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IV
THE KATHMANDU POST | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2013
Nari Wedding and Gift Expo kicks off
Kopila Children Expo, Nepal International Consumer Expo begin too
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, FEB 21
THE seventh edition of the Nari
Wedding and Gift Expo 2013
kicked off at Bhrikutimandap
in Kathmandu on Thursday. Also, the
sixth edition of Kopila Children Expo
2013 and Nepal International
Consumer Expo (NICE) 2013 too
began at the same venue. Organised
by Direction Nepal, the events which
will run through February 25 is
expected to attract visitors from
diverse backgrounds.
“We have been conducting the
wedding and children expo since
2007. A new expo, NICE, has been
added this year. This has made this
event bigger and better,” said
Trilokeshwor Malla, managing director
of Direction Nepal. He added the
addition of the consumer expo has
created a general appeal of the
event and is likely to attract
people from all walks of life. “From
children to grownups, everyone has
got something to look for in the
expo,” Malla said.
Sponsored by the country’s No 1
women’s magazine Nari, a sister pub-
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
HYDERABAD, FEB 21
SUPER luxury car maker Rolls-
Royce may roll out a customised
edition of its
Phantom and Ghost
models for Indian
buyers, a senior
company official
said on Thursday.
“We want to be
ready with the idea
within the next two
months. We are talking
to professionals
and designers. These
discussions take
some time as we
want to ensure the
quality of the product,”
Herfried Hasenoehrl, the
company’s General Manager
(Emerging markets Asia)
told reporters here after officially
launching a dealership
in the city.
“The customised version
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
NEW YORK, FEB 21
SONY unveiled a new generation
PlayStation 4 system on
Wednesday and laid out its
vision for the “future of gaming”
in a world rich with mobile
gadgets and play streamed from the
Internet cloud.
At a press event in New York,
computer entertainment unit chief
Andrew House said PS4 “represents a
significant shift from thinking of
PlayStation as a box or console to
thinking of the PlayStation 4 as a
leading place for play”. Absent from
the event was mention of what plans
the company had regarding films,
music, television shows and other
digital content offered on the PS4.
In a move that was not lost on
observers, there was no glimpse of a
PlayStation 4 at the launch event. “It
was odd that Sony did not show a
physical device,” said Gartner consumer
technologies research director
Brian Blau. “These days, people love
beautiful devices, especially because
lication of Kantipur Publications, the
expo is a one-stop destination for
those planning to marry in the near
future. The seventh edition of the
wedding expo features various products
and services, including apparel,
decorative products, gift items,
handicrafts, accessories, flowers,
jewellery, furniture items, wedding
The wedding expo
features apparel, gift
items, handicrafts,
counselors and match
makers, among others
planners, counsellors, match makers,
boutiques and catering service
providers, among various others, in
60 stalls.
Various companies providing
wedding planning services are offering
a range of packages under which
they arrange traditional marriage
ceremonies as per the social group
and demand of the couples. “We are
Rolls-Royce plans
customised India cars
can be of Phantom and Ghost
series and may not be huge in
number,” he said while refusing
to put a number to it. “In
India what we have seen in the
past, since we really focused
on this market, our
customers have
such high standards
of taste that we need
to get a little bit
more into history.”
Rolls-Royce is
already selling customised
cars in the
Middle East market,
he added. The company
also plans to
add by middle of the
year two more dealerships—in
Chandigarh and
Ahmedabad—in the existing
network of three outlets,”
Hasenoehrl said. Rolls-Royce
had launched Dragon edition
in the Chinese market last year
and it was sold in other markets
also.
of Apple.” Sony spoke ambiguously
about the device, leaving much to the
imagination during a two-hour presentation
aimed primarily at gamem-
offering customised services and this
expo has become a platform for us to
market these services,” Nirmal Raj
Poudel, managing director of
Welcome Advertising, which also
runs Welcome Wedding Event
Management Company.
Likewise, the sixth edition of the
Kopila Children Expo 2013 is being
organised with a motive to create a
akers and players. “They don’t want
to give it all away, which is the nature
of the industry,” Blau said. “Sony
was really trying to get developers
common platform for kids as well as
their parents to learn about various
things in an entertaining way. Various
products and services like educational
software, books, stationery items,
toys, apparel, dolls, face painting,
and winter vacation planning,
among others, are available in the
expo. There are 30 stalls in the
Children Expo.
excited about what is going on.”
PS4 was designed to get to know
players, ideally to the point of being
able to predict which games people
will buy and have them preloaded
and ready to play. It also allows to
gameplay to be broadcast in real
time, letting friends virtually peer
over one another’s shoulders and
gamemakers act as “directors” guiding
players along.
Sony has also given a green light
to building “the most powerful network
for gaming in the world,”
according to David Perry, chief of the
Gaikai cloud gaming company that
Sony purchased last year. Gaikai specializes
in letting people play
videogames streamed from the
Internet “cloud” instead of buying
titles on disks popped into consoles
or computers.
“By combining PlayStation 4,
PlayStation Network and social platforms,
our vision is to create the first
social network with meaning dedicated
to games,” Perry said during
the event. He spoke of letting people
access and play videogames on the
Apart from the regular stalls, the
expo will also host events such as
fancy dress show, handwriting competition,
sports activities, master kid
photo contest, art competition, training
for parents and a seminar on
child psychology. According to
Direction Nepal, the expo, which has
been witnessing enormous success
for the last few editions, is expected
to draw in thousands of visitors.
NICE 2013, on the other hand, is
a mega event conceptualised to bring
international brands, products and
services on a common platform of
opportunities where all the new possibilities
can be shaped for economic
cooperation and solidarity of the
region. Several electronic items,
handicrafts and computer accessories,
among others, have been featured
in 68 stalls at the NICE expo.
According to Malla, the five-day
expos are expected to draw in around
50,000 visitors. “Last year, we saw 25-
30,000 footfalls. Going by the trend,
we are sure to achieve our target this
year,” he said.
Opening hours are 11:00 am
to 6:00 pm and tickets are priced
at Rs 25.
Global tablet sales up 78 percent
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
WASHINGTON, FEB 21
THE global market for tablet computers
surged 78.4 percent last year, with
128 million of the devices shipped, a
survey showed on Thursday.
Research firm IDC said tablets
made up 10.7 percent of the global
market last year for “smart connected
devices,” which include smartphones,
and portable and desktop PCs. Overall,
the market for these devices grew 29
percent to 1.2 billion, according to
IDC, with growth in tablets and smartphones—which
saw a 46 percent
rise—offsetting declines in PC sales.
Although tablet sales sizzled,
they have not yet eclipsed sales of traditional
PCs yet, the figures showed.
Some analysts say that could happen
in the next year or two. IDC
data showed a 3.4 percent drop in
portable PC sales to 202 million
and a 4.1 percent decline in desktop
PC sales to 148.4 million. These were
dwarfed by the 722 million smartphones
sold last year, a figure which
was previously released.
Sony unveils new PlayStation4 video game console
Video game designer Mark Cerny shows the new controler Bioshock 4 as
Sony introduces the PlayStation 4 in New York on Wednesday. AFP/RSS
Smartphones and tablets are
growing at a pace that PCs cannot
keep up with, said IDC analyst Ryan
Reith. “The average selling price for a
tablet declined 15 percent in 2012 to
$461, and we expect that trend to continue
in 2013.”
IDC said smartphone prices averaged
$408 and are generally replaced
more often than other devices. In the
overall market for connected devices,
Samsung rose to the top position with
at least 20 percent of the market in
each category, and an overall market
share of 20.8 percent, overtaking last
year’s leader Apple.
Apple held 18.2 percent of the market
for 2012, up from 16.3 percent in
2011. The maker of the iPhone and
iPad saw 44 percent growth for the year
but was unable to keep pace with
South Korea’s Samsung, which more
than doubled its sales. The number
three company was China-based
Lenovo with a 6.5 percent market
share in all devices, followed by USbased
Hewlett-Packard (4.8 percent)
and Dell (3.2 percent).
IDC said Apple fared better in the
fourth quarter than earlier in the year,
and was boosted by its release of the
iPhone 5 and iPad mini. “The fourth
quarter market share numbers showed
a fairly dramatic resurgence for Apple,”
said IDC’s Bob O’Donnell. “After falling
well behind Samsung early in 2012,
Apple came roaring back in final quarter
of the year... The question moving
forward will be whether or not Apple
can maintain its hit parade against the
juggernaut of Samsung.”
Internet using PS4, smartphones,
tablets or PS Vita handheld devices.
“We are exploring opportunity
enabled by cloud technology with a
long-term vision of making
PlayStation technology available on
any device,” Perry said. “This would
fundamentally change the concept of
game longevity, making any game
new or old available to get up and
running on any device, anywhere.”
Sony needs to adapt to changing
lifestyles while not alienating
videogame lovers devoted to its hardware.
Games on smartphones or
tablets are increasing pressure on
videogame makers to deliver experiences
worth players’ time/money.
A PlaySation App will let iPhones,
iPads or Android-powered smartphones
or tablets be used as “second
screens” augmenting play taking
place on televisions connected to PS4
consoles, according to Sony.
Sony said the PS4 would hit the
market for the year-end holiday season.
The consoles are priced in the
$400 to $500 range, and game titles
hit the market at $60 each.
MONEY | ekantipur.com
MARKET WATCH
RETAIL PRICE
Vegetables Unit Price (Rs)
Red Potato Kg Rs 27
White Potato Kg Rs 25
Onion (Indian) Kg Rs 48
Tomato Small Kg Rs 20
Tomato Big Kg Rs 28
Squash Kg Rs 42
Cabbage Kg Rs 20
Egg Plant Long Kg Rs 48
Green Peas Kg Rs 45
Fruits Unit Price (Rs)
Apple Kg Rs 125
Pomegranate Kg Rs 270
Orange Kg Rs 70
Water Melon Kg Rs 65
Sweet Orange Kg Rs 105
Pineapple 1Pc Rs 95
Cucumber Kg Rs 50
Pear Kg Rs 145
Papaya Kg Rs 60
Banana Doz Rs 55
DAILY COMMODITIES
Pokhreli Rice Kg Rs 55
Jeera Mashino Rice Kg Rs 65
Indian Bashmati Rice Kg Rs 90
Mansuli Rice Kg Rs 55
Sona Rice Kg Rs 45
Beaten Rice (Taichin) Kg Rs 80
Beaten Rice Kg Rs 40
Big Mas Kg Rs 110
Small Mas Kg Rs 100
Big Mung Kg Rs 130
Musuro (No 1) Kg Rs 100
Musuro (No 2) Kg Rs 100
Rahar Kg Rs 120
Chana (Big) Kg Rs 150
Chana (Small) Kg Rs 100
Chilli Powder Kg Rs 240
Jeera Powder Kg Rs 350
Sugar Kg Rs 75
White Soyabean Kg Rs 100
Black Soyabean Kg Rs 100
Fried Mustard Oil lt Rs 240
Soyabean Oil lt Rs 140
Dalda Ghee lt Rs 120
Nepali Ghee lt Rs 550
GASOLINE WATCH
BULLION
INT’L MARKET
PRICE PER 10 GRAMS
Hallmark Gold Rs 47,755
Tejabi Gold Rs 47,540
Silver Rs 891.50
SOURCE: NEGOSIDA
Energy Price (US$) %Change
BRENT CRUDE FUTR (bbl) 117.66 -0.29
GAS OIL FUT (ICE) (MT) 996.50 -0.82
GASOLINE RBOB FUT (gal) 313.45 0.57
NATURAL GAS FUTR (MMBtu) 3.15 -0.32
Agriculture Price (US$) %Change
COCOA FUTURE (MT) 2,144.00 -0.56
COFFEE 'C' FUTURE (lb) 140.2 -0.39
CORN FUTURE (bu) 697 0.61
COTTON NO.2 FUTR (lb) 83.19 0.48
ROUGH RICE (CBOT) (cwt) 15.84 0.73
SOYBEAN FUTURE (bu) 1,414.75 0.44
SOYBEAN MEAL FUTR (T) 408.9 0.66
SOYBEAN OIL FUTR (lb) 52.01 -0.19
SUGAR #11 (WORLD) (lb) 17.74 -0.17
WHEAT FUTURE(CBT) (bu) 748.5 1.11
Industrial Metals Price (US$) %Change
COPPER FUTURE (lb) 375.35 0.03
Precious Metals Price (US$) %Change
GOLD 100 OZ FUTR (t oz) 1,609.50 -1.59
SILVER FUTURE (t oz) 29.85 -1.66