Putting customers to work, Nokia takes on the Web

PNB expects 20 pc rise in net profit during FY08

Maruti Suzuki unveils new sedan ‘Swift DZiRE’

Maruti Suzuki to launch Swift Dzire Sedan on March 26

Gur remains weak at Muzzafarnagar on lack of support

NEW DELHI, Mar 18: Gur drifted by Rs.25-50 a quintal at Muzzafarnagar on sluggish demand and ruled flat in Delhi.

Marketmen said reduced offtake stockists against adequate supply mainly brought down gur prices at Muzafarnagar.

At Muzaffarnagar, gur khurpa lost Rs.25 at Rs.1000-1025 while chakku by Rs.50 at Rs.1075-1100 a quintal respectively.

Following were today’s quotations:

Chakku 1250-1300, Pedi 1225-1250 and Dhayya 1225-1250. Shakkar 1300-1350 and Khandsari 1500-1550.

In Muzaffar Nagar: Raskat 950-1025, chakku 1075-1175 and Khurpa 1000-1025.

In Muradnagar: Pedi 1050-1075, Dhayya 1050-1075. (PTI)

Steel prices remain steady

NEW DELHI, Mar 18: Steady conditions prevailed in the local iron and steel market here today as prices continued to move in a tight range on lack of buying support and settled around previous levels.

Marketmen said negligible enquiries from construction units against adequate stocks position mainly kept prices steady.

Following were today's quotations in Rs per tonne:

CTD saria (kamdhenu) 8-mm, 49,250, 10-mm, 48,750, 12-mm 47,550, 16-25 mm 48,250.

Rathi tor steel : 8-mm 49,150, 10-mm 48,500, 12-mm 47,250, 16-20 mm 48,000 and 25-32 mm 48,250.

Saria Jai bharat (iso 9002) 8-mm 45,800, 10 mm 45,300 12-mm 44,500, 16-25 mm 45,000.

Amba saria (iso-9002) 8-mm 46,800, 10-mm 46,300, 12-mm 45,500, 16-25-mm 46,000.

Amba shakti: (TMT) 8-mm 47,100, 10 mm 46,300, 12 mm 45,500, 16 to 25 mm 46,000.

M S Angle: (50x5) (50x6) 39,700, (25x3) (32x3) (40x3) 39,200, (40x5) (40x6) 39,900. Angle capital (ISI) (50X5) (50X6) 41,500, (40X5) (40x6) 42,000, (35X5) (65X6) 42,200.

Garder (joist) (150x75) 44,000 (175x85) 44,200 (200x100) 44,000 (125x70) 44,200. T-IRON (40X5) (40X6)(50X6) 43,500.

Ingot and Scrap: Bhivari 37,500, Govindgarh 38,500, Ghaziabad 37,500, Muzaffarnagar 37,100. (PTI)

Telecom antenna installed with Comm Ministry’s approval: IAF

NEW DELHI, Mar 18: The Indian Air Force today said the clearance for installation of an antenna of a private telecom operator within its premises near the Prime Minister’s house was given by the Ministry of Communication.

Rejecting the observations of a security breach as alleged in the recent report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Air Chief Marshal Fali H Major said "a small antenna was installed so that people in the area could use their mobile phones. The site has been cleared. The Ministry of Communication had cleared it. There is nothing much to it".

CAG had asked the Government to initiate a probe to fix responsibility for the lapse.

The Air Chief vehemently denied reports that the installation of antenna near the Prime Minister’s residence had breached his security.

The CAG had said in its report that the IAF had not sought any Government approval before allowing Reliance Infocomm to install an antenna within its premises near the 7 Race Course road, which houses the Prime Minister.

"For erection of the antenna, IAF station did not seek any clearance from the government which is essential since the area where the antenna was installed fell in a very sensitive security zone," the report said.

"By allowing a private company to erect an antenna in a high security zone, Air Officer Commander (AOC) may have not only compromised but also endangered security," the CAG report said. (PTI)

Putting customers to work, Nokia takes on the Web

HELSINKI, Mar 18: A popular video on Youtube shows a ‘concept phone’ that could-literally-bend to fit your wrist. Called Nokia Morph, it’s also an image of how the world’s largest mobile phone maker wants to change.

As the Internet goes mobile and companies like Apple and Google find cool ways to embrace the trend, the mobile market leader is rewriting its product development rulebook. Instead of working in secrecy and isolation, it wants to start sharing.

"For Nokia this is probably the biggest throw of the dice since they entered the cellphone business," said Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight, who has followed the Finnish firm since 1994.

Besides putting up futuristic ideas on video-sharing sites-like the Morph concept, which imagines a stretchable, flexible, solar-powered, self-cleaning device which also has a sense of smell-Nokia has invited bloggers and tech-savvy media specialists to brainstorm on future mobile products.

"We realised in early 2005 that if we only focused on innovation from within, we were limiting our scope for real breakthroughs," Chief Technology Officer Bob Iannucci told Reuters in an interview. "We want more wild ideas."

At stake is a share of the next phase of Internet growth, to offset the commoditisation of Nokia’s signature product. Forrester Research expects the number of mobile Internet users to triple over next five years to 125 million in Western Europe alone, while Nokia knows its double-digit margins on handsets will shrink.

To make its move in Internet services, Nokia plans to use its base of one billion customers-one-sixth of humanity-to consult on what works, what wows, and what doesn’t. Compared with Apple’s much-hyped iPhone, which has sales of just 5 million so far, its customers put Nokia in a strong position.

The market for Internet services is approaching 100 billion euros, and Nokia is the first big cellphone manufacturer to embrace the Internet media business. Close rivals Samsung and Sony Ericsson could follow, but are a couple of years behind.

Already the world’s largest non-U.S. Technology firm by market capitalisation, controlling 40 percent of the world market for mobile devices, Nokia is still chasing growth.

Technology shares are valued on sales growth expectations and Nokia trades at around 1.4 times 2008 sales, a deep discount to Google’s 6.1 times and Apple’s 4.4 times, Reuters Estimates data show. Shares in Research in Motion, which makes the Blackberry that rules the mobile email niche, trade at 10 times 2008 revenues.

CHANGE AGAIN

Change may be in Nokia’s genes. Founded in 1865 as a timber company, its brand-now ranked fifth globally by Interbrand and valued at $33.7 billion-was stamped on paper goods, wellington boots and television sets before the company focused on the mobile market 16 years ago.

But the process of developing and testing new phone models was once like a state secret, and the results haphazard.

Wood of CCS Insight said that in the past Nokia would develop products "behind closed doors in a room with no windows. With some products I asked them: had they shown them to anyone?"

In 2003 reviewers and customers laughed at Nokia’s gaming phone, which had to be held awkwardly, sideways, to make calls. The same year Nokia introduced its first media phone, the bulky 7700, but withdrew production plans after heavy criticism.

Although its conservative designs had mass appeal, Nokia has also missed many big design trends in recent years-clamshells, thin phones, touch screens, for instance.

The Morph concept, which Nokia is exploring with researchers in nanoscience at Cambridge University, is one example of a more consultative approach: combining know-how about tiny particles and electronics to see, for example, if a stretchy circuit could be made. Another was the way Nokia in February floated the notion of a phone made almost entirely from recycled materials.

"The ability to include large numbers of users into the development cycle means you can have a much more collaborative approach to development and you can try ideas out, refine them and move forward-or fail fast and get out," said Nokia’s Iannucci.

Blogger Oliver Thylmann ((<http://blog.Thylmann.Net/>)), who took part in a Nokia product development workshop this month, believes many European companies are set to follow the more open model, leveraging customer input to grow.

"Working with your customer is something where the world is going to," said Thylmann, who has been writing about technology since 2001.

"As a company you cannot close yourself off from the world anymore. If you’re locked in your ivory tower and there is discussion about you going on, it makes sense to get out there and take part in that conversation."

FAIL FAST

In its bid to direct users to its Internet services instead of Google’s, or to its music stores instead of Apple’s iTunes, Nokia is not the first tech firm to turn from hardware to software and services. As the personal computer has been commoditised, IBM and HP have similarly sought new business.

But while Nokia experiments, its profit margin on phones, which rose to 23.6 percent in the quarter to December, is a cushion. Margins at Nokia’s best-performing rivals-Samsung and Sony Ericsson-are at half that level.

The shift to services means Nokia must get nimble.

"In services it is hugely important to be on the market as early as possible," said Niklas Savander, head of Nokia’s Internet services unit. "You will see a lot of beta launches, or limited-function launches, or limited-geography launches from us." Betas are public product tests.

The company is looking to copy Google’s approach to new business: try as many as you can, quickly.

Its Beta Labs website ((<http://www.Nokia.Com/betalabs>)), where it puts up software for testing to public, has more than a million visitors a month. The internal mantra is "Fail fast, learn fast, scale fast."

The company’s online music stores are in test mode and it is about to launch a global gaming service. Millions of people have downloaded programmes or media from Nokia’s new mobile activities site Mosh, also still in beta.

However, there are limits to all this openness. Writing before he attended the Nokia development workshop, Thylman said: "Sadly I will not be able to blog about the contents."

(AGENCIES)

PNB expects 20 pc rise in net profit during FY08

NEW DELHI, Mar 18: Country’s second largest public sector lender Punjab National Bank today said it expects about 20 per cent increase in the net profit during the current fiscal on the back of better non-performing asset management.

"We expect our net profit to be in the range of Rs 1,800-1,900 crore during 2007-08," PNB Chairman and Managing K C Chakrabarty said.

The net profit would be higher by about 20 per cent as compared to the last fiscal, he said.

During 2006-07, the bank had posted a profit of Rs 1,540 crore.

In nine months ended December 31, 2007, the bank’s profit stood at Rs 1,505 crore, up 15.60 per cent, as against Rs 1,302 crore in the corresponding period previous year.

The bank had plan to recover bad debt in the range of Rs 400-500 crore during the January-March quarter.

He said, the bank expects NPAs to come down to one per cent of the net advances by the end of March 2008.

Talking about the bank’s exposure in the equity market, Chakrabarty said "we would have exposure to the tune of Rs 300 crore and the current meltdown would result in the loss of about Rs 10-15 crore on year-on-year basis.

On the farm loan waiver, he said, the bank has big portfolio of farm loan. About Rs 2,000 crore of non-performing asset would be eligible for the waiver under the scheme announced in the Budget 2008-09.

Shares of PNB were trading at Rs 458.90, up 0.40 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange. (PTI)

Maruti Suzuki unveils new sedan ‘Swift DZiRE’

NEW DELHI, Mar 18: Market leader Maruti Suzuki today unveiled a new sedan, Swift DZiRE, to be launched on March 29 priced below the company’s existing car SX4.

"The image of a hatchback and styling of Swift is carried forward to the Sedan. The new car will be available in both petrol and diesel variants," Maruti Suzuki India Ltd Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek told reporters here.

On the pricing of the new car, Pareek declined to share details. However according to the company sources, the petrol variant is expected to be priced between Rs 4.75 to Rs 5 lakh, while the diesel variant would be available for above Rs 5.5 lakh.

The company is also expanding the capacity of its plant in Manesar to three lakh units per annum by 2010, up from the existing about 1.4 lakh units in an year. (PTI)

Maruti Suzuki to launch Swift Dzire Sedan on March 26

NEW DELHI, Mar 18: Maruti Suzuki India Ltd today said it will launch new ‘Swift Dzire Sedan’, designed and conceptualised at about Rs 30 crore, on March 26.

The Dzire project, which started in 2005, is a planned progression of the Swift hatchback.

The Sedan will be available both in petrol and diesel engines, with the diesel engine being the same as current engine in the Swift hatchback and the Dzire will now sport the same 1.3 litre multi-jet engine of Fiat.

(UNI)