Inspecting Liverpool x adidas jersey, India's phone shipments, and 5G broadband
₹ 8,599 in India, for the home and away versions
Momentum is a big deal for phone brands, as it is for the broader market trajectory. Vivo's continued to gain, with a sizable (19% share; a 23.5% increase from 2Q24) lead over Samsung (14.5% share; a 21% increase) and Oppo (13.4% share; a 25.4% increase). Apple has gained 19.7% in the year-to-year period comparison, with 2Q25 share at 7.5%, up from 6.7% in 2Q24.
The worrying negative trajectory? There's Xiaomi, which the IDC numbers peg at a 9.6% share in 2Q25, a 23.5% decline compared with the 3.5% share at the same point in the last year. Xiaomi may well have been hurt by the increasing average selling price, since the company's Redmi phones (which bring the volume and scale) have consistently stepped up over the past couple of generations, into higher price points. Are users not liking that?
I'd be worried about OnePlus too, which from an already fairly low base of 4.4% share last year, has dipped 39.4% to 2.5% share in 2Q25. The average selling price increase doesn't hurt OnePlus, who have traditionally been strong in the more premium price bands. What gives? Difficult to assess, considering their latest flagships are on point, and tend to undercut the more expensive Samsung Galaxy and Xiaomi 15 series options, in variance. The Nord series too, seems to be ticking the boxes on specs, appeal and experience. Wonder what gives?
TECH SPOTLIGHT: ADIDAS' LIVERPOOL JERSEY 25/26
This weekend, the new Premier League season gets underway. The rivalry can resume, any banter inevitably dialled up. As we get closer to kick-off (Liverpool vs Bournemouth is the first fixture), there's something important we must chat about. Jerseys. In European football for the new season, there are two important kit supplier deals — Liverpool x adidas (for the third time in their history), and Manchester City with Puma. I'll focus on the former, for reasons that are understandable without any need for explanation. And to that point, must note that Liverpool and adidas is beginning a 10-year partnership — good timing for both parties, with Liverpool as defending Premier League champions.
There's an 'authentic' jersey ( ₹8,599 in India), in home and away versions, which I'll focus on first. The primary material is the 160g Jacquard with weft knitting — this means the yarn runs horizontally across the fabric instead of the more common warp knitting that finds its way vertically. The Jacquard fabric has its advantages in football jerseys. First, this allows different knit densities while having a single continuous panel, which helps in the creation of extra breathable areas of a jersey and more support where the structure needs it. And it shows, as you wear the jersey. Secondly, weight reduction while not compromising strategic elasticity, though any grams shaved off will be more apparent to elite athletes than us mortals.
The fan jersey (priced ₹5,999) uses a tech called AEROREADY, which has one core idea of keeping you dry and cool. The way this works is, a Hydrophilic finish (this is an additional treatment to absorb water instead of collecting beads) on fiber draws moisture off your skin and spreads it for quicker evaporation. Great if you regularly play or run wearing this jersey.
Relative to last season's authentic player-spec jersey from the Nike era, performance philosophy is understandably familiar but adidas' tooling is very different. Nike's Dri-FIT ADV tech used athlete-mapped, open-hole zones to push airflow through high-heat areas. Instead, adidas uses different and more refined ways to get to the same outcome, with micro-venting and redone fabric architecture. It also marks an evolution from Liverpool's previous adidas generation (2011/12 season), when ClimaCool was the standard. Back then the focus was a blend of moisture control and simple ventilation channels.
Just for record, the Liverpool home kit is called Strawberry Red, and the white away kit, Wonder White. Liverpool had last partnered with adidas for the kit, in 2012. The classic Liver Bird crest is back.
SPIRITUALITY AND DATA
CEO of Incedo
There are very few folks who balance knowledge with philosophy just right. Last week, when writer Nitin Seth invited me for the launch of his third book, Human Edge in the AI Age, there was little chance I'd miss the chance to have a conversation with him about all things artificial intelligence. Why? Because this book, as Seth told me, completes the trifecta as he had envisioned — digital age, data and now AI (Winning in the Digital Age and Mastering the Data Paradox, his previous titles). Mind you, Human Edge in the AI Age is releasing soon on more Indian languages, starting with Hindi, in a few months time.
The chapter I was most interested in? Mantra 3, Connect with the self through spirituality. 'There's noise all around us. At that time, looking inwards at oneself is very important, and that's how I define spirituality,' he says. Seth talks about the elusive peace (something you may have felt too, but perhaps not realised in as many words). He believes there's a need to balance artha (prosperity), kama (pleasure) with dharma (duty, right way, natural law) and moksha (liberation), to make something meaningful of our lives. A line that stands out — 'as AI automates more functions and accelerates our external world, our inner world needs greater attention'. And to that, Seth elaborates that finding balance between spirituality and materialism is the answer to our current crisis whether it is at the level of an individual, the organisation or on a larger scale, the nation. It is spirituality that can provide a deeper perspective. The reason for this? Seth says the differentiator in the coming years may well not be the access to information, but our ability to interpret it, reflect and act with wisdom.
Key takeaways? Pause for self reflection, align action with values, practice mindfulness, prioritise wisdom over information and balance ambition with inner peace.
BROADBAND LANDSCAPE
Opensignal
Our regular readers would have noted we periodically chat about the mobile, and broadband landscape of the country. For this, certain reports other than official regulatory numbers that arrive periodically, tend to be useful in illustrating a trend. Network measurement and insights platform Opensignal's latest Fixed Broadband Experience report (it's here, if you'd like to read it) tells us that the country's fixed broadband penetration is currently at 15%, and that this gap compared to size of the economy, is largely due to lack of last-mile infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, where more than 60% of the population lives. That is the reason I'll focus on the wireless broadband data, because that may well be the future for those who are as yet not connected to a broadband line in the traditional sense. There are specific metrics, which give us a rather interesting picture of a product cycle that is still in very early days.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
17 minutes ago
- Time of India
Muted IT hiring to focus on skill-driven freshers
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills ETtech Despite soft peddling on hiring mid and senior level employees, software services firms are set to hire cautiously with a focus on skill-driven freshers that is estimated to grow 3-5% compared to the first half (H1) of the year, recruitment experts said.A large part of the new hiring is likely to be focused around junior and entry level positions driven by lesser employee expenses and a steeper learning curve.'Hiring may remain muted in H2 unless there is a clear uptick in client spending. Lateral hiring will be need-based, while fresh hiring could be calibrated to future deal visibility. Overall, H2 may see 3–5% hiring growth compared to H1, driven largely by demand for AI, cloud, and platform roles,' said Neeti Sharma, chief executive officer at mass staffing firm Teamlease said the hiring is concentrated at junior and niche mid-levels with in-demand the ongoing trade and macro uncertainties have slowed down business demand with cumulative workforce additions by top five IT firms - Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys , HCLTech, Wipro and Tech Mahindra – shrinking to below 5,000 in the April-June overall net additions have been on the decline for the past four years from over 53,000 employees added in FY21, stronger deal momentum amid hopes of clarity on tariff policy in the second half of the year, and the need for specialised skills is making outsourcing firms optimistic about recruitment of the full fiscal year that ends in March 2026, TCS and Wipro have continued to maintain fresher hiring targets of up to 40,000 and 12,000, respectively. Neck-to-neck rivals Cognizant – Indian-origin US-headquartered – and homegrown Infosys aim to hire 15,000-20,000 freshers each. Cognizant has over 70% of its employee base in comes on the back of strong deal bookings expected to convert into execution sooner than later. For now, experts are unanimous that most IT services companies are focused on optimising costs, improving utilisation, and recalibrating talent for future-ready companies are not expected to follow suit expansively with TCS' July decision to lay off 2% of its employees – around 12,000 there are visible fissures of the slowing or deferred business impact.'Over the next couple of quarters, we expect a measured approach rather than a widespread wave of retrenchments. Hiring is concentrated at the entry level, a strategic move to manage costs and invest in future talent. Companies are equipping freshers with new-age skills through robust training programs,' said Aditya Narayan Mishra, MD & CEO of mass recruitment firm CIEL Sharma added that restructuring is 'more visible at mid to senior levels, especially in roles with lower billability, overlap due to M&A, or outdated tech stacks.'Mishra anticipates a slight uptick in hiring activity in H2, particularly in high-demand skill areas like AI/ML, cybersecurity, cloud engineering, and digital consulting.'With many AI pilots underway, companies will begin identifying the real ROI (return on investment) and start hiring talent that can scale viable projects. However, the growth will be selective and skills-led, not volume-driven,' Mishra said.A Randstad Digital 'India Talent Insights Report 2025' report by showed that AI and ML roles alone saw a 39% demand surge in 2024 despite overall IT hiring declining by 7% due to macroeconomic pressures and global points to a sustained shift that will continue over the next 12–18 months.'Tier-2 cities are gaining momentum, with locations like Chandigarh and Coimbatore leading growth in junior and mid-level IT hiring—driven largely by GCC expansion and distributed workforce models. We expect selective hiring in niche areas, a focus on outcome-based talent, and growing demand for AI-led transformation skills,' the report said.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Data centres in non-metro cities a non-starter as AI warrants scale over speed
New Delhi/Mumbai: Edge data centres, which were expected three years ago to boost India's cloud services market with proliferation in smaller cities, have remained a pipe dream as applications requiring high connection speeds have failed to take off as predicted. These smaller data centres, designated to be less than 10 megawatt (MW) in capacity as against a hyperscaler facility's 50MW-plus size, serve local data demand within districts. They provide high connectivity speeds, or low latency in technical parlance, by reducing the physical distance to the end user. They were planned to come up in tier 2 cities such as Guwahati, Patna, Lucknow, Jaipur, Nagpur, Pune and others to serve applications like smart cars, augmented reality headsets, automated traffic management and more. However, these applications have not scaled as predicted by analysts, resulting in edge data centres falling out of favour after some initial growth spurts. After a brief burst of enthusiasm, operators are pouring money into expanding large facilities in established hubs like Mumbai and Chennai, where enterprise and big-tech demand is deep and revenue visibility stronger. Icra Ltd estimates India's edge capacity will rise from 70MW in 2024 to about 200MW by end-2027—just 8% of the projected 2.5GW total. Anupama Reddy, vice president and co-group head of corporate ratings at Icra, noted the barriers for edge: security risks from remote deployments, rapid tech shifts and obsolescence risk, talent scarcity, and interoperability challenges with core data centres. She added that rentals are structurally higher for edge, reflecting higher capex per unit of data and a retail-heavy customer mix. Real estate consultant JLL, in a report in June, concurred with Icra's analysis. Hyperscalers up speed Meanwhile, hyperscale—or large–data centres—have been cutting down on latency, eating into the key selling point for edge data centres, said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief executive of technology advisory firm Greyhound Research. 'The industry miscalculated how quickly core network improvements and submarine cable projects would help hyperscale data centres close much of the latency gap," he said. As of today, only a fifth of chief information officers at enterprises report active investment in edge data centres beyond primary metros, as per Greyhound. 'After years of hype, deployments have lagged due to the absence of widespread latency-critical workloads, and the rapid maturity of backbone networks and data distribution architectures," Gogia said. Reddy and Gogia's projections are backed by the data centre firms, too. Operators such as Singapore-headquartered Princeton Data Group, Hiranandani-backed Yotta, Bharti Airtel's Nxtra and US-based Equinix, among others, are all looking to build large data centres—instead of edge facilities. 'Edge data centres are not a part of our strategy, and we expect hyperscalers to be the largest demand driver," said Vipin Shirsat, managing director for India at Princeton Data Group. Use cases of edge data centres include content distribution and low-latency applications like gaming or autonomous cars, he said. While these use cases are growing, they don't really require significant capacity, he explained. 'The uptake of these applications is not what many had anticipated three years ago," Shirsat said. 'Applications that require lower latency are rare, and tier 2 locations face hurdles such as higher per-MW build costs for edge facilities, limited redundant networks, and a smaller pool of skilled technical talent," said Manoj Paul, managing director of Equinix India, adding that the company will continue to concentrate its investments in Mumbai and Chennai. Edge lacks demand Sunil Gupta, chief executive of Yotta, echoed Shirsat and Paul—stating that while the company 'already has the land in various cities for edge expansion, the client demand isn't at a scale that warrants us to invest in edge data centres right away." 'When demand builds, we'll definitely ramp up based on client needs," he added. Bharti Airtel-owned Nxtra, meanwhile, is different from the rest. Ashish Arora, chief executive of Nxtra, said that the company currently has 150 edge data centres in 65 locations, with plans to add 10 more in the next two years. 'For edge facilities, most of the demand comes from within the Bharti group, but in terms of our overall business, clients from outside of the group now contribute to the majority of our revenue," he said. Even then, Arora said that edge data centres are not a mainstay of the company's data centre growth plan. 'Edge data centres won't be the industry's primary growth driver going forward—tech-driven services are still seeing investments made towards innovation, and consumer-end demand is limited. Hence, for data centres, most of the demand will be for traditional data centres in established hubs," he added. Arora further said that AI applications have not created demand in smaller districts, for now. 'You may want lower latencies in consumer-end AI applications, and in inferencing from running AI models. But, training AI models—the main data centre use case—needs large capacities and not fast deliveries, which is why such use cases are very low and limited for now," he added. Companies that set up large data centres have announced expansion plans such as Princeton Data which, in September last year, said it would establish 230MW in net India data centre capacity, with the first phase targeted to be brought live by the end of next year. Equinix, too, announced a large-scale expansion plan last year. Yotta's Greater Noida facility, announced in October 2022, can expand up to 250MW by next year. However, there are no specific expansion plans for edge data centres. As a result, industry stakeholders believe there are little to no business benefits for edge data centres for now. As Greyhound's Gogia said, 'A national edge rollout plan was shelved after content distribution upgrades reduced data latency significantly. While edge data centres delivered initial gains, their incremental advantage could not justify the additional capital and operational burden."
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Without international students, many US colleges may vanish: How it happens and who's most at risk
Without international students, US colleges face major closures, says new report Many US colleges and universities could be forced to shut down if they are unable to maintain enrolment of immigrants and international students, according to a report released by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP). The report finds that international students, immigrants, and the US-born children of immigrants make up a significant share of the higher education population. A sharp decline in their numbers could reduce the undergraduate student population by almost five million and the graduate student population by at least 1.1 million between 2022 and 2037. Falling enrolment and financial stress across institutions The study, authored by Madeline Zavodny, an economics professor at the University of North Florida, warns of a "looming demographic cliff" in the US due to the drop in birth rates after 2007. As a result, the number of traditional college-age US-born students is expected to begin falling from 2025. According to the analysis, the total enrolment at US higher education institutions peaked in the 2010-11 academic year and has since declined. The share of young adults enrolled in college is also dropping. Zavodny stated that "losing up to one-third of undergraduate enrolment and almost two-fifths of graduate enrolment would be catastrophic," as reported by Forbes. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Use an AI Writing Tool That Actually Understands Your Voice Grammarly Install Now Undo Smaller and regional institutions face the highest risk The NFAP report indicates that smaller regional universities and private liberal arts colleges, particularly those in rural areas, are at the greatest risk of closure. These institutions are likely to struggle to attract students as more applicants aim for better-resourced and more prominent universities. "Regional universities will find it particularly hard to recruit international graduate students if those students can attend larger universities that have more resources for research and lead to better job opportunities," Zavodny said, as quoted by Forbes. Policy changes and immigration restrictions intensify challenges The Trump administration has implemented restrictive immigration policies affecting international students. This includes compelling Columbia University to reduce its "dependence" on international students and ordering mass deportations, as reported by Forbes. In 2025, the US State Department ordered international students to leave the country for minor infractions, without offering the chance to respond. Lawsuits later blocked these deportations. According to Forbes, NAFSA: Association of International Educators anticipates a 30% to 40% decline in new international student enrolment in autumn 2025 due to travel bans, visa interview suspensions, and limited availability. Impact on local economies and student populations Many US universities are already facing budget shortfalls. The Washington Times reported that in 2023, public colleges experienced the steepest annual tuition revenue decline since 1980. West Virginia University, for instance, closed 28 academic programmes and eliminated 143 faculty positions. The NFAP study highlights that about one in four undergraduates and one in seven graduate students in the US are US-born children of immigrants. Zavodny stated that universities rely not only on international students but also on immigrants and their families remaining in the country, as quoted by Forbes. Work opportunities and future pathways restricted The report underscores the importance of programmes like Optional Practical Training (OPT) and STEM OPT that allow international students to gain work experience after graduation. However, the Trump administration plans to eliminate OPT and tighten rules for H-1B visa eligibility. New regulations would also require international students to apply for extensions beyond fixed admission periods. Zavodny concluded that policies restricting international student access could significantly affect university enrolment, reduce employment opportunities in university towns, and limit the supply of college-educated workers in the US, as reported by Forbes. TOI Education is on WhatsApp now. Follow us here . Ready to navigate global policies? Secure your overseas future. Get expert guidance now!
