NOKIA X7

The Nokia X7 ought to be a flagship smartphone – it has a vast screen, it runs a revamped touchscreen OS and it looks rather nice too.

OK, it isn't 3D capable like the LG Optimus 3D or the upcoming HTC Evo 3D, but it has an 8MP camera, super video playback and, at first glance, plenty of storage capacity.

The Nokia X7 runs Symbian Anna, a revamped version of Symbian ^3. Now, as Nokia is about to get all warm and cosy with Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Mango, do we care that ^3 may have been improved from the rather disappointing baseline it set in handsets including the Nokia N8 and E7?

Well yes, we do actually. The X7 is in the wild, and it's only fair that we are interested in how well it performs.

LG Cookie PEP - Brand New, used only for 2 hours, 4 days since purchase

I have a brand new LG cookie PEP( GD510 ) 3inch touchscreen with me. Bought on 10th July 2010 as a gift to my family member. Unfortunately, another gift also happened to be a touchscreen phone( nokia 8500 ). Never used as a phone. Only opened it to insert SIM card as the gift was meant to be a surprise( like on TV, where the b'day girl hears phone ringing and gets a pleasant surprise to find a new phone ).
- Brand new, no issues ..
- Wonderful Touchscree, a shame we cannot morally afford to keep both the touchphones
- 3 MP camera
- Bluetooth, excellent built-in browser
- Auto screen oreintation
- 2GB stock data card
- Battery only charged for the first mandatory power-cycle.
- Silver color
- Best market Rate Rupees six thousand nine hundred
- Asking rate Rupees Six thousand( slightly nego )
- only four days since purchase
- absolutely no damage at all
- if required, showroom personnel where mobile was bought can vouch for the authenticity
Interested ? kindly contact me( Balaji ) at 9900989732

Wrigley Launches New Non-Gum Brand in Russia

Posted by Barry Silverstein

Wrigley is the world's leading chewing gum maker. Its Orbit brand is number five on Euromonitor's list of top-selling candies and gums in 25 countries. But in Russia, Orbit is number one,  according to BusinessWeek. So Wrigley, purchased by Mars in 2008, is making a play for a bigger share of the Russian market.

For Russians, Wrigley is introducing new Orbit flavors, but it is also taking somewhat of a brand risk. BusinessWeek reports that the company has just begun marketing "individually wrapped snacks that look like baked flat breads or crackers and come in a variety of flavors." Erwin Hinteregger, Wrigley's director of emerging business territories, said the "croutons" were developed by the company's Russian unit to fit the country's unique snack demands, and it's unlikely that the product will be marketed elsewhere.

Croutons from Wrigley? What's next, chocolates? Wrigley acquired chocolate-maker A. Korkunov in 2007, and now sells them in Russia.

Does this mark the beginning of a strategy to develop country-specific brands that move away from Wrigley's gum brands? Very possibly. Hinteregger confirms that Wrigley's China unit, with an eye on its Russian counterpart, is now working on new products for that market.

Hermes launches new brand in China – Shang Xia

French fashion label Hermes on Thursday opened its first boutique for its new brand Shang Xia – a bold strategy that highlights China’s growing importance to luxury goods companies.
“We are very moved — this is like the birth of a child,” Hermes chief executive Patrick Thomas said ahead of the inauguration of the shop in a high-end shopping mall in Shanghai, China’s most cosmopolitan city.
The store, a picture of minimalist chic, offers clothing, home furnishings, shoes and tableware — a collection inspired by tea, and made from traditional Asian materials such as bamboo, cashmere and porcelain.
In front of the store, artisans put their skills on display for the widely anticipated opening, making tea cups enveloped in an intricate web of woven bamboo.
Shang Xia, whose name means “Up Down” in Mandarin, aims to boost what Thomas told AFP last month was “very strong growth” in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan — collectively now the company’s “principal market.”
“The idea is to bring the Hermes philosophy to China, to create a Chinese Hermes,” Thomas told AFP

Levi’s Launching New Brand for China

Set to launch this summer, iconic denim experts Levi’s have created a new brand aimed at the Chinese market. The initial plan is to expand the number of stores in China from 20 to a whopping 1,000 by 2015. It is rumoured that pricing will fall slightly under that which one would expect from Levi’s, with jeans retailing at around $50. For more info check this article from WWD:

Classic Americana purveyor Levi Strauss & Co. is heralding the arrival of the young mainstream Chinese consumer by launching a new brand this summer in China — its first unveiled on foreign soil.

Befitting the new label’s vast home turf, the San Francisco-based denim company has ambitious plans to grow the line’s store base in China to 1,000 by 2015 from 20 this year. Levi Strauss wouldn’t disclose the name of the brand, which is likely to be priced slightly below traditional Levi’s and is being called Standard internally, but revealed it would be in English and make its Levi’s pedigree apparent.

“Although we are focused on China, our hope is that this brand will become one of our big brands,” said Tod Gimbel, senior director of corporate affairs at Levi Strauss’ Asia-Pacific division.

The denim giant joins Hermès International in the push to develop a brand for China. The luxury firm has taken a majority stake in Shanghai-based Shang Xia, which is creating, manufacturing and will sell a collection of clothing, accessories, furniture and other lifestyle products using Chinese raw materials and artisanal know-how. The first Shang Xia store is to open this year in Shanghai.

Levi Strauss’ goal is to develop the new brand’s store base with an even balance of franchised units and company-owned units. The stores are expected to average about 1,000 square feet, which is similar in size to existing Levi’s stores in China. Shop-in-shops within department stores will showcase the brand, as well.

Like Levi’s other stores in China, the new brand’s shops will offer a “top-to-bottom experience,” Gimbel said, with an array of merchandise for men and women. The denim will feature Levi’s signature five-pocket design, but will have a “distinct style and flair,” he said. “There will still be that Levi Strauss & Co. authentic denim craftsmanship, but it will have its unique identity.”

Levi Strauss has been among the most successful American apparel brands in China, though it had a rocky beginning in the country. In 1993, the company halted manufacturing in China because of human rights concerns. Production resumed five years later and Levi’s stores launched about 10 years ago. Now, Levi’s has 620 branded retail locations in mainland China and boasts a considerable presence in the nation’s major bustling retail districts.

Starbucks introduces new coffee brand in China

Starbucks has launched a new brand of coffee grown by farmers in China and said it hopes to bring the blend to stores all over the world.The Seattle-based company, which has been closing stores in the U.S. to cut costs, said its new blend is made in China’s southwestern province of Yunnan, bordering Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.

“Our intention is to work with the officials and the farmers in Yunnan province to bring Chinese coffee not (only) to China, but Chinese coffee to the world,” Martin Coles, president of Starbucks Coffee International, told The Associated Press.

“Ultimately I’d love to see our coffees from China featured on the shelves of every one of our stores in 49 countries around the world,” he said. A launch date for foreign distribution hasn’t been announced and will depend on how soon farmers can grow enough beans to ensure local and overseas supply.

The company has been working for three years with farmers and officials in the province before the launch, and the coffee will initially combine arabica beans from Latin America and the Asia-Pacific with local Yunnan beans. But Coles said they hope to develop a source of superpremium arabica coffee from the province, expanding it to new brand offerings in China, and then internationally.

The new blend will be called “South of the Clouds,” the meaning of Yunnan in Chinese.

Wang Jinlong, president of Starbucks for greater China, which includes Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, said the company wants to make its coffee from China as well-known and as high-quality as Chinese tea.

GM Launches New Brand In China

aimed especially at the lower income and first time car buyers. The brand “Baojun” is a product of a joint venture of GM and Chinese manufacturers SAIC and Wuling, the latter was formed to produce micro-vans.
Since decades, GM is known for its multi brand strategy in the US; although recently it has been seen axing brands which had become slow sellers in the US market namely Pontiac and Saturn. But the automotive giant is trying a similar approach at the Chinese market with the introduction of the Baojun brand. The new brand will compliment other GM brands sold in China like Buick and Chevrolet where Chevrolet is now GM’s fastest growing mainstream brand in China.
There is a wide range of small vehicles and cars lined up to be sold under the new brand in the near future. To start off, Baojun’s first offering will be a low-frill midsize sedan which will be loosely based on the Buick Excelle sedan in China which itself is based on the Chevrolet Cruze sedan sold in India. There are no official photos or any spy pictures available of this new sedan. The vehicle has been developed with help of GM and SAIC’s Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC) joint venture in Shanghai.
With GM being very bullish on India as well with Wuling, these low cost cars could be headed India’s way. This may give GM the arsenal it needs to go after the Indigo’s and Logan’s of the world and even at the Manza at a stretch. More updates to follow.