Micromax 3rd largest Handset Vendor in India
To many this may come as a surprise that a lesser known company Micromax is the third largest mobile handset vendor in India by Sales behind Nokia and Samsung.
Micromax followed a different strategy of hitting the bottomg of the pyramid and managed to make significant inroads riding on the multi-SIM phenomenon in semi-urban & rural areas. Read more
Rural Connectivity Courtesy – HCL Nettop Powered by Intel Atom + BSNL WiMax
To bridge the digital / wired life divide, BSNL is planning a massive WiMax rural network. Affordable computing device – Nettop will be provided by HCL Infosystems powered by Intel’s Atom processor [ as a consumer, they'll have no choice of Geode processor by AMD ]. This is not it, Intel has backed big on the WiMax technology and that is an additional bonus for selling their processors.
It is a fantastic initiative by the Government under controversial Telecom minister A.Raja. However, absence of choice for consumers and fair approach in the deal making raises more questions. Read more
160by2 Launches Ad Free Mobile App + Ad Free Paid Web Interface to send SMS
160by2.Com one of the first FREE SMS service providers has launched “Ad Free Mobile SMS Application“. Yes, you read that right. With your smart phone, just point to http://m.160by2.com/app and you are all set to download and start messaging your friends for FREE and the number of characters in the message stands enhanced to 145, Goodbye to 80 
Check out supported handsets here.
Web users [messaging from 160by2.com] have also been given the option to send Ad Free messages with character count up to 148 characters. However, this service will cost you $1.329 / Month or $2.87 / 3 Months or $5.45 / 6 months. The limit on the daily volumes remains 50 SMS a day at a maximum of 10 per recipient. The 6 months deal will cost you 3 paise / SMS. The service covers 7 countries – India, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore, Malaysia & Philippines
One good thing about 160by2 SMS service is the messages reach the end user within a minute or earlier. Unlike Google’s SMS Channels which can be used for group messaging but the messages take really long time to reach. What other SMS services are you using ?
Mobile Music = Mint Money
Mobile has become a converged device in the hands of an Indian. According to a recent survey by Singapore based SoundBuzz, sales of digital music for mobile will touch Rs 3,601 crore [$900 M] out of the projected Rs 4,100 crore [$1.025 B] digital music market in 2009. It is not the full track songs that Indians are downloading, but its is the ringback, caller tunes and variants that is generating most of the revenues. The bitter part is, the content creators are making mere 15% while Network Operators make 60% and aggregators take home 25%. [Source IMRB] This equation should change in favor of content creators as they are unlikely to offer fresh and innovative content for distribution on this platform.
Coming to e-Music, Saregama which holds rights for 65% of Indian music titles and has realized lately and is now offering a music track at Rs 10 / download. Mr. Atul VP of Saregama said,
As technology changes, we need to move on. We are content owners and anywhere the consumer is going, we need to follow him, whether he is moving to the Internet or MP3 for music. Saregama’s website will hit the markets in the next two-three months.
Indeed, their store is really under up-gradation. Retailers have realized the trend in the Indian market and are adding Digital Kiosks in their stores to offer downloads as driven by the the consumer demand. 49% of them play this music on their MP3 players while 40% on their Laptops and 33% on their phones. With the prices of good quality handsets hitting new lows, expect mobile music and entertainment to grow futher, though we really need some good batteries to keep it rocking for a day
Tags: Mobile India, Mobile Music, m-Commerce India, Mobile Entertainment
goBroadband India Fonero – Up and Running
I don’t know if I am an advocate of FREE Wi-Fi, but I do like the idea of La Fonera [Wi-Fi Router for sharing your Broadband] You can read more about what Fonero is all about here. I got my La Fonera this week and I am all excited to get it up and running. I think I am the second Fonero in Bangalore after the one located in the vicinity of Bangalore Turf Club.
As promised in the manual, the setup is really really simple. I just plugged in the RJ-45 / LAN cable into the DSL Router and the other end goes into La Fonera, power it on, and I could see two Wireless networks – MyPlace and Fon_AP. I chose “MyPlace” for secure encrypted communication and enter the S/N number located at the back of your La Fonera Router and I am on the Internet posting this blog.
I have also configured this to be a “Linus” so that aliens in the vicinity can have a free ride if they want to. I don’t intend to make any money but if my ISP complains if this is il-legal then I may take it offline. [Our Post on Reliance Wi-Max Broadband in Bangalore has given more than 50 sales leads and we never expect anything in return]
It will be nice if Cisco/Linksys and D-Link routers are La Fonera enabled. Hooking La Fonera to your existing router, will start a different subnet of IP addresses. My Windows Server 2003 box would have something like 192.168.1.3 and my Laptop connected to La Fonera has 192.168.10.1 The only disadvantage is I can’t use the my server name to remote login and I had to use the IP.
You can see both sitting on my desk. Stay tuned I will drive and check from how far can I access this Fonero, Signal Strength, Speed etc. If you have a Fonero, then you can map it as I have done it here.
Tags: Broadband India, Fonero, WiFi India, Wireless Broadband
Bharti Airtel introduces SMS 2.0 in India
India’s Number One, Mobile service provider, Bharti Airtel in association with Affle has introduced SMS 2.0 in India. Currently the service is available only in Airtel’s Delhi circle.
What is SMS 2.0 ? SMS 2.0 is an enhancment to existing SMS features directly borrowing ideas from PC based Instant messaging platforms. SMS 2.0 messaging application converges messaging, content and advertising. Features such as,
- Colored text for messaging
- Emotions and Smiley/ Icons support
- Free content from Bollywood to Cricket. Free means its absolutely Free because it has an embedded advertising platform from which the operators make money.
- Advertising is really cool because it has Click-To-Call feature embedded in it. How about embedding Click-To-SMS keeping the cost lower for consumers
- ICICI, Levis, Makemytrip, Perfetti Van Melle, Indiatimes, HPCL are some of the advertisers on SMS 2.0 platform in India
- Cost of SMS 2.0: They say its FREE [Content Access] without any hidden charges. Regular SMS charges on your subscription plan apply for messages sent through SMS 2.0.
Mr. P.S. Parasuram, Head – Content and New Product Development, Cellular Services, Bharti Airtel Ltd said,
Airtel has continuously aimed to provide a superior user experience across all its services. We selected SMS 2.0 as we feel it enriches our users’ experience with SMSing, while at the same time creating a viable and extremely exciting revenue model.
To download the SMS 2.0 application, you need to be a subscriber of Airtel in Delhi/NCR and send an SMS – sms2 to 121[Toll free]. Delhiites can try this service and let us know your XPerience Refer for more details on SMS 2.0
Tags: Mobile India, SMS2, SMS 2.0 India , Mobile Advertising
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