Vernacular SMS in India

India is going to send out around 80 billion SMSes in vernacular in 2010, according to this article in Hindustan Times.
“That is a realistic view of the market,

HTIL Rated Buy: ABN Amro

ABN Amro has put a “Buy” on Hutchison Telecommunications, whose joint venture in India, Hutchinson Essar Telecom, operates under the brand Hutch.
Hutchison generates nearly half of its revenues from India. HTIL’s India business accounts for around 72% of estimated NAV; proposed Hutch Essar IPO in 2Q06 will lead to further value crystallization.
“Hutch Essar’s proposed listing, [...]

Handset sales to reach 38m in ‘06

The number of cellular handsets to be sold in India next year is projected to reach 38.5 million units (including replacement and grey handsets), or a growth of 26% year-on-year, a report by Australian based research and forecaster BIS Shrapnel said.
As India is still a maturing market, new user handsets, which account for 65% of [...]

Short code nation

Anand Sridharan of VC firm Bessemer Venture Partners does a deep(ly) (funny) analysis on the short code craze sweeping the nation.
This SMS-craze falls into two segments. The first lot includes companies (mostly in financial services) hoping that the reader is stupid (or lonely) enough to open up their cellphone to a barrage of sales calls. [...]