रिलीज से पहले ही धूम-3 का धमाल, 75 करोड़ कमाकर चेन्नई एक्सप्रेस को दी चुनौती!

अपुष्ट खबरों की मानें तो आमिर खान की फिल्म 'धूम 3' ने रिलीज होने से पहले ही 75 करोड़ रुपये कमा लिए हैं. बताया जा रहा है कि फिल्म के सैटेलाइट अधिकार सोनी टीवी ने 75 करोड़ रुपये में खरीद लिए हैं.
यह एक रिकॉर्ड है. इससे पहले सबसे महंगे सैटेलाइट अधिकार का खिताब सलमान खान की फिल्म 'दबंग 2' के पास था. फिल्म ने इसके जरिए 44 करोड़ कमाए थे. चेन्नई एक्सप्रेस के सैटेलाइट अधिकार 40 करोड़ में बिके थे.
अंग्रेजी समाचार वेबसाइट डीएनए ने एक सूत्र के हवाले से लिखा है कि आमिर इस फिल्म को लेकर आत्मविश्वास से भरे हुए हैं. उन्हें कई लोगों से कहते सुना गया है कि फिल्म 300 करोड़ का जादुई आंकड़ा भी छू सकती है. गौरतलब है कि फिल्म बनाने में ही 150 करोड़ रुपये खर्च कर दिए गए हैं. फिल्म इस साल के अंत में क्रिसमस पर रिलीज हो रही है.
ऐसा क्या है धूम 3 में 
यह यशराज बैनर की लोकप्रिय धूम सीरीज की तीसरी फिल्म है. इसमें आमिर खान, कटरीना कैफ और अभिषेक बच्चन जैसे बड़े सितारे हैं. पहली बार आमिर किसी एक्शन थ्रिलर फिल्म में नेगेटिव भूमिका में नजर आएंगे.
यह भी पहली बार है जब बड़े पर्दे पर आमिर और कटरीना की जोड़ी नजर आएगी. फिल्म में उदय चोपड़ा भी होंगे. शूटिंग अमेरिका के शिकागो में की गई है. फिल्म प्रेमियों को शानदार लोकेशन और चकित कर देने वाले एक्शन की उम्मीद है. फिल्म का ट्रेलर भी अभी नहीं आया है. सिर्फ मोशन पोस्टर रिलीज किया गया है. ऐसे में ही 75 करोड़ कमा लेना, फिल्म के लिए बहुत बड़ी उपलब्धि है.

Fingerprint scanner: The killer feature of iPhone 5S

This is one of those occasions when the rumours turned out to be true. There was a talk ahead of the iPhone launch event on September 10 that the high-end Apple phone will come with a fingerprint scanner for added security. Now we know that iPhone 5S indeed packs in a fingerprint scanner, hidden inside its round home button. 

This is a unique feature. While there is no doubt that other phone makers will add this feature to their phones, for now it should give Apple an advantage in high-end phone market, and iPhone 5S a better chance at standing up to upcoming Android devices like LG G2 that have better and bigger screens. 

A phone is a very personal device and people do care about the security of the data that they store in it. This was reflected in how Phill Schiller, Apple's VP for marketing, introduced the feature. "iPhone 5S sets a new standard for smartphones, packed into its beautiful and refined design are breakthrough features that really matter to people, like Touch ID, a simple and secure way to unlock your phone with just a touch of your finger," he said. 

Apple is calling the fingerprint scanner Touch ID. 

Once a user has stored his fingerprint impression into the device, he will be able to unlock the phone by pressing his finger on the home screen button. Apple said the TouchID can be also be used in apps. For example, in iTunes Store where a user has to put in a password before he can buy an app, Touch ID will negate the use of password. To buy an app a user will have to just provide the device with his fingerprint impression. 

Apple said Touch ID was very reliable. "Built into the home button, Touch ID uses a laser cut sapphire crystal, together with the capacitive touch sensor, to take a high-resolution image of your fingerprint and intelligently analyze it to provide accurate readings from any angle," the company noted in its press release. 

The technology of the TouchID seems to have been based on the research by AuthenTec, a company that Apple bought last year for $365 million. Before it was acquired, the company also made fingerprint scanning apps for Android devices. 

During the launch event, Apple claimed that the sensor used for Touch ID could scan at a resolution of 550 PPI (pixel per inch). It can scan sub-epidermal skin layers, which means the pattern under the top skin layer, and has 360 degrees readability to make sure that the unlocking of the device works irrespective of the orientation of a user's finger. 

The Touch ID can also store more than one fingerprint. This means anyone who is permitted by the user will be able to unlock his device. 

Security of mobile devices has become a huge issue in the wake of NSA leaks. Two days ago a report in a German newspaper claimed that spies employed by National Security Agency (NSA) in the US have broken the security mechanism used in phones and can access data stored in iPhones, BlackBerry phones and Android devices. 

Apple hints that Touch ID is more secure method than the normal passwords. "All fingerprint information is encrypted and stored securely in the Secure Enclave inside the A7 chip on the iPhone 5S... it's never stored on Apple servers or backed up to iCloud," the company said in the press release. 

The reports based on files leaked by Edward Snowden, an ex-contractor with NSA, have highlighted that the agency has capability to intercept data flowing through internet cables. The reports have also claimed that technology companies, including Apple, often give NSA access to data stored in services like iCloud. 

Technology have termed these claims false. 

By highlighting that fingerprint scans are stored locally, Apple is probably trying to allay security fears users may have over its alleged co-operation with NSA.

Why Apple fans may be missing Steve Jobs

I will be very happy if, by the end of it all, Tim Cook does not have blood on his hands. But, by the looks of it, Apple CEO may be assiduously murdering the legacy of legendary Steve Jobs.

Can someone like Cook spoil the broth that he himself helped cook so successfully for so many years? But then knowing Jobs, we also know how most decision-making happened at Apple while he was at the helm.

Agreed that Cook may not have been party to the spirit of innovation that Jobs so proudly touted, along with some aura and theatrics to mesmerise us during Apple's annual launch events, but the latest iPhone launch left me disenchanted.

Agreed that Cook is not at all a man incapable of filling in the big shoes as proven so far by a number of things: the product line-up (until Tuesday), Apple holding its stock price, cult following for its products, its market share and profits despite thinner margins, but can he continue the iPhone party sans the design edge so intrinsic to Apple.

More so, he was hand-picked by the God at Apple who could not go wrong in his decisions. Or could he?

To be fair, even a visionary like him did go wrong in reading a few things. He felt there was no market for smartphones bigger than 3.5 inch or tablets smaller than 9.7 inch! Runaway success of phablets around 6 inch size perhaps prompted Apple to launch 7.9 inch iPad Mini last year while it marginally increased the screen size of iPhone 5 to 4 inch.

Despite criticism and murmurs that Apple was not doing anything 'revolutionary' anymore -- in the post Jobs era -- people lapped up a thinner, lighter, glitzier iPhone 5 that sold like hot cakes, keeping its shareholders content despite initial nervousness.

It was expected that some day Apple will eventually break away from Jobs' legacy; and perhaps the onslaught of Google Android and Microsoft Windows Mobile phones will make winds of change blow faster at Apple than expected.

Yet, Apple still does one launch a year of its flagship product (although it turned the iteration clock faster on iPads last year). Like all Apple events, the Apple aficionados (me included) look forward to that ONE iPhone event anxiously and expect some gush-inspiring surprises among the announcements.

However, it is not the lack of this that I seek to blame on Cook though two or three launches won't hurt. After all, not all smartphone buyers find that one-year wait worth it and one size does not fit all.

Now, I do not expect a cult company to pander to market histrionics and hype by launching a dozen similar looking phones at every one thousand rupee price point so as to lure and capture every single buyer on earth. No, that doesn't work even for the 'cheaper' Korean rivals.

But if Apple has to continue being the icon it has been revered as all these years, it also has to be ready to thrive in a multi-polar world of mobile devices with Google Android as well as Microsoft Nokia, besides the Korean army and Taiwanese and Chinese mercenaries! And the least it could do was play the 'cheaper' game in a half-hearted manner!

Many will balk and say use of polycarbonate does not make a phone cheap. Ask now-sold Nokia and the Korean 're-inventor'. They have met with reasonable success using the same 'cheap' plastic, saving themselves better margins than with glass and aluminium shell! But whoever told Cook that he could not have cranked up the specs than serve old wine in a new bottle?

Now consider this: iPhone 5C, or the cheaper iPhone, as it has been dubbed, is targeted largely at emerging markets (though I reckon it will do well in many other markets) by offering several people a more affordable iPhone ownership option.

Yet, with the basic unlocked model being priced at $549, it is anything but affordable, at least in emerging markets like India or China. It remains in the premium smartphones category.

In a burgeoning but price-sensitive market like India, it will amount to merely getting a plastic-cased, unlocked iPhone 5 for nearly Rs 35-37,000 (more in case Raghuram Rajan effect on Indian Rupee wears off sooner than Apple decides to launch new iPhones here).

This price bracket is still largely restricted for top-end models. Even the Korean company's KitKat supportive 4th generation model (launched later than iPhone 5) comes under that price (under cashback offer).

So it does not help that iPhone 5C has a year-old specs! Either specs ought to have been bettered, or price cut further by $100-150, particularly given the formidable Android and Nokia Lumia buildup in the months to come for less than Rs 35,000. Else, instead of launching a plastic version, Apple could have simply reduced the pricing of iPhone 5 and continued with its more beautiful casing.

It does matter a lot to any CEO if he can cut the input costs while keeping the selling price around same levels. In that context, Apple will save on its hardware manufacturing costs, but it runs the risk of causing the brand to suffer an image loss.

A number of users - even some like me who swear by Apple's products -- do feel Apple has been snobbish about certain things. Like launching only one iteration a year, like bringing iPhone late to emerging markets, like its reluctance to go colourful (now addressed), like never getting off its premium positioning pedestal, like taking India non-seriously! In that context, it would not have hurt Apple to launch a genuinely affordable iPhone 5C variant, one with slightly lesser frills!

A number of Apple fan boys will want to slit my throat for saying what they may deem as sacrilegious, but much as I admire Apple for its attention to detail, innovative zest and amazingbuild quality wedded to ease of use in all its products, I do not allow myself to be blinded by its faux sense of ultra marketing hype. It is not missed on me after Tuesday's launch event that theSteve Jobs era may well nigh be over at Apple.

For all we know, both iPhone 5C and 5S will still turn out to be amazing hot sellers, filling Apple's coffers further, but here seems a company that is increasingly looking more and more vulnerable, rather than a strong citadel of innovation!

It cannot be lost on anyone the competition is nibbling at Apple's feet, to put it mildly. Given that, what has been dished out in form of iPhone 5S after a year's wait too is less than encouraging, and definitely misses the chutzpah. Already, despite being the best phone to me, iPhone 5 (and now 5C and 5S) seems to suffer from the lack of a slightly bigger and wider form factor.

And there is no reason why Apple should not have seriously considered a 5.5 or 6-inch phablet for better viewing, book-reading and browsing experience! And no, I am also not advocating an iPhone at every $100 or Rs 6,500 bracket, although it may be a mouth-watering prospect for some.

Brands come and brands go. Companies that turn intransigent and refuse to keep their ear to the ground start over-estimating their brand potential and gradually start bleeding themselves to death. We have seen the downfall of once-mighty Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Palm and BlackBerry.

Mobility tech and automobiles remain among the most merciless business spheres given the stiff competition and obsolescence rates. A company's perception among its target audience amidst the interplay of rival offerings and its own ability to ride the wave of innovation matters more than ever. A few successive slip-ups can cause you to start bleeding.

One more thing. Dear Tim, "Your time is limited... don't waste it living someone else's life." Bring it on, man!

Jobs is dead, but his spirit of cutting-edge innovation shall not be killed. We love Apple way too much to see its downfall for neglecting what has always been the cornerstone at 1, Infinite Loop, Cupertino: Innovation. It is time you put your success stamp where it matters. Jobs may have died, don't let Apple die.

Changing China set to shake world economy, again

BEIJING/LONDON: Long after concerns about tightening US monetary policy have faded, a more profound issue will still dog global policymakers: how to handle the second stage of China's economic revolution.

The first phase, industrialisation, shook the world. Commodity-producing countries boomed as they fed China's endless appetite for natural resources. Six of the 10 fastest-growing economies last decade were in Africa.

China's flood of keenly priced manufactured goods hollowed out jobs in advanced and emerging nations alike but also helped cap inflation and made an array of consumer goods affordable for tens of millions of people for the first time.

The second stage of China's development promises to be no less momentous.

Consumption will take over the growth baton from investment. Services will grow as a share of the economy, while industry shrinks. Commodity-intensive mass manufacturing based on cheap labour will give way to greener, cleaner ways of making things.

More of the value added by a better-educated, more productive workforce harnessing new technologies will stay in China instead of going to multinational companies.

That's the plan, anyway.

China will remain the most powerful engine of global growth for the next couple of decades, but it will no longer be just processing imported raw materials and components for re-export, said Li Jian with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, the Commerce Ministry's think tank.

"China has realised that it cannot blindly rely on investment and exports as the main drivers of growth. So China's demand will be more balanced," Li said.
High stakes

To show it is serious about more sustainable growth, China deliberately engineered the first-half slowdown that unnerved markets in order to address these longer-term structural priorities, according to President Xi Jinping.

Xi and the other new leaders of China's Communist Party are expected to approve a blueprint for reform at a plenum in November. Overcoming vested interests opposed to the new economic model will be a stern test of their credibility.

A lot is at stake for the global economy too.

Philip Schellekens, an economist with the World Bank in Washington, said the importance of the reforms Beijing intends to make cannot be overstated. As China changes, so will the rest of the world.

"The structural transformations that we think are going to happen in China over the next two decades will matter far more than the near-term vulnerabilities," he said.

On balance, commodity-exporting developing economies stand to be affected more than rich nations - an obvious exception being Australia, where the end of a China-driven mining boom was a big issue in Saturday's election. China buys a third of Australia's exports.

Commodity demand should stay strong, especially as China's capital stock per head is only 10 percent that of America's and urbanisation has a long way to go. But rebalancing will favour commodities more closely tied to consumption than to investment.

Economists fret that too many emerging markets spent their windfalls from surging raw material prices instead of ploughing them into infrastructure and other investment. As a result, growth is slowing now that China's demand is softening.

China's appetite for agricultural commodities and energy should hold up well but Capital Economics, a London consultancy, said it was concerned about large metals exporters that have not saved their extra income and so are running current account deficits.

It singled out South Africa, Zambia, Chile and Peru as being particularly vulnerable.

Winners and losers

Of course, lower raw material prices should boost growth and lower inflation for commodity importers.

Take iron ore. With no other country coming close to being able to absorb the slack left by China, which imports about two-thirds of the world's ore, prices risk years of decline as a major oversupply swamps demand, with some forecasting prices to be cut in half by 2015.

Another bonus is that big emerging markets such as India and Indonesia will have a chance to move into basic manufacturing sectors that China is vacating. Bangladesh has quickly become the world's second-biggest textile exporter.

Brazil stands out as an example of a country that has already been under intense pressure from China in low-skill industries such as footwear and will increasingly be going head to head with China in higher-value markets too. Policies to boost competitiveness thus become more imperative than ever.

After largely missing the chance to reform during the boom, Brazil also risks squandering the opportunities thrown up by China's transition slip unless it improves its infrastructure, cuts red tape and overhauls its tax system, economists say.

"Some of the underlying structural shortcomings of the economy were covered up during the bonanza. It's only as the commodity boom has slowed that the supply side constraints have become more visible," said Jens Arnold, who tracks Brazil for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.

In the case of advanced economies, China's transition is a double-edged sword, according to He Yifeng, an analyst at Hongyuan Securities in Beijing.

"For the United States and Europe, China's rebalancing could create more competition for them. But they can take the initiative by focusing on the higher end of the value chain, relying on knowledge and technology exports," he said.

Services bonanza

Already a lucrative market for European purveyors of luxury goods, China will increasingly present opportunities for foreign firms as incomes rise and consumers grow more discriminating.

Safety-conscious parents' choice of foreign-made baby milk formula is a case in point, said Haibin Zhu, chief China economist for JP Morgan in Hong Kong.

"We will probably see a shift in the consumption basket," Zhu said. "The increased focus on product quality is positive news for many international exporters, particularly from advanced economies."

Another rich seam for advanced economies is services, which account for just 43 percent of Chinese GDP, the smallest share of any major economy.

James Emmett, global head of trade finance at HSBC in London, said urbanisation and the rise of China's middle class offered openings to firms in Britain and beyond in sectors such as health, education and tourism.

"We are seeing a change in the nature of China," he said.

As services blossom, foreign companies could reap a windfall of up to $6 trillion by 2025 in everything from retail trade and transport to hotels and finance, said Yale University's Stephen Roach, a former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia.

Zhu at JP Morgan expects investment to drop from 48 percent of GDP to 35 percent by 2018-2020 as consumption (household and government) rises to 60-65 percent from 50 percent.

At the same time, GDP growth is likely to slow toward 6.5 percent a year by 2016-2020 from 7.7 percent in 2012 and 10 percent a year on average since the late 1970s.

Yet market worries about the transition need to be kept in perspective. Even if growth slows to 5 percent a year by 2030, Schellekens with the World Bank said China will still be adding output every year equal to the size of the South Korean economy.

"Even though China is facing quite a transformation, the long-term future is still a very positive one," he said.