Nokia, Vodafone, WhatsApp among top brands in India: Report

Nokia and Vodafone have emerged on top in the latest Nielsen consumer rankings in the country, which ranked brands in six lifestyle categories. 


E-commerce site Flipkart also shares the top honours, ahead of Amazon and mobile messenger application WhatsApp. 

The select categories are international travel, in which Singapore tops, mobile Apps, e-tailing, books, mobile handsets and operators, Nielsen said in a statement. 

In the telecom sector, Nokia is the most preferred mobile handset brand, followed by Samsung and Blackberry, while among the operators, the second and third place have been cornered by Airtel and Idea. 

According to the findings of the first round of Nielsen India consumer rankings, the rankings are based on popularity and consumer experience of these brands, which were ranked in the last quarter of 2012. 

"While we have always provided uncommon consumer insights for our clients, with this initiative we are taking insights from cities across the country, and giving back to consumers," Nielsen India President Piyush Mathur said while releasing the rankings. 

He further said that the rankings reflect the pulse of urban consumers, and provide a different lens to view the lifestyle choices that urban consumers are making every day. 

Nielsen India vice-president Ranjeet Laungani said the rankings acknowledge that consumers not only want to be heard but also be better informed. "These rankings will provide the average urban consumer with a neutral, fact-based consumer view on everyday categories that are relevant to them." 

Among the other winners in the smartphone apps category are Facebook, news aggregator app Newshunt, YouTube and Tubemate, an application that allows users to download Youtube videos. 

In the e-tailing segment Flipkart, E-bay, Homeshop18 and deal-based site Snapdeal are the top four e-tailing sites respectively for over 1,000 active internet users and online shoppers. 

Among mobile operators network quality is the most important driver of customer satisfaction, followed by customer service, service positioning and data services. 

While Tata DoCoMo at the fifth place leads on satisfaction for sms rates, data plans and value added services, Uninor at eighth place is the most value for money option for consumers. 

Among the books, local authors dominate the fiction rankings with Amish Tripathi's 'The Immortals of Meluha' and the sequel 'The Secret of the Nagas' coming in the top 10, as per data from point of sale, of over 400 retailers.

Loud headphones can make you deaf


DU student Ekta Sharma (21) and her friends like to carry their music wherever they go and enjoy it as often as they can - whether during study hours or driving home.

"Earphones are fashionable and everyone uses them," said Ekta when asked if her habit is exposing her to hazards such as hearing loss or is making her insensible to her surroundings. "We tune in to music to tune out the real world." What she and others of her age are unaware of is that constant exposure to loud music has already affected their hearing and they run the risk of permanent hearing loss in absence of corrective steps. 

"We get many patients in the age group of 18-35 years who complain of a ringing sensation in the ear, headache and, in some cases, partial hearing loss which are related to exposure to loud music or spending more than seven-eight hours talking on phone," said Dr J M Hans, chairman of the ENT and cochlear implant division at Rockland Group of Hospitals.

"Loud music destroys the hair cells in the inner ear which convert sound into electric signals crucial for the brain to recognize sound - thus making the hearing impaired and in some cases permanently damaged," he added. 
Hearing experts fear that new technology which allows cellphones - available to even children - to carry music systems that can run non-stop will further endanger the hearing of the next generation. Many people, particularly youngsters, tend to multitask - listen to music while studying or at work. Neurologists say while the immediate effects of such practices could be poor cognition and work quality, such persons can even suffer from memory problems in future. 
Unlike ordinary loudspeakers , earphones pump music directly into the ear canal . "Students who listen to music while they read may find it difficult to memorize or learn down the line," said Dr Praveen Gupta, head of the neurology department at Artemis hospital, Gurgaon. He added many BPO workers come to them with neurological deficits triggered by continuous use of phones after which they are advised to strictly avoid calls for sometime . 
In-charge of Institute of Mental Health and Life Skills Promotion at Moolchand Medcity Dr Jitendra Nagpal said many earphone users suffer from concentration difficulties , mood swings and irritability . "Rationalization of phone usage and music player use is recommended," he said. 
Word of warning. If you are driving or walking with earphones plugged in, you run a very high risk of road mishaps . "Listening to music or talking on phone while crossing the road is dangerous. It diverts attention and causes hearing deficit. The pedestrian is unable to comprehend warnings such as the sound of a bus horn or a cautionary remark from a fellow traveller. The sound of music drowns all other sounds," Dr M C Misra, chief of AIIMS trauma centre, said.

MasterCard launches new digital payment system


Credit card giant MasterCardannounced the launch of a new digital payment system that lets people use a wide variety of devices including smartphones to spend their money.


The system, known as MasterPass, stores customers' banking and personal information in a "secure cloud" online where it is available for the moment of payment whether in a store on when browsing the internet, the group said. 

Banks and stores will be able to issue MasterPass-connected "digital wallets" to their customers, the group said on the opening day of the four-day Mobile World Congress, the world's biggest mobile fair, in Barcelona, Spain. 

The system will also accept credit and debit card information, including cards other than MasterCard's. 

Shoppers would be able to use the system on the web without having to key in their bank information and delivery address for each purchase. 

But they also could make payments with the new system in other ways, including by waving a smartphone equipped with Near Field Communications, or NFC, technology near a special reader. 

"Every device is becoming a shopping device," said Ed McLaughlin, head of emerging payments at MasterCard. 

"MasterPass brings together all of the ways we pay for things, from traditional plastic cards to digital wallets, and gives consumers the ability to make a payment from wherever they are and with one simple experience," he said in a statement. 

The system will be launched by financial institutions in Australia and Canada by the end of March, in the United States in spring and Britain in the summer before expanding to other markets including Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain and Sweden, MasterCard said. 

MasterCard said it the new system was supported by banks including Banco Santander, BBVA, BNP, and Citi. 

"For mobile money often the most innovative markets have been emerging markets rather than developed markets," said Ian Fogg, senior mobile analyst at research house IHS. 

"What is interesting is the shift where you see people like Visa and Mastercard getting interested and involved," he said. 

"They have a role that is cross country, cross bank and one of the challenges of the mobile service is getting that economy of scale, getting all the different parts of the ecosystem together and those guys are able to look across the ecosystem in a way that I think an individual bank finds it harder to do."

Google Glass: Fashion statement or faux pas

People wearing Google's glasses are transported to a strange new world in which the internet is always present as they view the world. But for people looking at the people wearing those glasses, the view is even stranger - someone wearing a computer processor, a battery and a tiny screen on her face.

As Google and other companies begin to build wearable technology like glasses and watches, an industry not known for its fashion sense is facing a new challenge - how to be stylish. Design has always been important to technology, with products like Apple's becoming fashion statements, but designing hardware that people will wear like jewellery is an entirely different task.

In a sign of how acute the challenge is for Google, it is negotiating with Warby Parker, a start-up company that sells trendy eyeglasses, to help it design more fashionable frames.

They join others that are grappling with these design challenges, including big companies like Apple, Nike and Jawbone and smaller ones like Pebble, MetaWatch and Misfit Wearables.

On Wednesday, Google began accepting applications to choose a small group to buy an early version of the glasses, called Google Glass. It hopes to sell Glass to the broader public this year.

The glasses reach the internet through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which connects to the wireless service on a user's cellphone.

The glasses respond when a user speaks, touches the frame or moves the head. For Google, the glasses are a major step toward its dream of what is known as ubiquitous computing - the idea that computers and the internet will be accessible anywhere and we can ask them to do things without lifting a finger.

Google warns of technical bumps as people use the glasses, but it has already solved many of the technical challenges. The biggest obstacle now is getting people to use them. Although Google employees have been spotted wearing them, they receive strange looks.

Then there is that fashion hurdle. The frames now look like wire wraparound glasses with hardware along one side.

"If you look at other wearable pieces of functional technology, there's a reason they're not ubiquitous. There's a reason we all make fun of someone wearing a Bluetooth or a BlackBerry holster," said Daniella Yacobovsky, co-founder of BaubleBar, an online jewelry retailer. "Is it useful? Of course it is. Do I look like a tool? Yeah. I'm not going to wear it."

Google is doing other things to recruit the fashion-savvy, particularly women. It could open retail stores where people can try on the glasses, according to news reports. At Fashion Week last year, models wore coloured versions on the runway for Diane von Furstenberg.

Next, Google says it is looking for "bold, creative individuals" who want to try the glasses. People who want to apply have until Wednesday to write a post on Google Plus or Twitter telling what they would do with it.

"The big question is, why on earth would you put something like this on your head?" Babak Parviz, the leader of the Google Glass team, said in a previous interview. "If you do things that are very useful, it becomes fashionable."