Agri products export gains 17pc growth in July-Sept : : Yasir Wardad : : Thefinancialexpress-bd

Yasir Wardad

When all other major export items witnessed a poor growth, the agricultural products including fruits, vegetable and cash crop showed a tremendous performance in the first three months of the current financial year (FY'13), Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data showed.

Bangladesh received nearly $134 million with a growth of more than 17 per cent in July-September period in FY'13 by exporting the items while the volume was $114 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

The amount was nearly 27 per cent higher than its target.

Vegetable export grew 36 per cent to nearly $27 million against the target of $18.78 million in the July-September period of FY'13 while it was $ 19.84 million in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

According to the EPB, expatriate Bangladeshis living in the Middle East, Far-East Asia, the UK and some European countries are the main buyers of the vegetables sent from the country.

Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Spain Sweden, Greece, Ireland, Canada, Malaysia and Singapore also import a good quantity of Bangladeshi vegetables, an EPB official said.

Fruits export grew to 8 per cent to $17.6 million in July-September this fiscal year, up from 16.28 million in the same period of last fiscal.

The EPB has set a target to export fruits worth $71.8 million this fiscal.

According to the EPB, the country exports jackfruit, mango, lemon, guava, litchi, lotkon, Indian olive, blackberry, pomelo, wood apple, etc.

Officials said the export will be increased further in coming years as new items have been included in the basket.

"The Export Promotion Bureau, Hortex Foundation and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute jointly conducted tests on 'Shelf Life' of green banana and pineapple which is necessary for sanitary and phytosanitary requirement of the buyers over the world," Assistant General Manager of Horticulture Export Development Foundation (Hortex Foundation) Mitul K Saha said.

Talking to the FE he said the country has started exporting 'Jara Lemon' again after meeting all necessary requirements of the buyers.

Mitul said that the sector's export could reach a billion dollar mark in next few years with appropriating the global standardization method 'Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Policy' or GAP Policy.

It will help Bangladesh enter the mainstream export market that could boost the shipments of agricultural products of Bangladesh, he added.

The shipment of spices is also increasing significantly following a great demand of Bangladeshi spices around the world.

However, the country fetched $6.4 million by exporting spices in the first three months of FY'13 with an outstanding 103 per cent growth while overall export earnings from spices was $13.7 million in the last fiscal.

Cut flower hardly maintained its growth by fetching $14.70 in the period, 5.5 per cent up from the corresponding period of last fiscal.

Overall earning from flower was $50.5 million last fiscal.

Tea export showed a good sign as it achieved a 23 per cent growth but another cash crop tobacco witnessed a negative growth of more than twenty per cent in the July-September period of FY'13 over FY'12.

Agricultural products' over all income was nearly $403 million in FY'12 while the target for FY'13 has been fixed at $445.68 million.

The sector achieved 30 per cent of its target by September, EPB said.

Shared from : http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com

Samsung releases mid-range dual SIM smartphone

Friday, October 12, 2012

StarTech : The Daily Star

Samsung has released Galaxy S Duos S7562 also known as Kyle, a dual SIM smartphone, in the local market.

It is a mid-range smartphone.

Design wise, the S Duos is shorter version of Galaxy S3 with 121.5 x 63.1 x 10.5 mm in dimension and
weighs 120g. The device runs on Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS. It also has the latest the latest TouchWiz UI.

With 4-inch LCD WVGA display (480 x 800 pixels), the device is powered by 1 GHz processor.
It comes with built-in storage capacity of 4GB, which is expandable up to 32 GB.

The Galaxy Duos has 5MP camera with geo-tagging feature, which captures images at a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1920 pixels and VGA video recording capability at 30fps and a front-facing VGA camera.

The primary camera is placed at the back with LED flash. Loudspeaker is also placed at the back
The VGA camera is placed at the topside of the screen and beside it there is a proximity sensor.
At the bottom of the screen there are three buttons home, menu and back keys.

The power button and the hot-swappable microSD card slot are placed at the right side while volume controller is on the left side.

The 3.5 mm headphone jack is at the top of the device. And at the bottom there are microUSB port and the mouthpiece.

The Samsung Galaxy S Duos has SIM Manager to configure how calls and data are handled on both SIMs
The phone allows both SIMs to be active simultaneously .

There is an option to toggle the dual SIM Always on or off for either SIM.
The S Duos is available in the market at Tk 27,900.

Shared from :  http://www.thedailystar.net

Google in industry's 'defining fight' with Apple

Friday, October 12, 2012

StarTech : The daily star

Reuters, San Francisco

Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt expects more than a billion mobile devices around the world to be running its Android software within a year, intensifying a battle with Apple Inc that he called a "defining fight" of the industry.

Schmidt said there were already four times as many Android mobile gadgets - smartphones and tablets made by the likes of Samsung Electronics - and that the scale of the battle between the two firms was unprecedented.

"We've not seen ... competitive fights on this scale,"  he said during an interview with tech blog AllThingsDigital at New York's 92nd Street Y on Wednesday.

Google and Apple were once close partners, with Schmidt serving on Apple's board during part of his tenure as Google CEO. But the ties between the two have been strained by the rise of Google's Android mobile operating system, now the world's leading platform for smartphones and a direct threat to Apple's lucrative iPhone and iPad businesses.

As competition between the two companies has heated up, Apple has moved to cut its reliance on Google products by dumping YouTube from the new iPhone's pre-loaded selection of apps and replacing Google's mapping software on the iPhone with its own mapping service.

Apple's foray into mapping has not gone smoothly. Apple CEO Tim Cook was forced to issue a public apology earlier this month amid complaints that the product - based on Dutch navigation equipment maker and digital map maker TomTom NV's data - contained glaring geographic errors and gaps in information.
"What Apple has learned is that maps are really hard," Schmidt said. "We invested hundreds of millions of dollars in satellite work, airplane work, drive by work, to get the maps accurate."

But he added that the two technology companies were "always in communication with each other."
Schmidt also said he did not expect Google to become a significant player in China any time soon, following its 2010 standoff with the government over Web censorship and cyber-attacks that Google said originated in China.

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New online payment gateway system launched

IT & Telecom Desk

Casada Technology Bangladesh Ltd, a group of business professionals from Bangladesh, Canada, and USA, yesterday launched globally recognised online payment gateway system Payza (previously known as Alertpay) and its newest service simplysendBD.

Powered by UK based global online platform Payza, simplysendBD is a much more economical and simpler way of transferring remittance compared to other existing institutions.

The cost for sending up to USD $500 is USD $5 and for transferring money more than $500, the cost is $10.

This is opposite to the other such companies where the rate of transfer charges increase with the amount of money transferred.

Officials believe that the new service will have a positive impact on the economy of the nation through significantly reduced fees involved with remittance.

To avail the services of simplysendBD.com, one must sign up for a free account at Payza.com.
After that the Payza account holders will able to add funds to their Payza e-wallet, and send this money directly into the receiver's bank account by logging into simplysendBD.com.

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From the front line of creativity : : Shahriar Shahid : : The Daily Star

From the front line of creativity

Shahriar Shahid
Anyone who seeks creative inspiration in the areas of brand, marketing or business growth or simply wants to witness the transformation in the communication industry needs not to go any further than France. Every year the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the biggest advertising and communication festival in the world, descends on the southern French city of Cannes with the brightest creative minds from across the world and recognises the most creative works with the industry's most prestigious Cannes Lions awards. Agencies and professionals in Bangladesh are also taking preparations for the next year's festival. Philip Thomas, chief executive officer of the festival, shares his thoughts and facts of the event with The Daily Star.

Agencies in the past used to fight with their clients to let them bring creative works. But the clients found that too risky.

Now clients willingly take risks and go for creative works, as they now understand that it is the only way to flourish in a new market, said Philip Thomas.

Globalisation is the second big change.

The event began as a film advertising festival 59 years ago, and was launched shortly after the Cannes Lions Film Festival.

"For many years, it has been advertising only, for TV and cinema. And through 1990 onwards, it grew to include press advertising, and gradually we added things like outdoor, digital etc."

And in the last 4/5 years it has grown in scope from just advertising into something much bigger, encompassing all kinds of communication, he said.

But the core principle at Cannes festival remains the same: celebrating creativity that is the most important competitive tool for business.

In 2012, the festival received a total of 34,301 creative entries and more than 11,000 delegates, which is nearly 20 percent more than the previous year, making it the biggest ever Cannes festival in the history.

"So, we have spotted three significant trends from this increasing numbers of creative entries and delegates," said Thomas.

The first one is client engagements, he said. Clients wish to understand creativity now, and how creativity can amplify the work that they do.

So, many global clients, including Coca-Cola, P&G, Nestle and Unilever, are coming at the festival to learn and feel inspired by the great creative works, Thomas said.

 "They want to win Cannes Lions, they want to improve their creativity and this has been a big change."
In previous years, the fiesta was very dominated by the west, the US, Europe, Australia and South Africa, where more winners and delegates are now coming from the emerging countries.

"This year we had a Grand Prix winner from Puerto Rico, the first Grand Prix ever from there. Two years ago, we had a Grand Prix winner from India, and now we have our gold winners coming from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Columbia, Uruguay and the Middle East."

Thomas said he thinks the biggest change in the industry is the diversification of people who are participating in the festival.

"So, it's not just clients and advertising agencies, its mobile specialists, digital specialists, Hollywood studios, music companies, TV companies, TV networks, Google, Facebook, Tweeter, large newspaper groups, branded entertainment specialists, and many more."

Cannes festival is also a great ground of celebration and networking, he said. "We all know the business benefit to it."

But the most significant contribution of Cannes festival is the Cannes Lions awards, which mean a lot to the ad agencies as well as to the clients.

Thomas said the works that came and won Lions at Cannes in 2012 presented the changing scenario of the industry.

One of the Grand Prix winners of this year was a solar energy company's annual report that has a special paint on the pages, he said.

Other big winner of this year was the Nike Fuel Band, he said.
"It's a product. But the advertising is all about behaviour, it's about behaviour of the brand, what the brand wants you to do, it's about behaviour of the consumers."

All Cannes winners are very innovative. "They use technology, they all use human insights and they all are very brave in what they do."

On new categories, he said: "Each year we have to reflect what's happening in the industry. We talked for four years for launching Mobile Content and Advertising category."
He said they were very careful in adding new categories, as those have to be a success for everybody.

"It can't be too early, can't be too late. So we thought this year is the right time for mobile and we expected around 400 entries but we got around 1,000 entries for mobile content and advertising."

On Young Lions, he said it is very essential to bring new talents.
"We have Young Lions competition all over the world and that's one of the most attractive aspects of this festival. And we are very excited having teams from Bangladesh as well."

This year, Young Lions from Columbia won the Design award, he said, adding that anyone can win the award, as all of the young kids are genius.
"This year there were around 45 Young Lions teams from 45 different countries who were selected through competition in their own country."

imtomal@gmail.com

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কম্পিউটারের বাজার খেয়ে ফেলছে ট্যাবলেট-স্মার্টফোন

কম্পিউটারের বাজার খেয়ে ফেলছে ট্যাবলেট-স্মার্টফোন মুহাম্মদ শরীফ হোসেন

কম্পিউটার হারিয়ে যায়নি, তবে প্রযুক্তি বিশ্বে রাজত্ব হারিয়েছে। যে রাজত্ব এখন ট্যাবলেট এবং স্মার্টফোনের দখলে। ২০০৯ সালে মাইক্রোসফট ছিল বিশ্বের সবচেয়ে বড় প্রযুক্তি প্রতিষ্ঠান, সেই স্থানটিই এখন দখল করে নিয়েছে অ্যাপল এবং গুগল। তৃতীয় স্থান নিয়েই সন্তুষ্ট থাকতে হচ্ছে মাইক্রোসফটকে। এমনকি একসময়ের জায়ান্ট হিউলেট-পেকার্ড (এইচপি) এবং ডেল এখন বিক্রি কমার আতঙ্কে ভুগছে। যেখানে বাজার করে নিচ্ছে ট্যাবলেট ও স্মার্টফোন।
গত বৃহস্পতিবার যুক্তরাষ্ট্রভিত্তিক প্রযুক্তি গবেষণা প্রতিষ্ঠান আইডিসি জানায়, জুলাই থেকে সেপ্টেম্বর প্রান্তিকে মোট পিসি বিক্রি হয় ৮৭ দশমিক ৮ মিলিয়ন ইউনিট, যা আগের বছরে একই সময়ের তুলনায় ৮.৬ শতাংশ কম। ২০১১ সালের তৃতীয় প্রান্তিকে পিসি বিক্রি হয় ৯৬ দশমিক ০৮ মিলিয়ন ইউনিট। যদিও আইডিসির পূর্বাভাস ছিল বিক্রি ৩.৮ শতাংশ কমবে। প্রতিষ্ঠানটি বলছে, বিক্রি কমার কারণ বিশ্বমন্দার পাশাপাশি ক্রেতাদের ট্যাবলেট এবং স্মার্টফোনের দিকে ঝোঁকা।
আইডিসির সিনিয়র বিশ্লেষক জে চুউ বলেন, পিসির বাজার দ্রুত পড়ছে। তিনি বলেন, দ্বিতীয় প্রান্তিকে বাজার বড়ভাবে পড়বে_এমন আশঙ্কা ছিল, এখন তৃতীয় প্রান্তিকেও বড় ধরনের ধাক্কা এসেছে। আইডিসির আরেক বিশ্লেষক ডেভিড দাউদ বলেন, পিসির বাজার খেয়ে ফেলছে দ্রুত ক্রেতাদের পছন্দ হওয়া ট্যাবলেট। তবে তাঁর মতে, বিশ্ব অর্থনীতি শ্লথ হওয়ার কারণেও পিসির বাজার কিছুটা কমেছে। আইডিসি কোনো পরিসংখ্যান না দিয়ে জানায়, জাপান ছাড়া এশিয়ার দেশগুলোয় বছরের তৃতীয় প্রান্তিকে পিসি বিক্রি আগের বছরের একই সময়ের তুলনায় কমেছে। আইডিসির পূর্বাভাস অনুযায়ী এ বছর পিসি বিক্রি হয়েছে ৩৬৭ মিলিয়ন ইউনিট।
অন্যদিকে ক্রেতাদের দ্রুত পছন্দসই হয়ে ওঠা ট্যাবলেট নিয়ে বিশ্লেষকরা বলেন, চলতি বছর ট্যাবলেটের বাজার ১০ কোটি ছাড়াবে। গবেষণা প্রতিষ্ঠান এবিআই জানায়, চলতি বছরের এপ্রিল-জুন প্রান্তিকে ট্যাবলেট শিপমেন্টে নতুন রেকর্ড হয়। প্রতিষ্ঠানটির বাজার গবেষণায় দেখা যায়, বছরের দ্বিতীয় প্রান্তিকে ট্যাবলেট চালান হয় প্রায় দুই কোটি ৫০ লাখ ইউনিট, যা আগের প্রান্তিকের চেয়ে ৩৬ শতাংশ বেশি এবং এক বছর আগের একই সময়ের চেয়ে ৭৭ শতাংশ বেশি। এবিআইয়ের প্রাথমিক হিসাব অনুযায়ী মোট চালানের ৬৯ শতাংশই হয়েছে অ্যাপলের আইপ্যাড। এবিআই বিশ্লেষক জেফ ওর বলেন, ২০১০ সালে যেখানে সব কম্পানির মিলে ট্যাবলেট চালান হয় ১৭ দশমিক ৩ মিলিয়ন, সেখানে শুধু চলতি বছরের দ্বিতীয় প্রান্তিকে অ্যাপল একাই ১৭ মিলিয়ন চালান করেছে, যা নিঃসন্দেহে ট্যাবলেটের বাজার নিয়ে একটি চমকপ্রদ তথ্য। ওর বলেন, ২০১২ সালে বিশ্বব্যাপী ট্যাবলেট ১০ কোটি ২০ লাখ থেকে ১১ কোটি চালান হবে।
এবিআই গবেষণা প্রতিষ্ঠানের মতে, ২০১৬ সাল নাগাদ ট্যাবলেট কম্পিউটার নোটবুক পিসির বাজার অতিক্রম করবে। কারণ ক্রেতারা এখন অ্যাপলের আইপ্যাডের দিকে ঝুঁকছেন। গবেষণা প্রতিষ্ঠান পিউর জরিপে দেখা গেছে, আমেরিকান বয়স্কদের ৮৫ শতাংশের একটি সেলফোন রয়েছে। ৪৫ শতাংশের একটি স্মার্টফোন রয়েছে এবং ১৮ শতাংশের ট্যাবলেট কম্পিউটার রয়েছে।
স্মার্টফোনের বাজারেও চলছে এখন রমরমা ব্যবসা। গত মাসে বাজারে এসেই অ্যাপলের আইফোন-৫ বিক্রি হয়েছে ৫০ লাখ ইউনিট। এ ছাড়া ফোর্বস ম্যাগাজিনের জরিপে বিশ্বের সবচেয়ে বড় ব্র্যান্ড এখন অ্যাপল। যে অর্জন এসেছে স্মার্টফোনের বাজার থেকে। এ ছাড়া স্মার্টফোন বিক্রি করে এখন স্যামসাং মোবাইল ফোনের সবচেয়ে বড় কম্পানি হয়ে উঠেছে।
তবে পিসির এ মন্দা বাজারেও কিছু কম্পানি টিকে থাকার লড়াই করছে। সবচেয়ে বেশি বিক্রি করে মার্কেট শেয়ার ১৫.৯ শতাংশ ধরে রেখেছে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রভিত্তিক কম্পানি এইচপি। দ্বিতীয় পর্যায়ে রয়েছে চীনা কম্পানি লেনোভো। যার মার্কেট শেয়ার ১৫.৭ শতাংশ। অন্যদিকে মার্কেট শেয়ার ১০.৮ শতাংশ দিয়ে বাজারে তৃতীয় অবস্থানে রয়েছে ডেল। এএফপি।Shared from : http://www.kalerkantho.com

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