| Mobile users, especially in the semi-urban/rural areas, are turning to feature-rich handsets.. |
Customers also look for models with a clearly legible and dust-free keypad.
To each, his own preference.
Do you think of mosquitoes and frequent power disruption when you plan to buy a mobile? Most probably, your answer would be ‘No'. Mosquitoes and power may appear rather extraneous criteria for choosing a mobile handset.
But for Amudala Ravi, a milk-vendor who lives in the suburbs of Hyderabad, these are important aspects of a mobile phone besides, of course, the voice calls. “My neighbourhood is full of mosquitoes and due to frequent power disruption I am not able to charge my mobile phone satisfactorily. When I saw a phone with these features, with a student, I immediately bought it,” says Ravi, who doubles up as part-time sub-staff at the University of Hyderabad.
Discarding his standard multinational brand, which cost him Rs 1,600, he switched over to a “flat, big handset”, manufactured by an upcoming Indian company that simply assembles the components imported from China. He paid Rs 2,300 for it.
“I am able to ward off mosquitoes by keeping the phone beside me while sleeping. With a three-day battery life, charging is also not a problem,” explains Ravi, flashing his ‘Blackberry-like' phone.
Ravi is just one example of a big chunk of customers who are increasingly switching over to relatively cheaper Indian mobile handset brands, attracted by feature-rich, extra-voice applications.
The new generation mobiles, especially recent Indian brands such as Micromax, Spice, Zen, Karbonn, Ray and Accord, to name a few, are bringing many advanced features closer to common users in urban/semi-urban and rural areas.
The advanced features include dual card-reader, GSM-CDMA compatibility, 3D mobile gaming, temperature convertor, fake currency reader, in-built mosquito repellent and, most importantly, a long battery life.
“Now, the mobile handset market trend is to upgrade current low-end basic handset users to a feature-loaded alternative,” says P K Mohta, Managing Director of Accord Mobile.
According to Mohta, the Indian mobile handset market is estimated at around eight million units per month and a big opportunity is undoubtedly the rural segment where customers are showing a clear preference for low-cost, feature-rich handsets.
What attracts the customer in a handset?
“The first is price, followed by a long-battery-life. Customers also look for flat models with a clearly legible and dust-free keypad. All additional features may not actually be used by a completely rural customer,” he adds. Agrees Anshul Gupta, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner Inc. “Price remains the main criterion while buying any consumer electronic device in India, including a mobile device. Carrier strategies, lower tariffs and/or third-generation (3G) data plans will continue to shape the mobile device market,” he says.
A look at the pricing of Indian brands may also convey a similar view. Most of the mobiles with very advanced features, such as a single-button face book, instant messaging and push mail, are now available for anything between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 whereas a handset with similar features from a multinational brand is generally priced at more than twice that price. While it is true to some extent that all these features may not be used by everybody, the industry sources agree that there has been a growing predilection towards feature-rich handsets.
“It should be kept in mind that a mobile will be with its user round-the clock and in the process is also becoming a chief source of entertainment,” says Manish Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer, UTV Interactive, the digital arm of UTV.
Interactive voice blogs are also becoming popular on the mobile, along with interactive voice chats, web destinations and more. “All these are now growing because of the availability of feature-rich mobiles at reasonably low-rates. We have millions of a growing mobile customer-base which is subscribing to interactive platforms,” he says. According to Gartner data, the Indian cellular market is highly voice-centric with just 10 per cent of carriers' revenue coming from data services. Within that, 85 per cent of revenue comes from Short Message Service, leaving less than 2 per cent of overall carriers' revenue coming from data access on mobile devices. This only shows a lot of potential for non-voice applications in mobile telephony, feel experts.
Going forward, customers can look forward to better user experience in technology as well as more affordable prices. 3G technology is also expected to bring in more tech-driven facilities due to strong focus on application-driven innovation.
“Established global device manufacturers are losing ground due to fierce competition from local and Chinese manufacturers in the low-cost segment,” says Gupta.
Redrawing strategies
With the growing influence of local handset players in the low-end segment and increasing competition in mid to high-end market, even the global players are redrawing their strategies.
Global giant Nokia recently introduced Push Mail service for users in the low and mid-levels of the mobile market segment.
Push Mail allows users to directly access their mails and messages instantaneously without having to log in again and again, making it easier to communicate.
The service, being offered by mobile manufacturers for the premium customers, will be offered to buyers of S40 series phones from Nokia that start from Rs 2,700.
According to estimates, there were 2.3 million people who accessed e-mail on their phones. This could grow to 129 million by 2014.
“Rural youth today spend five to six hours a day on their mobile and a bulk of that time is spent on music. Nokia's internal research on social networking showed that the biggest need for social networking emerged actually amongst the rural and small-town youth.
In fact, our insights show that rural consumers are increasingly demanding services in the areas of health and finance,'' an official spokesperson of Nokia told eWorld.
Nokia has also moved beyond product and features and is adding Services on top to further improve livelihood, enhance lives and entertain the mass market consumers, he says.
“We are the only mobile phone company to launch a service such as Nokia Life Tools (NLT) that delivers life-improving services to mass market and rural consumers,'' he adds.
According to a Gartner study published last month, mobile device sales in India are projected to reach 138.6 million in 2010, an increase of 18.5 per cent over 2009 sales of 117 million units.
The market is expected to show steady growth through 2014 when end-user sales surpass 206 million units.
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