Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. (HMSI), the 100 per cent two-wheeler subsidiary of Japan’s Honda Motor Company, on Monday launched its new bike ‘CBF Stunner’. Targeted at youth, the new 125cc motorcycle, with 11 bhp engine and five-speed transmission that comes in three variants, has been priced between Rs. 47,070 and Rs. 51,655 (ex-showroom, Delhi). After Shine, its HMSIs second entry to the 125 CC segment, the fastest growing and contributing almost 25% of the total motorcyle market. Honda plans to sell 80,000 units of this bike this fiscal and even launch two to three new models this year.
The Stunner will compete with Bajaj’s XCD, the cheapest bike in the 125 CC segment, Hero Honda’s Super Splendour, TVS’s Flame and Yamaha’s Gladiator. But unlike Bajaj, HMSI doesnt want to give up on the 100 CC segment all together. It plans to launch a bike in this category next year to eat into hero Honda’s share.
Samsung has released a new slider in Europe called Soul, its new flagship slider phone. Serving as the final bow for the Ultra Edition, it blends in a split-screen, context-sensitive touch control system similar to that of the LG Venus: rather than rely on fixed buttons or an entire front touch surface, the Soul includes a small touchscreen area whose buttons change depending on the immediate context for the screen above. When playing music, track controls replace normal commands, Samsung says in an example. The Soul is also the first Samsung handset to sport a themed UI where the entire look and sound can be replaced at once.
The handset is both very camera- and data-focused. A 5-megapixel camera is accompanied by a high-power LED flash as well as by face detection and image stabilization – all features normally reserved for some of the better dedicated cameras, the company says. Transfers are quick with 3G Internet access over HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps downstream; the phone supports North America with quad-band calling over GSM, though whether it also supports 3G in the Western region is unknown. The phone makes heavy use of Google features and supports built-in Gmail and search functions, including a dedicated button at the top level of the interface.