I have always believed that one’s mobile phone is the starting point of one’s social network and one’s contact book is the most authentic friend list to go after.
INQ Mobile, a UK based company that has created a niche for building social networking enabled mobile phone has launched its mobile phone in India, in partnership with Aircel.
Price of INQ Mobile in India
The Chat 3G is priced at mere Rs 7,599, while the Mini 3G is available for Rs 5,399. What’s interesting is the Aircel partnership – Aircel charges only Rs. 98/month for Internet access (unlimted)– so the combo makes perfect sense for those whose contact book is as dynamic as FB/Twitter follower list. Aircel also partnered with Nokia for the launch of latter’s cheapest 3G phone.
Again, existing operators owing to their tightly coupled business model will not be able to match up [read: Daily Plans from Tata DoCoMo – Airtels of the world, Take a Note] and that’s where new entrants are bringing in the change.
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The chairman of Bharti Airtel, Sunil Mittal has indicated that 3G mobile services will not come cheap, as just the cost of spectrum is around Rs. 3,500 crores per circle. A monthly charge of Rs. 700-900 would only defray license fees and input costs. (Airtel won the bidding in 13 circles, including Mumbai and Delhi.)
This being so, buying a new mobile phone without wi-fi might prove to be detrimental. As the bid amounts for BWA are much lower, this would translate to more affordable charges to the customer.
So, for those who don’t want to be caught on the wrong foot, it might be worthwhile waiting until the issues become clearer. There is also the distinct possibility that all or most 3G/BWA mobile service providers would have bundled offers on introduction of the service.
Nokia has launched the C5 at Rs. 7,999 (with 3G, but without wi-fic support. If the aforementioned 3G/BWA issue is set aside, it is a good phone and worth considering. However, speaker performance is below par.
Orkut is just going dead!
I hope Google will do something to get it back up!