BMW India’s 2017 sales up 25%
New Delhi– BMW India on Thursday reported a growth of 25 per cent in its annual sales for 2017.
According to the company, its annual sales increased to 9,379 cars in 2017.
The BMW Group delivered 9,800 cars including those sold under BMW India and its Mini brand.
Airtel, Vodafone offer cashback on Samsung smartphones
New Delhi– In a bid to make 4G smartphones affordable to consumers, telecom services provider Bharti Airtel and Vodafone on Thursday announced cashback offers worth up to Rs 1,500 on Samsung’s J series devices.
“Four models from Samsung’s Galaxy J-series including J2 (2017), J5 Prime, J7 Prime and J7 Pro will be available with cashback offers, bringing down their effective prices,” Airtel said in a statement.
Samsung Galaxy J2 (2017) will now be available for Rs 5,490 (earlier price Rs 6,990), J5 Prime will cost Rs 10,490 (earlier price Rs 11,990), J7 Prime will cost Rs 12,400 (earlier price Rs 13,900) while J7 Pro will be available at Rs 18,400 (earlier price Rs 19,900).
The cashback amount will be given to users over a period of 24 months.
“Users who make recharges worth Rs 2,500 over a period of 12 months, will be eligible for the first cashback of Rs 300,” Airtel added.
These devices will come bundled with Airtel’s recharge pack worth Rs 199 that offers 1GB data per day and unlimited calling.
Meanwhile, Vodafone also tied up with Samsung and announced a cashback offer worth Rs 1,500 on Galaxy J2 Pro, Galaxy J7 Nxt and Galaxy J7 Max smartphones.
“Prepaid customers have to simply recharge with Rs 198 per month for a period of 24 months. Postpaid users can opt for any Vodafone “Red Plan” to become eligible for a cashback of Rs 600 after first 12 months. After another 12 months, they will get a cashback of Rs 900 in their Vodafone M-Pesa wallets,” Vodafone said in a statement.
Australia aims to become top cannabis exporter
Canberra– The Australian government on Thursday said it aspires to be the world’s leading exporter of medicinal cannabis.
The country plans to change its regulations to join Canada and the Netherlands in selling products beyond a domestic market. Uruguay and Israel have announced similar plans, the BBC reported.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said the move would also help local patients.
“Our goal is very clear: to give Australian farmers and manufacturers the best shot at being the world’s number one exporter of medicinal cannabis,” Hunt said.
Australia legalised the use of medicinal cannabis in 2016. Using the drug for recreation remains illegal.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the changes would extend to products including oils, patches, sprays, lozenges and tablets.
Hunt said the change would stimulate the local industry, benefiting Australian patients as much as businesses, the BBC reported.
Earlier this week, California became the largest US state to legalise the use of recreational cannabis.
LG may supply OLED display for next Apple iPhone
Seoul– Samsung may soon not be the only supplier of OLED displays for Apple. The iPhone maker is reportedly finalising talks with LG on an OLED supply deal which could see the latter provide its panels for this year’s iPhone with edge-to-edge display.
“LG is likely to ship a relatively small number of panels — 15 to 16 million — in the second half of the year,” AppleInsider reported late on Wednesday.
“Apple is said to have pumped $2.7 billion into LG as an advance payment for OLED panels. At the time it was thought that the order was for panels shipping in 2019,” the report added.
This year’s iPhone is expected to be a mega-sized version of the iPhone X and could be purportedly named “iPhone X Plus”.
The Cupertino-based giant is expected to launch a 5.8-inch device alongside a 6.5-inch iPhone with OLED displays.
LG Display will supply Apple with the 6.5-inch OLED panels while Samsung will supply the 5.8-inch or 6-inch OLED panels, according to MacRumors.
The LCD panels which are currently being used in the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are supplied by LG.
However, its South Korean rival Samsung dominates supply of OLED displays for Apple’s flagship iPhone X.
It is believed that Apple will switch to OLED displays for all of its iPhone releases in 2019.
This is the reason Apple roped in LG to be its OLED display supplier when it already had Samsung — that owns 95 per cent market share of mobile OLED panels — in its league.
It is not just Apple that is investing in LG OLED display. Google has also realised LG’s potential and invested $900 million in OLED production for its first OLED smartphone, an earlier Investor report said. (IANS)
