Mozilla's $25 OS phone, Air Asia India's first flight, China's biggest internet merger
Amazon to enter the music streaming segment:
Amazon is launching a music streaming service this week, but it will be mainly targeted at Amazon Prime subscribers as an add-on service. Though users have free access to songs without any ads, Amazon's database will include only a few thousand songs compared to its other competitors like Spotify, Rdio and the recently acquired Beats, which have millions of songs. One of the main drawbacks of Amazon's service is that it will not include new releases and also music that comes under Universal Music Group artists.Alibaba acquires UCWeb for an undisclosed amount:
Alibaba will be buying all remaining shares of UCWeb and acquire the company for an amount that has not been confirmed, but this deal will be the largest in the Chinese Internet sector surpassing the 1.9 billion Baidu paid for 91 wireless last year.Related story: China’s Alibaba could be worth 100 Flipkarts
This acquisition will enable deeper synergies between the two companies. Alibaba’s strengths in e-commerce, cloud computing and big data technology will compliment UCWeb’s leading market position and technology in mobile, making this acquisition mutually beneficial.
Bitcoin gets another adopter in Expedia
After Overstock.com and Dish Network, Expedia becomes the next company to adopt Bitcoin as a virtual currency for hotel bookings. Expedia is collaborating with Coinbase to accept and convert the virtual currency into actual dollars, to enable smooth functioning of this process.
Expedia chose to start with hotel bookings using Bitcoins, as they found it to be the most in demand. Depending on the results they plan to add flights and other services in the future.
Nokia and SK Telecom set new landmark: Achieve 3.78Gbps 4G download speed
Finnish telecom firm Nokia in collaboration with SK telecom successfully achieved a 3.78 Gbps download speed, by making use of the LTE-A network in a lab environment at MAE."At this speed, a mobile broadband user can download a full-length 5GB high-definition (HD) movie in just 11 seconds," Nokia said in a statement.
Air Asia India's maiden flight from Bangalore to Goa
AirAsia India, the Indian arm of the Malaysian airline headed by Tony Fernandes, began its operations in India. After IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir, Air Asia India will be the 4th entrant into the low cost Airline sector in India.
AirAsia India Chief Executive Mittu Chandilya had earlier promised that their fares would be about 35 per cent lower than the current market rates.
With fares as low as Rs.990 for its Bangalore-Goa and Bangalore-Chennai routes, Air Asia had sold out the entire flight within 10 minutes of opening for sales.Mozilla enters the low Budget OS wars with a $25 phone
With a population of over 1.3 billion and with most Indians capable and willing to spend $25 on a phone with Web apps, Mozilla has a bright future in India with its new phone. But the main deal breaker could be the lack of volume and functional apps on their App store. With iOS and Android leading and Windows trying to catch up, it will be an uphill battle for Mozilla to keep pace.