Showing posts with label plans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plans. Show all posts

Tuesday, 21 June 2011

Royal Enfield plans Multifuel Bike & other news

You read about my RE factory visit in the earlier post. This post shares some news and updates related to Royal Enfield, which I got to know during the visit.

Royal Enfield is doing R&D on a multi fuel bike- This bike will be able to run on any fuel (about 10 possible fuels are identified, such as petrol, diesel, kerosene, bio diesel and so on). The engine will have the ability to handle any of these fuels and a combination thereof, and run as smoothly as ever. This bike may take minimum 2 more years before it hits the road. Once it happens (assuming it happens), if petrol is not affordable, you can fuel up your bullet with aviation fuel or kerosene or something else.

Traditionally from what we’ve learnt in schools petrol and diesel engines have different designs. It remains to be seen how RE’s multi fuel bike works. As of now, fingers crossed.

Current waiting period for Royal Enfield bikes is about 8 to 10 months. Existing factory in Tiruvottiyur is having an annual capacity of 25000 bikes (but reportedly produces 50000 bikes though multiple shifts). Royal Enfield is planning for a second factory with capacity of 75000 bikes an year. New factory will be within 200 kms of current factory (as all its suppliers are located here)

Besides catering to Indian market, Royal Enfield gets good business from export markets and Indian army. Several variants of the bikes being made in the factory will not be seen on Indian roads, as they’re made exclusively for foreign markets. Some colours used on Army bikes are not to be used for civilian bikes, as per govt regulations.
bullet-500ccwhite-bullet-350
Modern bullets give fairly decent fuel economy of 50kmpl+ All thanks to technological advances.
Because of emission norms some of the previous engine designs had to be abandoned, as they no longer meet new emission norms.

Oxygen sensors in engines detect low oxygen levels (say when you go to Ladakh) and facilitate higher oxygen intake to ensure smooth running.
  red-royal-enfield500 blue-bullet-classic500 
All through the year Royal Enfield keeps conducting biking events all over India, where Royal Enfield users meetup and celebrate. Rider Mania, Himalayan Odessy are few such events. Almost every city as a bullet owners club, who get active support from Royal Enfield.

Royal Enfield is about to implement a supply chain management solution, which can track parts which go to various bikes. If your bike gives problem w.r.t to particular component, it will be possible to track the component as to who made it, when it was installed, why it failed and so on. Giving bike chassis number is mandatory while buying spares, this is to prevent black market selling

Royal Enfield has no plans of entering mass market with any 150-200 cc bikes. They would remain focused on 350cc and above segment. Several variants of Bullet and Thunderbird are being tested,details will be in public when time comes…
bike-testingchrome-tanks
Just like factory visits, Royal Enfield also conducts workshops for mechanics and engineers who wish to specialize in Royal Enfield bike servicing.

Enfield is also working with vendors to launch a series of signature accessories- jackets, toolkit and other stuff needed by the riders.

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Thursday, 16 June 2011

Mobile media use up 600% as unlimited plans tune out

Mobile device owners are consuming media on the go in huge numbers according to Limelight Networks. Tuesday, the content delivery company shared data from its network that shows a 600 percent increase in mobile media requests for the first five months of 2011, as compared to the same period last year. The growing number of advanced handsets sold (more than 1 in 2 U.S. phones sold is now a smartphone), combined with more video network choices and increasingly capable hardware, is driving mobile media consumption higher. And that’s another nail in the coffin for those craving unlimited mobile broadband plans.



As a simple point of comparison, Limelight saw roughly 6 million mobile media requests in May 2010. Last month, however, the network experienced more than 30 million such requests. Some of the growth is surely reflected in a larger potential audience: Smartphones began outpacing the sales of personal computers early this year as consumers satisfy their consumption needs on smaller devices. Tablet sales, led by the iPad, are in the tens of millions. And with the larger displays offered on tablets, it’s no surprise the devices are ideal for media consumption.


Also adding to the rising mobile media trend are the growing number of video content options available. Netflix, for example, finally arrived on the popular Google Android platform  last month, although it’s not yet supported on all Android phones. Couple that with new mobile video solutions from Squrl, as well as old favorites such as YouTube and Facebook, and it’s clear mobile video is heating up the small screen.


Also helping to drive increased video consumption are smartphones with faster processors and larger, higher resolution displays. New dual-core chips from Qualcomm, Nvidia, Texas Instruments and others can support 1080p HD playback, even if scaled down on a smartphone screen. But larger screens are trending too, as a majority of the newest mid- to high-end phones have displays of  four inches or more. That’s part of the reason I still expect Apple to consider a 4-inch iPhone model in the future. At such a small size, its celebrated Retina Display pixel density wouldn’t be compromised much even if the screen keeps the same resolution as the current model, but it would offer a larger viewing experience.


Services and hardware aside, the recipe for mobile media consumption isn’t complete without one final ingredient: a network. And more media consumption away from the desktop means more mobile bandwidth at a time where network operators claim they’re already struggling to meet demand. Wi-Fi is a common offload solution for carriers and consumers alike, but like the limited range such infrastructure provides, Wi-Fi can only take mobile media so far. I’d expect data from Limelight and other media providers to be used as further justification by carriers to move away from unlimited mobile broadband in favor of tiered data plans.


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