As part of an effort to help small and medium sized enterprises in India, Google today announced it would slash the cost of its Google Apps for Business suite in the country by almost half.

Citing the miniscule percentage of small businesses in the country that are online – just 1 percent of 47 million - Google has committed itself to offering its business services to the myriad of up-and-coming enterprises at a reduced price.

Access to the Google Apps for Business suite formerly cost INR 2700 (about $48.73) at an annual rate and INR 270 ($4.87) at a monthly rate, Indian businesses can now use the services for INR 1500 at an annual rate (about $27.07) or for INR 150 (about $2.70) at a monthly rate. The price drop marks a decrease of about 45 percent.

With the reduction in cost, millions of Indian businesses can now more easily access web mail, calendars, cloud storage, and video chat, and other basic functions that are essential to running a business online in this day and age. Even though internet access isn’t widespread in some parts of India,

“By making Google Apps more affordable, we hope more small businesses in India will be able to access a business-ready package of communication and collaboration tools and reap the benefits of working in the cloud,” says Judy Chang, a representative for Google Apps for Business.

Considering the how the high cost of Microsoft Office often leads to counterfeits and piracy in rising Asian nations, an affordable Google Apps for Business suite might prove a preferable alternative for those in India who recognize the benefits of using legitimate software.

The move might seem a little counterintuitive to some observers, as last year Google announced it had formally ended free access to Google Apps. By lowering the cost of the service in emerging economies, however, Google can provide invaluable assistance to emerging economies, while continuing to reap a sizable, if reduced, financial benefit.

Image credit via Shutterstock

Microsoft’s unveiling of the Xbox One yesterday caused quite a stir among the gaming community. The mixed messages regarding always-on and always-online (which are two completely different concepts by the way) and pre-owned games didn’t help either.

The larger concern surrounds Microsoft’s messaging to its core audience. The reliance on multimedia functionality, such as the ability to switch between live TV and Xbox apps using Kinect-enabled voice commands, was seen by many as a distraction from what Microsoft’s presentation should have been about. Video games.

Video games are, after all, what the original Xbox was designed to do. First and foremost, it’s what every video game system up until now was supposed to do. For all the extra ‘bells and whistles’, any console that didn’t provide an adequate gaming experience was deemed a failure. And rightly so.

Sony made a conscious effort at its PlayStation 4 reveal event to position the new hardware as a console for gamers. Almost everything the company showed was directed at this core audience. The hardware specifications, the exclusive games, the presence of industry heavyweights such as Mark Cerny and Jonathan Blow all added to the idea that this was a ‘hardcore’ event.

It wasn’t for the masses. That, presumably, is for E3.

Microsoft has a strong following of ‘core’ gamers due to its robust Xbox Live service. It also gets early access to downloadable content for juggernaut franchises such as Call of Duty, adding to the perception that it’s the preferred system for competitive multiplayer.

The launch of Kinect signalled a fundamental shift of the Xbox brand, however, towards a new form of interactive hardware. Microsoft wants the Xbox One to be the intermediary solution for all content consumption, including live and on-demand TV, music and games. It’s why the push for apps such as Netflix, Xbox Music and ESPN has been so strong in recent times.

So make no mistake; Microsoft is gearing the Xbox One as an all-in-one set-top box, that just so happens to have some of the most powerful and robust video game hardware under the hood.

The Internet was awash with comments last night about the lack of games being shown and in particular, the almost complete absence of gameplay footage. The pre-owned and always online debacle was also in full effect, but that’s an argument for another time. Gamers took issue with the fact that they were considered second-class citizens again to the wider public.

That message isn’t going to change anytime soon. As far as Microsoft is concerned, it has the video game experience nailed down right now. The company is now looking afield to its next wave of competitors; streaming boxes such as Roku, Google TV and the long-rumored Apple TV.

Before Apple makes a move in this space, Microsoft has a crucial window to position the Xbox One as a new type of hardware; not a gaming console, but a full entertainment system that is the best at delivering every type of content as quickly and effortlessly as possible.

That was the message Microsoft delivered yesterday. Gamers can question whether it was the right time to deliver that particular line; it was perhaps a mis-step given that the event would have been seen almost exclusively by the press, gamers and publishers, rather than the general public that tune into E3.

The truth, in the end, is that the Xbox One is no longer just a video game console. For Microsoft, it represents an awful lot more.

Following accusations of dumping and illegal government subsidies, Chinese telecom firm ZTE yesterday released a formal statement denying any involvement in foul play.

Along with Huawei, another leading Chinese telecommunications equipment provider, ZTE last week found itself at the center of controversy when European Union Trade Commissioner accused it of dumping its products onto European shores, thereby creating a “distorted playing field.”

ZTE issued a public statement firmly defending itself against the allegations:

ZTE’s success in the international telecommunications market is built on the company’s innovative design, quality service and ability to customize products for clients at short notice. ZTE receives no illegal or hidden subsidies, and does not dump products in any market where the company operates. ZTE will continue to grow its investment in Europe, as the region is a key strategic overseas market for the company.

Wisely, ZTE has avoided airing political rhetoric this time. Chinese firms, when faced with international criticism, are apparently revising their PR strategies and opting for a more measured approach.

Huawei has remained equally insistent. When news of the accusations first broke, Huawei company spokesman Tao Jingwen told Chinese state media “We hope the EU listens to our customers. Our low prices alone cannot win market share. It is only quality products and services which conform with the laws and regulations that are acceptable to our clients.” He also warned of “strong actions” against the EU should it choose to go forth with an investigation. European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said that if the allegations are proven to be true, the EU could impose a tariff of 47% on ZTE and Huawei.

ZTE recently made headlines when it officially ended its operations in Iran, following an investigation launched after it violated agreements with the US by selling telecom equipment to the Iranian government (possibly for espionage purposes).

ZTE and Huawei were both deemed security threats by the US government in Fall of last year, and imports from both companies to US public institutions have been banned.

(Hat tip – Telecom Asia)

Image credit: STR/AFP/GettyImages

NTT Docomo, Japan’s top operator, has expanded its international presence after it announced the $130 million (12.7 billion yen) acquisition of MCV, a cable TV and Internet provider in Guam. Yes, that’s right, the lovely Pacific island of Guam.

The deal, which went through yesterday, sees Docomo wholly acquire ‘MCV Acquisition’, the holding company behind MCV, which is the island country’s largest provider of Web and TV services.

Docomo says that the deal is a strategic one that will enhance its business in the region but linking up to the MCV fiber optic network. The operator also says that will not only enhance its mobile networks in the region, but also link up to the MCV fiber optic network

The MCV deal has been in the pipeline for some time — after Docomo won the bid to acquire it last year — and it secured crucial government approval in April. That left the share purchase agreement, and a couple of other details, left to close — after which deal was completed.

MCV joins the Docomo Pacific portfolio. Speaking back in April, a Docomo representative said that there were no plans to make changes to the MCV business in Guam, which is likely to be a relief to its customers.

Well, there you have it, but you may be surprised to hear that this is actually not the first time that we’ve written about Guam. The country got our attention back in 2009 when the iPhone launched there.

Images via geishabot and showbizsuperstar / both from Flickr

Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing software company, has unveiled four new mobile solutions for governments that it says will help better connect them with their constituents.

Starting today, federal, state, and local agencies can take advantage of Rapid Response 311, Mobile Communities for Government, the Government Social Command Center, and Platform Mobile Services for Government.

Saying that governments are facing the same technology shifts as the private sector, Salesforce believes that there’s a customer revolution taking place where citizens are using social media to air their grievances, so governments need to be paying better attention.

The company believes that government agencies may be falling behind the curve if they’re not paying attention to social conversations. With the introduction of its mobile offerings, Salesforce thinks agencies will be better equipped to handle citizen feedback.

Mobile technology is important for governments because when citizens have complaints, they’re not going to wait until they get home to share it on the Internet — they will instead take out their smartphone and upload a photo or compose a Tweet or status update. According to the research group IDC, nearly 90 percent of all smart connected devices shipped in 2012 were mobile.

By being mobile-enabled, governments can not only communicate with citizens, but also collaborate with its partners, accelerate projects, and show the world that it is transparent and open to receiving feedback.

Rapid Response 311

Similar to mobile civic engagement service CitySourced, Salesforce’s Rapid Response 311 is a mobile app that governments can offer for citizens to submit problems they would like fixed in their neighborhood.

Citizen users would find an issue, say a pothole, and in the app, input details about the problem and where it’s located. A photo could also be attached to the ticket request. Once done, the user would submit it to the appropriate agency. Other options in the app include being able to check a request status, or access the city’s knowledge bank.

Once received, within Salesforce, a government agent will view details about the request and can find information related to resolving the problem. A telephony component is integrated giving agents the power to call the submission user for more information.

Government Social Command Center

With Rapid Response 311, governments are able to support individual requests. However, using Salesforce’s Social Command Center, the company says agencies are able to be more proactive in monitoring what their constituents are saying about the city or town and about the government and find ways to fix the problem.

Salesforce says that this command center is not a room filled with computers and people monitoring activity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Rather, with its mobile offering, governments can have agents working around town and checking in right from their phone or tablet device to monitor sentiment and opinions relating to rising issues, impacts of policy, how government services are being received, and more.

Mobile Communities for Government

Leveraging Salesforce Communities, which was unveiled earlier this month, the company is enabling governments to create dedicated spaces for not only their internal teams, but also for citizens and partners to congregate and discuss issues. Salesforce believes that this will help accelerate collaboration and get things done — no longer will meetings be delayed due to scheduling or lack of information.

Platform Mobile Services for Government

The last of its mobile offerings, Salesforce is bringing Force.com and Heroku to the public sector to help produce mobile apps that it hopes will expedite development so it doesn’t take years to complete a project.

The company thinks that with the state of the economy and tightened budgets, agencies are looking to have employees work away from the office. However, they need to have the necessary tools to get their work done. Instead of waiting for an exorbitantly long amount of time, Salesforce is making it possible for government apps to be built on any device.

Salesforce currently has more than 500 government agencies using its services, including the US Census Bureau, the Food and Drug Administration, the Colorado Statewide Internet Portal Authority, City of Boston, Michigan Health Information Network, and the New Jersey Transit Authority.

Photo credit: Thinkstock

CanvasDropr, a Danish collaboration software company that we profiled a year ago almost to the day, has a few things to announce today.

First of all, the company has decided to rename its visual collaboration tool, which was named CanvasDropr like the company but will henceforth be known as Kollaborate.io.

In addition, the startup will bring its collaboration software products (including its real-time presentation tool Presentation.io, which we covered earlier this year) together under a new brand name, Assemblage, which will be the overall company name from this point forward.

Aside from Kollaborate.io and Presentation.io, the third product under the Assemblage umbrella brand is Reaktify, a realtime feedback analytics tool that helps website owners get to know their users.

The company has more to announce than just the rebranding, though.

CanvasDropr, I guess now Assemblage, has also signed a deal to partner with Tibco on the latter’s Tibbr platform to pitch its realtime visual collaboration tools to their 1.5 million paying users.

The company says more details about the partnership will be revealed mid-June 2013, which is weird.

Assemblage also has a new CEO, having appointed long-time entrepreneur and angel investor Jeff Coe to take over the role.

Top image credit: Thinkstock

Following the appointment of a 30-year-old CEO last week, Japan’s social networking site Mixi, the local rival of Facebook in the country, has continued efforts to freshen up its image by investing in two local startups.

Mixi disclosed its investments in CloudStudy and Reventive at a financial results briefing by  incoming CEO Yusuke Asakura, according to a report on Startup-Dating.

The Japanese firm will plough 72 million yen ($700,000) into CloudStudy, accounting for 20% of its total funding to date. CloudStudy’s main offering is a social learning management platform called StudyPlus, which allows users to log their study hours and content and to share the progress with other users if they want to.

Mixi didn’t reveal its investment figure for Reventive, but it was somewhere in the tens of millions of yen, Startup-Dating said. Retentive’s main offering is a Path-like app called Close, which caps the number of friends to nine people and aims at allowing users to connect only to the most important people in their lives. The startup has other investors including Sunbridge Global Ventures and some angel investors, making up a total investment of 70 million yen.

Mixi is struggling to revamp its image, taking steps to inject more youth and appeal, as it has seen a continued decline in Japan. Last September, Facebook overtook Mixi as it hit 15 million monthly active users in the country - a significant moment since Japan had been one of the few remaining markets where Facebook was not the dominant network.

Holy monster funding round.

ZALORA, the South-East Asian online beauty and fashion store started in 2012 by Germany-based startup accelerator Rocket Internet, has raised $100 million (not a typo) from regular Rocket co-investors Summit Partners, Kinnevik and Tengelmann Group, along with Verlinvest.

JP Morgan invested in the business last year.

The rounds marks one of the largest e-commerce investments in the emerging South-East Asia market and comes just two months after Tengelmann’s initial $26 million investment in ZALORA.

Tengelmann Group is a well-known name in the European retail industry, operating over 4,000 stores in 15 different countries, and employing more than 80,000 people. It claims 10 billion euros in annual turnover.

ZALORA says it recently delivered its one millionth order, which it notably did just over a year after its launch.

The company currently operates in nine countries and its portfolio boasts products from 500 local and international brands.

ZALORA employs more than 1,000 people in total.

Also read:

Lazada, Rocket’s Amazon clone in Asia, raises ‘close to $20m’ to develop its e-commerce marketplace

Why Southeast Asia is the world’s most exciting region for startups and tech in 2013

Image credit: Thinkstock

In November, Microsoft and 21Vianet announced that they were working together to bring Azure, a infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service product, to China. Today the firms stated that the service will go live on June 6th.

21Vianet, a Chinese company, claims that it is the “largest carrier-neutral Internet data center services provider” in the country, making it a sensical fit for Microsoft.

21Vianet has 81 data centers in 42 cities in China, meaning that it can serve Azure effectively in the country. Microsoft previously estimated that the number of firms that could use Azure in China is in the “millions.”

And, a key point: It is something of an early mover in the country. Amazon’s AWS suite of cloud products that compete with Azure have a data center in Singapore, and has a minor presence in Hong Kong.

The Azure-21Vianet has a hardware and scale advantage. It’s worth nothing, of course, that Amazon’s AWS services enjoy more market and mind share in most of the world, most notably in the United States. Still, China is a massive market, which could help Microsoft untip the current market facts.

Azure recently announced that its revenues had reached a run rate of $1 billion per year. Azure also recently announced that it is heading to Australia.

A short take on how seriously Microsoft takes Azure’s move to China: They sent Steve Ballmer, and the US Ambassador to China, Gary Locke, was on hand at the launch event. This is a big-dollar deal.

Final caveat: Given the public issues regarding cybersecurtiy and hacking, Azure in China could be a sensitive affair; if there is even a whiff of government interference, Microsoft could lose brand equity in other regions; the Chinese Internet market is in some ways unique, both positive and negative. Let’s hope that when it comes to data security, and government non-intervention, Microsoft has its path straight.

Top Image Credit: futureatlas.com

Remember Raining.fm, the Web app that streams the sound of rain and, erm, that’s about it?

Well, rather than being a quirky one-off, Raining.fm has now gone mobile – that’s right, you can now listen to repetitious rain loops on the move.

Raining.fm streams on to mobile

Now, I love the sound of rain as much as the next guy – there’s something very soothing about the pitter patter. But I just never in a million years imagined such an app would prove to be a viable product. However, Raining.fm notched up 100,000 unique visitors last month alone, which isn’t bad all things considering.

“One of the best things about Raining.fm for me is receiving emails from people around the world telling me how the site has helped them,” explains the founder, who goes by the name of ‘Neil’. “From military personnel and professors, to students and executives, Raining.fm can make anyone’s day, including my own.”

Costing $1.99, the mobile app – available for Android and iOS – is actually very nicely designed, featuring a rolling rain track with a volume control, and three different weather extremities.

It would’ve been a nice touch to include an animated GIF of falling raindrops, but we’ll have to make do with a revolving carousel of rain-related stills. You can choose from the original slideshow as seen on Raining.fm, plus a separate slideshow from a Facebook photo contest that was launched last year. The choice is yours.

Interestingly, you can also create your own custom rain mix, with individual volume controls for each element.

Now, you also have two timers at your disposal, one that fades and counts down to turning off – say, if you want to go to bed. And one that counts down to turning on, say, if you want to take a break.

“There has been an overwhelming demand for a Raining.fm mobile app, but we didn’t want to just rush out a bug-filled, bad quality app,” explains Neil. “We have taken the time to polish and refine our new app to make sure it is fun and easy to use just like our site. We are really excited to share the new app with everyone, and hope they love it as much as I do.”

An utterly simple and bonkers app you’ll no doubt agree, but if you love rain, you’ll love this. Raining.fm is available to download now, costing $1.99 (yup), which is a little cheaper than the likes of Rainy Mood.

➤ Raining.fm – Android | iOS

Disclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our Terms of Service

Feature Image Credit – Thinkstock