Nokia’s OVI service which was supposed to be launched in Q1, 2008 has been delayed to Q2. But Nokia is trying to gear up the audience by throwing interesting numbers:
As per Nokia India head, India will have 500 million mobile consumers by 2010, out of which:
- 60 million mobile users will have video capability,
- 100 million music capability,
- 200 million radio capability,
- 250 million camera capability and
- 250 million with Internet capability.
[via BS]
What’s interesting to note is Nokia’s belief that 50% of Indian mobile users will have Internet capability by 2010.
But the basic qn. I am trying to understand is how many of them will have active Internet usage; and is that audience monetizable (by ovi?).
As of now:
- 50% Indians are still on ULCH (i.e. ultra low cost handsets) and the only app that works is sms.
- There are only 6.1mn GPRS connections out of 240mn+ mobile subs in India and as per another study, mobile Internet subscription is 14 times the broadband penetration.
- Prepaid connection comprise 85% of total subscriber base [via Future of Mobile VAS in India report]
Nokia has a clearly defined strategy in terms of it’s target segment and their distinct needs, i.e:
- 3 clusters of users – one, who will pay more and get more (50 million), second, value buyers (150 million) and third, will pay less and get less (the rest of the consumers).
- Consumption will largely be governed by ETC – E for entertainment and education, T for transport and C for communication.
What’s your take? Do you really believe in these numbers (i.e. 250 mn with Internet capability?)?
To add to the context, Airtel is testing 3G services at Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
I think the numbers of music capable phones are slightly conservative since almost all low end phones can play MP3s nowadays. The ratio is certainly more than 1:5.
And while there may be more than 250 million GPRS capable handsets in the country by 2010, we need good data plans from the providers.
As of now, I think only Airtel has a reasonably good data plan (mobile office). The rest of the providers have very expensive plans that charge per 10kb downloaded.
Numbers are after all just that “numbers”.
What interests me more is Nokia’s bullishness about momentum which I think is surely there in India.
I also believe that Mobile Internet uptake will be faster(once we have critical mass) since we tend to have much more attractive/cheaper packages then rest of the world ..(Remember that’s what we did with call / sms driving usage north quite quickly ..) And we seem to already have the critical mass in terms of devices. According to Ashish, 50 % of devices seem to be not ULC. (I tend to see the glass as half full not as half empty ..:-))
If only the telecom industry hadn’t dilly dallied over the allotting 3G spectrum we’d have had plethora of start ups waiting to tap the consumer on the move.
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Please tell me some good VoIP enabled mobile phone.I am using Vyke for making national and international calls(as well as sms) through VoIP.Its very cheap.You people can also use it and get the benifits.Till now i was calling from pc-phone now i want to buy a VoIP enabled mobile so that i can use it anywhere.So please guys help me out….
if u wanna see abt vyke visit vyke.com
Nokia is the first in China all the time.