Bollywood actors most searched in India: Bing
Who is the most searched name in India? Microsoft’s Bing on Monday released search results that declared that Bollywood actors Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif dominated search queries on the engine. The Bollywood brigade was followed by cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who hung up his boots last month.
Microsoft’s release stated that while Shahrukh Khan may have missed the top spot in the most searched actor and film, his Lungi Dance from Chennai Express made it to the top of charts as the most searched song in India. Among sportspersons, cricketers ruled the roost with Sachin Tendulkar, followed by young batsman Virat Kohli.
The surprise entry here was the Flying Sikh, Milkha Singh, proving that the biopic on him did arouse curiosity about him in the country, the release stated.
Globally, Bing stated that billions of searches from around the world revealed that it was a year of “American songs, superhero movies, Facebook love, high-end designer brands, controversial sports stars, European getaways and fierce women”.
On the most searched list Beyoncé reigned in the U.S., while Miley Cyrus’s highly publicised twerking made her the top-searched person in both Australia and Canada, the release added.
Infosys expands presence in Sydney
Bangalore-based IT major Infosys has opened a new Sydney branch office to keep pace with business growth of more than 500 per cent in New South Wales (NSW) over the past five years, a release from Infosys stated. It was inaugurated by Premier of New South Wales, and Infosys Founder and Executive Chairman, N.R. Narayana Murthy. Infosys’ release said that it will hire 85 new employees in NSW alone.
PC shipments to ‘crumble’, says IDC
Overall PC shipments in India for the quarter ending September stood at 3.24 million units, accounting for a year-on-year growth of 8.4 per cent and a quarter-on-quarter slide of about 8.3 per cent over the last quarter.
A press release from market research firm IDC stated that there was an uptake on commercial volumes but this had to do with large education projects, which led to the contribution of this segment to rise to around 59 per cent against their share of nearly 50 per cent seen a year ago. Kiran Kumar, Research Manager at IDC, said that special education projects in States such as Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and a much delayed spending in the year from the BFSI segment had largely skewed the overall growth in the quarter towards commercial segment. Demand for consumer PCs, however, didn’t meet the forecast.
The forecast for the last quarter of 2013 stated that seasonality and price hike was expected to disrupt PC buying in the quarter ending December. Additionally, elections in Delhi, civil issues in Andhra Pradesh are further expected to impact the overall buying in some of these larger States, the release stated.
More investments in mobile technologies
IBM announced results of a new study revealing that 90 per cent of global organisations surveyed are willing to sustain or increase their investments in mobile technologies over the next 12 to 18 months. The survey said that half of the respondents reported a greater than 10 per cent gain in employee productivity as a result of their mobile efforts, an IBM release stated. The survey, ‘Upwardly mobile enterprise’, was based on responses from over 600 participants.
WhatsApp on Nokia Asha 501
Instant messaging service WhatsApp announced that it will now be officially available on the Nokia Asha platform. The application is downloadable through a software update and comes with a smarter camera experience through ‘swipe’ and one-touch social sharing, and a more intuitive and social Fastlane home screen. In a release, Viral Oza, Director Marketing, Nokia India, said: “Asha 501 will be the first device on the Asha Platform to support WhatsApp. The updated software will offer Asha consumers with a more social experience, building on the previous Fastlane experience. The updated software with WhatsApp will come pre-installed in all new Nokia Asha 501 handsets, set to hit stores on December 5, 2013.”
