Business
Google to pay $90 mn to developers to settle Play Store lawsuit

Google has reached a settlement over a lawsuit with a group of developers, where it will establish a $90 million fund to support developers in the US who earned $2 million or less in annual revenue through Google Play, during each year from 2016-2021.
The proposed agreement, said Google, will help ensure that both developers and consumers can continue to benefit from Google Play.
“To continue to provide developers with a tiered pricing model, we’ll maintain Google’s 15 per cent commission rate for the first $1 million in annual revenue earned from the Google Play Store for US developers, which we implemented in 2021,” the Wilson White, VP, Government Affairs and Public Policy at Google said in a statement late on Thursday.
A vast majority of US developers who earned revenue through Google Play will be “eligible to receive money from this fund, if they choose”.
If the Court approves the settlement, developers that qualify will be notified and allowed to receive a distribution from the fund, Google added.
Developers around the world have earned more than $120 billion using the Google Play Store to date.
“In addition to the fund, we’re committing to maintain a number of existing practices and implement new benefits that help developers innovate and communicate with their users, said Google.
In new versions of Android, Google will maintain certain changes implemented in Android 12 that make it even easier for people to use other app stores on their devices, while being careful not to compromise the safety measures Android has in place.
To showcase independent and small startup developers building unique high-quality apps, Google is creating an “Indie Apps Corner” that will appear on the apps tab on the Google Play homepage and “shine a spotlight on these developers”.
Google said it will also publish annual transparency reports to share information about the Google Play Store, including statistics such as apps removed from Google Play, account terminations, and other data regarding how users interact with Google Play.
Business
Premium segment at highest spot, 5G phones at 32% market share in India

Premium segment (Rs 30,000 and above) contributed 11 per cent to India’s smartphone shipments and 35 per cent to overall market revenue in 2022, the highest ever.
Samsung led the market in 2022 in terms of shipment value share with a 22 per cent share, followed by Apple, in the country, according to Counterpoint Research.
However, in terms of shipment volume, Xiaomi led the market in 2022 with a 20 per cent share, closely followed by Samsung.
Xiaomi slipped to third position in Q4 2022 with Samsung and vivo capturing first and second spots respectively.
5G smartphones captured a 32 per cent share in 2022. Samsung became the top-selling 5G brand in 2022 with a 21 per cent share.
Apple continued to lead the premium smartphone segment, with the iPhone 13 emerging as the top-selling model. Apple also led the market in Q4 2022 in terms of shipment value.
“Consumer demand started declining from the second quarter when the global economy was crippled by multiple macroeconomic issues like all-time high inflation, rising unemployment and geopolitical conflicts, affecting India’s economy as well,” said senior research analyst Prachir Singh.
Inventory build-up across channels after the second quarter led to lower-than-expected shipments throughout the second half of the year.
“We believe that the inventory and demand situation will continue to affect the market in the first half of 2023 before improving in the latter half driven by the festive season and upgrades to 5G devices,” Singh added.
India’s smartphone shipments declined 9 per cent YoY to reach over 152 million units in 2022, according to the report.
The decline, which is the second ever in India’s smartphone market, can be attributed to the decline in entry-level and budget segments which faced supply constraints at the beginning of the year and then witnessed lower demand throughout the year.
“While entry-tier and budget segments were most affected, the premium segment remained immune and showed double-digit growth. OEMs’ increased focus, consumers upgrading for premium features and, most importantly, availability of various financing schemes,” said research analyst Shilpi Jain.
Overall, India smartphone market revenue remained flat despite a 9 per cent YoY decline in shipments.
OnePlus grew 50 per cent YoY in 2022 driven by the OnePlus Nord CE 2 series.
It focused on diversifying and expanding its product portfolio across different price points and increasing its offline presence to drive sales, the report mentioned.
Business
WhatsApp working on new software that uses Apple Mac Catalyst

Meta-owned WhatsApp is working on a new Mac app that uses the Apple Mac Catalyst development environment to make better use of system resources.
According to AppleInsider, WhatsApp currently provides a web-based Electron app for Mac users in addition to its web app via browsers.
Electron and Catalyst are software development frameworks that help developers create desktop apps.
The new app has been in a closed beta for a few months, but now anyone can download the file on macOS Big Sur or later on the WhatsApp website, according to the report.
Following installation, it will display a QR code that users can scan with their iPhone to link their accounts using the WhatsApp iOS app.
The Mac app’s three-panel interface provides access to archived chats, starred messages, phone calls, and settings.
The Catalyst app includes features not available in the Electron version, such as file drag-and-drop and a spell-checker, the report mentioned.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp has reportedly rolled out some new shortcuts for group admins to quickly and easily perform actions for a certain group participant, on iOS.
The new shortcuts simplify interactions with group members as now the platform supports large groups of up to 1,024 participants, reports WABetainfo.
The new update will help group admins quickly manage and communicate with such a large number of participants in private.
Business
Mumbai: No jumbo block on Western Railway on Sunday

There will be no jumbo block on Sunday, January 29 over Western Railway’s (WR) Mumbai suburban section, the WR announced today.
Major block to dismantle Gokhale bridge
Earlier last week, the Western Railway had enforced a major 4.5 hour block on the down slow lines from 12.15am to 4.45am on the intervening nights of Jan 19-20 and Jan 20-21 to carry out dismantling work of the Gokhale road overbridge at Andheri.
As a result, a number of local train services were affected.
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