10 Flop Gadgets Of 2014

The year 2014 saw several blockbuster products.

Products that not only made news but were also loved both by reviewers and users. And with them there were also some which failed to live up to the expectations.

Here are some notable tech fizzles of the year 2014.

1. Amazon Fire Phone

Amazon's smartphone debut is among the biggest tech flops of all times. Like other Amazon products, Fire phone is a gateway to the company's digital store and offers features that enable them to shop more seamlessly.

It even boasts of gimmicky features including Dynamic Perspective that uses five cameras to track users' eyes and navigate the interface by tilting the phone.

It also comes with one-touch access to customer support and unlimited cloud storage. Unfortunately, the phone's $650 price ensured that it didn't move shelves and Amazon had to eventually slash the price to clear inventory.

2. BlackBerry Passport

Passport was another attempt by BlackBerry to get back into the reckoning as the maker of premium, productivity-focused communication devices.

But, thanks to its awkward shape and high price, the smartphone failed to get much traction.

The keyboard takes a lot of time to get used to and still doesn't offer a fluid and fast typing experience that BlackBerry phones were known for.

The half baked-Android apps support also did not help. The company tried its best to pitch it as a productivity-focused device in an era where Android and iOS offer better capabilities and people are giving up on physical keyboards.

3. Android One Phones

Google's Android One initiative aimed to offer a no-frills, smooth smartphone experience to users of entry-level phones.

However, the online-only sales model and apathy of partner OEMs (who were also peddling their own, similarly priced phones) led to the failure of Android One.

Leading physical retail chains and dealers reportedly refused to sell these phones. Google promised Nexus-like early software updates but the tech giant is yet to announce the rollout of Android Lollipop, the latest version of Android, for Android One.

4. Firefox OS Phones

Firefox OS made its India debut with Intex, Spice and Alcatel branded smartphones.

At a price close to Rs 2,000, the devices were branded as the cheapest smartphones in the market.

However, the underwhelming hardware performance and lack of software optimization left users frustrated and even basic like making and receiving calls and sending messages was a pain. 

A major part of the phones' functionality depends on the internet and given the current state of connectivity in India, these are not ready for smaller towns and rural areas. 

5. Google Nexus 6

Google's Nexus smartphones are essentially developer-focused phones that of late gained popularity among the masses due to their affordable price.

The Nexus 6, however, is a big aberration owing to its large form factor and 6-inch display.

While Google's latest flagship sports top-of-the-line hardware including a QHD display Snapdragon 805 processor, 3GB RAM, 3,220mAh battery, the starting price of nearly Rs 44,000 keeps it out of reach of Nexus fans and developers who don't have deep pockets.

6. Apple IPad Mini 3

While the iPad Air 2 was a decent upgrade, the 2014 iteration of iPad mini was a disappointment. The only major new feature that the iPad mini 3 sports is the Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

Apple has also introduced a gold colour option. Other than these, both iPad mini 3 and iPad mini 2, which was earlier called iPad mini with Retina display, have identical 7.9-inch screens with 2048x1536p resolution.

Apple hasn't even given iPad mini 3 a processor upgrade, so the new iPad mini and its predecessor run on the same 64-bit A7 processor and feature the same M7 motion coprocessor.

The new tablet costs Rs 7,000 more than its predecessor and we feel, is not a worthy upgrade.

7. LG G3

LG's 2014 flagship couldn't really reach the heights that its predecessor achieved. The phone's headline feature, its QHD or 2K display, was also the reason for the problems that users who bought the phone, experienced.

Despite being powered by a 2.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor and 3GB RAM, the display took a toll on performance and led to lag and stutter.

Battery backup was also sub-par compared to the LG G2 and the plastic, removable back in place of the unibody form factor, made the phone feel less premium.

The QHD display is more about adding to the spec list and doesn't feel really different compared to full-HD screens. 

8. Nokia X Series

Nokia's X series marked the company's entry into Android land (sort of).

Surprisingly, the launch came at a time when the company's deal with Microsoft to acquire its devices business was about to close.

The phones faced an identity crisis as these were sandwiched between the Asha and Lumia phones and did not have access to Google's services.

In fact, Google services were replaced by Microsoft's. With budget Android phones getting better, Nokia's X series phones did not find many takers.

After the completion of the Microsoft deal, the Redmond giant abandoned the project, making the X-series a lab experiment of sorts.

9. LG G Watch

LG's first smartwatch and one of Google's first Android Wear devices, LG G Watch, was listed on the Google Play Store in India at a price of Rs 14,999, in June.

After October, the watch was being sold online for as low a price as Rs 6,000, perhaps in a bid to clear stocks.

Android Wear is still at a nascent stage and a lot of its functionality is based on mirroring the smartphone that it's connected with.

The one day battery life was also a big downside. While Google is releasing updates to make these watches more functional, these are still niche devices being picked up only by early adopters.

10. Panasonic Eluga U

Panasonic's much hyped flagship smartphone turned out to be a mediocre Android offering.

Barring the good battery life and decent performance, there was nothing that made it stand out.

The Nexus 4-like design language wasn't fresh, the 720p display was not very vibrant and the camera suffered from shutter lag.

Launched at a price of Rs 18,990, there was no reason you would pick this phone over the Asus ZenFone 5 or Motorola Moto G which were much cheaper.

Online startup boom: What made the year 2014 special

The Indian entrepreneurship eco system got its biggest fillip in 2014 as the year saw an unprecedented number of new businesses spring up, aided by an exuberant investor sentiment around startups. As more Indians took to their smartphones to access the internet, in many cases for the first time, numerous consumer technology ventures were built to cater to this growing population.

But what vastly differentiated 2014 from the previous years was the never-seen-before amount of capital that was funnelled into these digital companies across all stages.

It wasn't only the bigger online commerce players which received gobs of money , thanks to the trickle-down effect even the early-stage startups were flush with funds. The entrepreneurial zeal was palpable across food technology, online travel, grocery delivery, offline-to-online services, all of which were the preferred sectors for starting up as a total of 1,259 new ventures sprouted through the year.

Sample this: in the food tech space, for instance, out of 145 companies that operate in the country , 66 were created in 2014; almost half of the 83 local and home services ventures that exist today were built this year, according to data provided by Tracxn, which curates information about Indian startups and private companies.

Catch 'em young
"Just in the last six months, I have seen a massive uptick in the number of startups looking for funding at all stages. What makes this even more exciting is that the quality of startups continues to rise with the numbers going up," says Pankaj Jain, venture partner at 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley seed fund & accelerator.

As many as 270 early-stage investments were made in startups this year, with venture capital funds starting to make seed investments and further strengthening the domestic startup story. The VCs' intent was to catch these entrepreneurs early on at lower valuations, triggering the fight for who gets in first.

"More of the very early stage startups with little or no revenues received angel and VC backing. Driving this were new entrepreneurs starting businesses based on proven models in the US; we saw things like food tech and financial tech become buzzwords.Investors came into these companies very early ," says Rehan Yar Khan, an angel investor who raised Rs 300 crore in September to start an India-domiciled venture capital fund Orios Venture Partners.

Traditionally, VCs would leave it for angel funds and individual investors to plough in riskier, seed capital, but not anymore. "We saw a tectonic shift happening in the Indian entrepreneurship ecosystem with a once-in-a-lifetime confluence of unique factors of ever younger, driven and fearless entrepreneurs in a deepened, growing and well-funded market," says Avnish Bajaj, MD at Matrix Partners India, which made six seed-stage investments like Limetray and GrownOut, this year.

Big theme: mobile internet
Even as early-stage investments gained traction, the big winners as far as attracting disproportionate amounts of investor money were the later-stage ventures in the consumer tech startup space -in particular the online commerce biggies.
An eye-popping 46 funding rounds later, Indian e-commerce raised $3 billion this year, according to Tracxn -- the funding was largely split between Flipkart and Snapdeal. The China comparisons grew louder for Indian e-tailers after the much-ballyhooed IPO of Jack Ma's Alibaba earlier this year.

The next five years of India (internet and mobile) would be equivalent to the last seven years of the Chinese market, projections by Matrix Partners, based on a recent Nomura Research, say . This is largely due to the heightened growth of mobile internet. "Consumer tech companies exploded, up four times from four years ago as investment rounds grew five-fold to 300 plus this year compared to 60 in 2010," says Abhishek Goyal, co-founder of Tracxn.

Food tech, which was one of the hottest sec tors being tracked by VCs, saw startups like TinyOwl and Hola Chef begin operations this year. A spiffy-looking location-based food ordering app, TinyOwl went live in March.

Founded by five IIT-Bombay batchmates, it got on board Sequoia Capital and Nexus Venture Partners just a few months after the launch, raising $3 million. Says Harshvardhan Mandad, co-founder of TinyOwl, "As many of our seniors (from IIT) who have done startups are becoming big like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Ola, Housing, it gives us confidence. VCs are also aggressively looking to fund Indian startups as we are in a growth stage. We're lucky to be starting at this time."

New investors chase tech startups
While money came easy , some blamed the frothy tech valuations on the advent of hedgies into the Indian startup ecosystem this year, who put in $525 million till October across internet companies, according to Venture Intelligence data.While Tiger Global, the largest shareholder in Flipkart and a top dog among foreign investors in the domestic internet story, established a beachhead here in 2007 when it bet on Just Dial, newbies like Falcon Edge, Steadview Capital, among others, started their innings in 2014.
Hedge funds weren't the only ones to join in.Other heavyweight tech investors like Russian tycoon Yuri Milner personally backed Olacabs and Housing.com while his investment firm DST Global pumped millions into Flipkart. Japan's SoftBank made its big-bang entry (keeping aside its earlier investment in mobile ad network InMobi) as it poured almost a billion dollars across Snapdeal, Olacabs and Housing in one stroke.

"Unprecedented global appetite for getting a piece of India's digital consumption story fuelled some audacious bets across many sectors. Entrepreneurs were rewarded with big checks and high valuations if they executed well on aggressive, hyper growth strategies," says Prashanth Prakash, Partner, Accel Partners.

Soaring valuations, staying private
The worry then is whether this foreign capital will dry up once the investor exuberance fizzles out. "I believe that markets often get the macro trend right but get over-optimistic about the micro trends. There'll be a day of reckoning, where investors will start demanding results and start re-pricing these companies. There'll be a shaking out of the sector and the wheat will be separated from the chaff," says Aswath Damodaran, professor of finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University.

In this cycle, there has been a structural change in the nature of capital markets with a shift of dollars from public to private investing as tech companies globally opt for private money instead of going for an IPO. "We haven't seen these kinds of private market valuations before as they'd have been in the public markets then. It's nowhere near what we had in 1999-2000, whether it's the number of IPOs, maturity of companies when going public or valuation metrics. It's markedly different, this does not feel like a bubble. However, at some point, we will get to a bubble," Scott Kupor, managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, told TOI in an earlier interview.

The likes of Uber, Dropbox, Airbnb and closer home Flipkart and Snapdeal continue to attract investors, bolstering the new tech economy.

"This should not be confused with a bubble as we have a strong core where a high quality entrepreneurial ecosystem is constantly working towards what technology can do to create efficiencies and value for consumers," says Abhay Pandey , MD, Sequoia Capital. It's still early days to expect large exits.

But, more consolidation may be in the offing through M&As, especially in spaces where clear leaders have emerged.

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge launched at Rs 64,900

NEW DELHI: Samsung has launched Galaxy Note Edge, the first smartphone in the world to have a display on the side in India, at a market price of Rs 64,900. It will be available for sale from January first week through select retailers in "charcoal black," and "frost white" colour variants. 

The display curves on the right edge and looks like a stripe that can display additional information as the user operates the phablet. The curved display is secured inside metal brackets and the left side is curved slightly as well. 

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge sports a 5.6-inch Quad-HD+ (1600x2560 pixel) Super AMOLED display. The phablet boasts of a unique design wherein the right edge of the screen is curved and provides quick access to frequently used apps, alerts and device functionality.

It is powered by a 2.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quad-core processor. The smartphone features a 3.7MP front camera and 16MP rear camera. It has 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage, expandable up to 128GB via MicroSD card. 

The phone runs Android 4.4 KitKat. It also comes with additional software optimized to make use of the accompanying S Pen stylus. Users can multitask in multi-window mode, which supports minimizing apps as floating widgets. It also has text selection and crops selected areas on the screen for later viewing. The S Note app gets its own widget, so that users can access the core functions of the stylus as soon as they unlock it. 

The Note Edge supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2X2 MIMO). NFC, Bluetooth 4.1 (BLE),ANT+, USB2.0, MHL 3.0 and IR LED connectivity options. It has a 3000mAh beattery with support for quick charging. 

Samsung had announced that Galaxy Note Edge would be available in selected markets only as it was a 'limited edition concept.' 

Other than India, Galaxy Note Edge is expected to be launched in Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Australia, Russia, Singapore and Italy. 

"Samsung continues with its legacy of pioneering extraordinary innovations and setting new benchmarks in the mobile industry. The Galaxy Note Edge is a stunningly beautiful device equipped with a unique curved screen which not only makes the smartphone distinctive but also delivers a unique way to access information and optimizes functionality," Asim Warsi, VP, mobile & IT, Samsung India, said.

Copying Xiaomi's strategy pays Huawei

BEIJING: China's Huawei Technologies has taken sales of its low-price Honor brand of smartphones to 20 million from 1 million in just one year, hitting pay dirt with the disruptive online-only strategy it copied from smaller upstart Xiaomi.

Given the early signs, Huawei executives hope to emulate the phenomenal growth of Xiaomi, which broke into the global top five in just a few years -- a success not likely to go unnoticed by the growing ranks of low-cost Chinese smartphone makers.

But analysts say the low-cost strategy has fanned the price wars and thin profit margins prevalent in China, and that its spread could affect margins at all makers.

Honor brand president Jeff Liu said industry transition to an online sales strategy was inevitable given the competitive pricing, afforded by reduced distribution expenses that would otherwise make up 30% of handset costs.

"E-commerce is massively changing the traditional channels for the smartphone industry, and we needed to go in that direction too," Liu said in an interview in Beijing, where he unveiled the Honor 6 Plus smartphone last week.

Honor handsets dropped the Huawei name last December and have since been marketed and distributed independently of Huawei-branded phones. They are sold in countries ranging from Belgium to Brazil, primarily via marketplaces such as those of JD.com in China and Flipkart Online Services in India.

The brand makes up a quarter of Huawei's 2014 shipment goal, and in the third quarter, helped the Shenzhen-based telecoms equipment maker pip Xiaomi to the number three spot in global market share, according to data from Gartner.

Close race Huawei is not the only Chinese smartphone maker to notice Xiaomi's online approach. Lenovo Group Ltd in October said it would sell a line of devices by Internet only, though it has released few details.

The strategy has taken off in this year in particular. Privately owned Xiaomi, valued at over $45 billion, sold 15.8 million smartphones in July-September versus Huawei's 15.9 million, according to Gartner. A year earlier, Xiaomi reached just 3.6 million compared with 11.7 million for Huawei.

"It's going to be a very, very close race this next year," said Counterpoint Research analyst Neil Shah. Huawei has been pushing the Honor brand in Europe and Latin America, in contrast to Xiaomi which mainly targets China and India, Shah said.

"If Huawei is strong in two or three markets, it balances out Xiaomi doing well in China," he said.

Thin margins Huawei has long sought to establish a brand outside of China, but the online model it has adopted for Honor could export the price-sensitive market conditions it seeks to avoid.

The continued success of Xiaomi and its aggressive pricing is likely to squeeze profitability in the medium term for nearly all handset makers except market leader Samsung Electronics and high-end handset maker Apple, Fitch Ratings said in a report in October.

A regulatory filing showed Xiaomi's operating profit margin was just 1.8%, though the smartphone maker said the figure did not take into account all aspects of its business. By comparison, Samsung's 2013 margin was 18.7%.

Honor "doesn't make money but doesn't lose money," said brand president Liu.

To widen the profit margin, Honor needs to raise its image and woo wealthier consumers with high-spec products, Huawei consumer division chief Richard Yu told reporters last week.

"If Huawei wants to survive, we have to win in developed markets like Europe, a high-end market," said Yu. "Next year is very important for us to target the high segment."

Apple iPad Air 2 review: Thinner and better

Creating the successor to one of the most popular and well received products must have been a huge task for Apple, a company that reignited the tablet segment when it launched the first iPad. While the iPad has gone through a number of iterations, the last one, iPad Air, had almost attained perfection. The iPad Air 2 is a step ahead.

Without paying much heed to the notion that users are not keen on picking up big screen tablets, Apple decided to give its larger tablet an overhaul, making it more easy to lug around and upgraded the internals with a faster processor. Is the iPad Air 2 the best 10-inch tablet money can buy? We try to find out in our review...

Design

The iPad Air was sleeker than all the previous iterations taking a cue from its portable laptops playbook (the Air suffix is used with the Cupertino giant's ultra compact MacBook notebooks). The Air 2 goes a step further and is 1.4mm slimmer at 6.1 mm and 32gram lighter than the iPad Air, at 437gram. Barring that, the design has not been altered much.



The iPad Air 2 might weigh less and look slimmer, but it feels as solid as its predecessors. It features a unibody aluminium chassis that exudes a premium feel. Just like its predecessor, it sports metal buttons as opposed to plastic. The volume rocker (comprises two separate keys) sits at at the right edge and offer great tactile feedback without being wobbly. The mute/screen-rotation lock key has now been removed in order to facilitate the thinner edges. We don't really miss this button on the iPad.

The Power/ Screen lock switch sits at the top along with the 3.5mm headset jack. The bottom edge features two stereo speakers and a lightning connector port. The speakers offer good quality, loud sound output.

The usual Home button is placed below the display, surrounded by a metal ring to facilitate the Touch ID fingerprint integrated with it.

Just like the iPad Air, there's no slope at the edges and the frame just rounds subtly. The iPad Air 2 now comes in a Gold colour variant and the tablet's back is now Gold, Silver with a White front panel or Space Gray with Black front panel.

The iPad Air 2 also features chamfered edges at the front, just like the iPhone 5 and 5S, in line with the premium design elements.

At the back, you'll see an upgraded 8MP camera, the shiny reflective Apple logo and iPad branding, and two microphones (one for noise cancellation). The dual microphone setup helps in enhancing the quality of sound while making Internet calls via FaceTime or other video calling apps.

The dimensions-to-weight ratio of the iPad Air 2 makes it easy to lug around and hold, compared to other 10-inch tablets. It's now more convenient to read an ebook or watch a movie on the iPad.

Display and Camera
The iPad Air 2 sports a 9.7 inch Retina display sporting a resolution of 2048x1536pixels and pixel density of 264ppi. The screen specifications are similar to that of the iPad 4 but Apple has given the iPad Air 2 a brand new panel. The screen is thinner as Apple has fused three layers (touch sensor, LCD panel and cover glass) into one fully-laminated layer, which results in colours that look much more vibrant and greater contrast.

Apple has also added an anti-glare coating on the screen of iPad Air 2 and claims that it reduces glare by 56%, thus making it the least reflective tablet in the world. The screen makes the iPad Air 2 the best device for consuming content. It's a joy to watch HD movies and read e-books and magazines on the tablet.

The 8MP rear camera on the iPad Air 2 does a decent job if you use it to capture images in daylight, however, images shot indoors in artificial light and low-light look slightly grainy. It can be used to shoot video of 1080p resolution.

The image quality can be compared to the iPhone 5 but low light photos were underwhelming.

The 1.2MP front camera is just functional and is good for FaceTime video chats. We're not sure if a large number of users would capture video or images with a 10 inch tablet, as it's a bit cumbersome. Having said that, the iPad Air 2 still does a decent job for that occasional click or two.

Processor, Performance and Battery Life
The iPad Air 2 has got a major upgrade when it comes to the internals. It's now powered by Apple's A8X chip which is based on 64-bit architecture. This is an improved version of the chip that powers the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and Apple claims it delivers better performance than its predecessor without sacrificing the battery life. The chip processes applications 40% faster and renders graphics 2.5 times faster, but still ensures average battery life of 10 hours.



As we mentioned in our previous reviews, the speed bump is not related to the processor being 64-bit. Though it lays the foundation of the future; the 64-bit architecture will help in better memory management and will work in tandem with apps optimized for it as they're made available.

The iPad Air 2, just like the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, also features the M8 co-processor which dedicatedly handles the task of measuring data from motion sensors like the accelerometer and gyroscope without involving the main processor, leading to better battery life. It also has the ability to recognize different kinds of motion through this data. The data is more accurate and can be used by fitness tracking apps and health apps such as pedometer apps. The Air 2 also comes in a 128GB storage variant in case you wish to store all your media.

Apple claims that the iPad Air 2 offers a battery back-up of up to 10 hours if you surf the web on Wi-Fi, watch videos or listen to music. While Apple has reduced the size of the battery with the Air 2 (27.3 watt vs 32.4 watt), the battery back-up claimed is still the same. We'd say that this estimate is quite accurate and and even with continuous HD video playback, the iPad Air 2 will survive for 10 hours. It will last one and a half to two days with moderate to heavy use, connected to a Wi-Fi network.

We did not encounter any issues while connecting to Wi-Fi networks and got stable, fast connections.

We got a Wi-Fi only variant as our review unit but the iPad Air 2 is also available in cellular (3G) models. It's worth pointing out that unlike the iPad Ait, the iPad Air 2 does support the existing 4G Indian frequency band (Band 40 - 2300MHz).

iOS 8
The iPad Air 2 runs on the most recent iOS 8, the newest version of Apple's mobile OS. Visually, the OS is still very similar to iOS 7, but under the hood there are a number of changes. iOS 8 delivers a more intuitive user experience with new Messages and Photos features, predictive typing for Apple's QuickType keyboard, third party-keyboards support, Family Sharing, a new Health app, and iCloud Drive to store files and access them from across different devices.

At this time the main software feature that makes use of big display is landscape mode. The iPad Air 2 offers a landscape mode home screen allowing users to browse through installed apps even when they hold the tablet horizontally.

This is limited to some native apps including Safari, Messages, Mail, Calendar, and Settings, among others. The Safari browser displays full browser tabs while messaging apps offer a two pane UI with message previews. Similarly, other apps display more information, spread out horizontally compared to their portrait avatars. That's pretty much about it.

iPad Air 2's improved camera leverages iOS 8 to offer HDR, burst mode with 10 frames per second, and self timer in addition to the Slo-Mo slow motion video mode and time lapse mode.

We still feel that some UI elements such as the Notification Centre take up too much of screen space and look awkward. Apple still doesn't offer native apps for Calculator, Weather, Compass or Voice Memos, which are bundled with the iPhone.

With iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, Apple has made switching between iOS and Mac devices more seamless for users who use both platforms. iPhone owners can answer phone calls on their Mac or iPad, and even send SMS messages from any of them. They can start writing an email on one device and seamlessly continue on another through Handoff. We were able to use handoff, and receive calls on our iPad through our iPhone. You need to be on the same Wi-Fi network and signed-in to the same iCloud ID on both devices for this feature to work. For a detailed look at iOS 8, read our iPhone 6 Plus review.

Touch ID
The iPad Air 2 is the first iPad to sport a biometric fingerprint sensor that Apple likes to call Touch ID in line with its primary function of acting as an additional security layer. The Touch ID is integrated with the Home button through a scratch resistant sapphire glass. While Apple already offers a 4 digit passcode lock to protect the iPad, the Touch ID offers a simple, yet effective way to authenticate the phone for unlocking it, or while purchasing content from the App Store and iTunes Store.

It's worth pointing out that you'll still need to set-up a pass code and verify at at certain times, in addition to verifying the biometric fingerprint.

Up to five impressions of fingers (including thumbs) can be added. This means that you can also add finger impressions of different individuals, in case more than one person uses the phone.

Apple's newly introduced Apple Pay mobile payments system is also supported through the Touch ID for purchasing apps and for online transactions but the absence of NFC means it can't be used on retail terminals. Apple Pay is not available in India at this time.

Verdict
The iPad Air 2 is sitting on the king's throne in the tablet kingdom. It is still the best 10 inch tablet available in the market. Its new sleeker design and compact form factor are reasons enough for picking it up over any Android or Windows tablet, but more than that it's the app and content ecosystem that makes it much superior when compared against the competition. Flagship 10-inch Android tablets from the likes of Sony and Samsung are more expensive, and lack tablet optimized apps.



We still feel that Apple could do better in making the tablet a true multi-tasking device. A split screen functionality and floating mini apps could help in leveraging the big screen real estate in a better manner. This is one area where we feel Apple could do more.

The starting price of Rs 35,900 appears to be high, but unlike a smartphone which users may replace in an year, the refresh cycle for tablets is longer. So when you invest in an iPad Air 2, you get a device that offers a great experience in terms of both content consumption and creation.

We don't see a reason to upgrade if you already own an iPad Air. Even the iPad 4 offers a decent experience so you could hold your purchase for another year if you were planning to upgrade.