theweekendreview
APPLE RAISES IPHONE PRICES BY UP TO ₹3,210 AFTER DUTY HIKE
Prices of top iPhone models have gone up by 2-3.6%, except for iPhone SE which Apple Inc. assembles in India, after the government increased import duty on mobile phones by five percentage points in the Union Budget last week.
When contacted, the company confirmed the change in prices, which are reflected on its website as well. While the starting price of an iPhone 6 is up by ₹1,120 to ₹31,900, the most expensive iPhone X is dearer by ₹3,210 and will cost ₹1.08 lakh. The cheapest iPhone 8 will now cost ₹67,940 instead of ₹66,120.
HYUNDAI UNVEILS FIRST ELECTRIC VEHICLE AT AUTO EXPO 2018
Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the country’s second largest car maker, showcased technological advancements in electric and hybrid technology with its first electric vehicle in India under the Ioniq brand at the Auto Expo.
Hyundai is expected to launch its first electric vehicle in India by 2019.
KIA ANNOUNCES INDIA ENTRY WITH CONCEPT SUV SP CONCEPT
Kia Motors India Ltd, a subsidiary of Korean car maker Hyundai Motor Company, announced its entry in the Indian market with a new concept sports utility vehicle (SUV) known as SP Concept. The South Korean car maker will launch the vehicle in 2019.
The company also showcased 16 other products that are available globally; some of them will be introduced in India, going by customer feedback. According to Manohar Bhatt, vice-president marketing and sales, Kia Motors India, the company will look at introducing new products in different segments after 2019, starting with an SUV.
MARUTI SUZUKI AIRS CONCEPT FUTURE S DESIGNED IN INDIA
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the country’s largest car maker by volumes, unveiled its new concept known as Concept Future S which will translate into a new compact hatchback car. The design for the new concept has been developed entirely in the research and development facility in India.
The Concept Future S will be the second car after Vitara Brezza (a compact sports utility vehicle or SUV) to be designed entirely in India. Maruti Suzuki first showcased its concept future in 2004 which translated to Swift (a hatchback).
TV VIEWERSHIP OF REPUBLIC DAY PARADE HITS RECORD 38 MILLION
More Indians are watching the Republic Day parade on television, according to numbers released by television viewership measurement agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc).
On January 26, 38 million people across the country tuned into Doordarshan channels as India celebrated its 69th Republic Day, the latest viewership data shows. In 2017, 22.2 million people watched the parade.
The parade was aired on 20 Doordarshan channels, including the flagship DD National. Between 9am and 12pm on January 26, the overall viewership of DD network jumped 33% to 7.4 million impressions from 5.6 million impressions in 2017. Impressions refer to the number of individuals in thousands of a target audience who viewed an event, averaged across minutes.
ADITYA BIRLA FASHION & RETAIL SCALES DOWN FOREVER21, CUTS COSTS
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL), the licensee of American fast fashion brand Forever21, is downsizing the brand’s stores and cutting costs as sales from the fast fashion business decline, a top company executive said.
ABFRL reported a loss of ₹23 crore in the fast fashion business during the quarter ended December 2017, even as sales from the business declined 14% from a year earlier to ₹114 crore (net sales value, or NSV). Loss widened because Forever21 took a one-time inventory hit, Ashish Dikshit, managing director of ABFRL’s Madura Lifestyle business, said in an investor call on Friday.
However, NSV comparisons were also affected by changes in GST rates. ABFRL has reduced the sizes of its oldest stores and will now focus on opening new but smaller stores, he said. Most of these are stores opened by the brand before ABFRL acquired the licence for Forever21 from previous partners DLF Brands and Diana Retail.
‘DANGAL’ TOPS LIST OF FILMS FIRST WATCHED ON NETFLIX IN INDIA
Video streaming platform Netflix, which entered India two years ago, has seen a big appetite for entertainment and an increasing fan base. The company has, so far, focused primarily on content, partnerships and technology in India.
Nearly six years ago when Netflix got into original programming, the company made a decision to put all of its episodes on the service at once, resulting in the phenomenon of binge viewing. Indian users of Netflix are also into binge racing—people who strive to be the first to finish by speeding through an entire season within 24 hours of its release—on the platform.
In terms of consumption, Aamir Khan’s Dangal, a sports biopic, topped the list of films first watched by subscribers in India, followed by Gauri Shinde’s andSS Rajamouli’s war epic Dear Zindagi Baahubali 2.
More than one-third (34%) of Netflix viewing hours in India is through connected TVs, which includes people using smart TVs or game consoles. Subscribers in India take an average of five days from joining Netflix to start their first binge. For users in India, downloading has been a much more popular feature than it is in the US or Europe.
RAVI KANT JAIPURIA TO ENTER UK MARKET WITH LUXURY TWG TEA
Ravi Kant Jaipuria wants to sell luxury tea in the UK, despite the fact that tea consumption in that country has been declining since the early 2000s. Jaipuria, 63, who spent his early years in Canada, owns one of the largest bottling franchisees of PepsiCo Inc.
For the past 27 years, he has been working with the American food and beverage maker primarily in India, and lately in Sri Lanka, Mozambique, Zambia and Morocco. While most of his holding company RJ Corp.’s estimated $2 billion revenue still comes from the bottling business, Jaipuria has, in recent years, spread his wings to fast food, dairy, schools, real estate and healthcare.
As a master franchisee for Singaporean luxury tea brand TWG Tea in India and UK, Jaipuria will enter the UK market with TWG Tea Salons and Boutique, a chain that serves luxury tea, dessert and snacks, besides selling tea leaves in packets and tea accessories.