all this will come from the Internet. No CDs would be required and there would be no fear of virus. Both these gadgets will be out in the latter part of this year.
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