Motorola has become the No. 2 in handset sales in India with a market share of 14%. Market leader Nokia has a market share upwards of 60%.
The ET story says Motorola had a 2% market share in December 2005. I think thats incorrect.
According to this post — Motorola was already No. 3 in March 2006, behind Nokia and Samsung. There are three stories on Mobile Pundit from 2005 which put Motorola’s market share between 5 to 10 per cent around a year back.
Nokia’s market share rises to 74% (May 2005)
Motorola’s market share = 4.5%
Edward Zander of Motorola in India (August 2005)
Motorola’s market share = 10%
Indian Mobile Handset Market (September 2005)
Motorola’s market share = 7%
Allen Burnes, speaking on the sidelines of the global launch of its entry-level Motofone handset, added its initial sales would be primarily driven in India by bundling.
“Our bundled offers are mainly with first-time buyers,” said Lloyd Mathias, marketing director for India. “We are getting a lot of traction in the low-end market. One of our focus areas for 2007 is building a retail presence.”
Motorola has tied up with top five Indian carriers such as Airtel, BSNL and Hutch to offer handsets to customers.
Over the past two years Motorola has launched a slew of trendy handsets at many price levels. It is also setting up a handset-making unit in Chennai.
Motorola is planning to extend its interest-free financing tie-up with GE Finance Ltd to the country’s top 35 cities — which account for 60 per cent of new handsets sales — from 10 cities now.
Motorola rejigged its Indian operations last year and renewed focus on this high-growth market under the supervisions of its emerging marketing expert Allen Burnes. Former Tata Tele chairman Firdose Vandrevala joined the company as head of Indian operations a year back.
Tidbit: The size of Indian handset market has increased to $3 billion.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has passed a regulation allowing mobile subscribers to access Intelligent Network (IN) services such as toll-free number of other service providers.
At present, consumers can access special services through Intelligent Network (IN) deployed by the telecom operator in their network only. Free phone or toll free number, Virtual Calling Card (VCC) for long distance calls, are some of the popular examples of such services.
The regulation mandates cellular companies to provide interconnection to all eligible operators so that subscribers of all access providers will have a choice of using the in services of other mobile operators. TRAI said with these regulations no operator would be permitted to block his subscribers from accessing the in platform of other service providers.
As per the regulations, service providers would have to enter into necessary commercial and technical agreements for providing this interconnection within three months. The technical architecture and mutual revenue share among service providers would have to be mutually decided based on the principles of reciprocity and non-discrimination, it said.
Also, service providers would have to comply with the various provisions and access code allocated as per the national numbering plan.
Source: Zee News
According to H S Bhatia, LG national group head (GSM Mobile Phones), over 80% of CDMA handsets sold through Reliance are of LG make.
LG Electronics is planning to increase its focus on GSM handsets in India, which is a shift from its current focus on CDMA-based mobile handsets.
“GSM handsets also makes sense as even when they change providers/operators, customers retain handsets due to the interchangeability of SIM cards. Moreover, the country has a wider GSM network than CDMA and with operators going in for sharing of infrastructure, a tremendous growth is expected from GSM,” he said.
India is registering an increase of around 5 million per month, of which CDMA handsets stand at around 1-1.2 million. In line with global trends, the GSM to CDMA handset sales ratio in the country is around 80:20.
LG plans to rollout 7 new GSM handsets in the next three months, and intends to launch two new handsets every month in the country. The company had earlier launched a range of models like the Chocolate phone in the Black Label series and KG 200 and KG 300 in the Dynamite series.
However, the company will continue its CDMA operations as “its an assured mode of revenues”.
With a population of more than 62 lakh (6+ mn), the number of mobile phones in north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh have grown to 11,21,431 (1+ mn).
According to the latest figures, until October this year,
Bharti Airtel = 468,667 customers
BSNL = 309,821 customers
Reliance Telecom = 108,915 customers
Tata = 64,386 customers
Reliance Infocomm = 63,841 customers
Idea = 5,801 customers
Mobile towers can be seen fast emerging atop ridges and hill tops. The mountainous and rugged terrain of the state make other forms of communication and means of transportation scarce and expensive.
With more and more players targeting the huge rural market of the hill state, there was a growing trend last year to surrender wired BSNL landline phones, which often remain out of order for long periods due to poor service by the state-run company.
Airtel was the first to launch mobile services in the state. Its network covers 55 towns and some 7,000 villages across the hill state. Airtel provides mobile services in the remote regions, where installing towers is not feasible, with the help of satellite technology.
“For ensuring a congestion-free network, the company has now over 500 cell sites all over the state, including those in some of the most inhospitable terrains of the country. For our towers in Sangla valley we’ve had to transport material on mules and ponies as there are no motor-able roads,” said Thayil. “We’ve also just started our high-speed Internet service in Shimla, Baddi, Dharamsala and Mandi towns.”
Sources: Business Standard and Tech2
The Department of Telecom has issued Letter of Intent (LoI) to GSM operator Idea Cellular for the Mumbai and Bihar circles. This clears the way for entry of Idea as the seventh operator in Mumbai.
But there is still a hurdle for Idea to cross before it can start operations. The entry is at least six to eight months away until the defence forces vacate spectrum by March ’07. The operator is likely to be allocated the spectrum in Bihar ahead of Mumbai.
The total wireless subscriber base in Mumbai is 9 million plus, including the fixed wireless phone users. Mumbai has six players offering a host of fixed line, mobile and limited mobile telephony services viz. Hutch, BPL Mobile (not yet merged with Hutch), Airtel, MTNL, Reliance and Tata.
Idea recently entered three new circles - Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, taking the total number of Idea Cellular subscribers in 11 circles up to 12 million.
Source: ET
Telecom & Broadband Summit & Expo 2006
Theme: “India – The Emerging Telecom Hub”
When:
23-24 November 2006
Where:
MMRDA Grounds, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra (E), Mumbai.
Click here for more details and registration.
The number of telecom subscribers in India will reach a staggering 250 million by end of 2007, according to Fitch Ratings in its latest report on ‘Indian Telecoms Sector - Sustainable Growth Ahead’.
- Over the medium term, Fitch anticipates the emergence of six operators BSNL, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications Limited, Hutchison Essar, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices Limited, it said.
- The sustained high growth has demanded heavy network investments over the last two to three years, resulting in most Indian telcos generating negative free cash-flows (FCF) over this period, which is likely to increase over the next year.
- The industry has now vaulted into a second capital spending cycle of unprecedented proportions, with aggregate industry capital expenditure expected to double over outlays in FY06.
- The report said there is a moderate incremental demand for local access services but the growth is expected to come from CDMA-based fixed wireless services rather than traditional wireline.
Source: ET
Differences between the two JV partners of Hutch — Hutchison International and Essar Group — have led to the scrapping of plans to list Hutchison Essar.
Hutchison group MD Canning Fok was quoted as saying:
“the original plan to list the business was largely to fulfil the commitment made by the group to JV partner Essar.
When you have disagreements you don’t go for listing…
The time has gone now… After we listed HTIL, I don’t need a listing in India…”
India is the biggest contributor to HTIL’s revenues.
In a positive development for the company, Hutchinson Essar is moving closer to a pan Indian presence with the receipt of “Letters of Intent” for six new telecom licenses in North East, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir.
Hutch, the third-largest GSM operator in the country, expects to launch in these licence areas during 2007.
A Letter of Intent from the DoT is the government’s offer to issue a licence upon the applicant’s acceptance and payment of the relevant fees.
So what do you do if your mobile gets wet?
Here is what.
Sam Pitroda, chairman of India’s National Knowledge Commission has been honored by the presitigious British weekly The Economist for pioneering India’s communications revolution.
“In 1987 Mr Pitroda was asked by Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian prime minister, to help democratise access to telecommunications. His response was to deploy instantly-recognisable yellow telephone kiosks in every town and village. In the process, he helped to release the Indian telecoms industry from state control and opened it up to dozens of private companies, paving the way for India’s telecoms boom. Through World-Tel, he now promotes similar policies in other parts of the developing world,” the magazine said.
Here’s what Dr. Pitroda said after the award:
“It is gratfying that over two decades after we began the process of telecom overhaul in India its results have become so pervasive. What I find particularly satisfying that during that phase I was able to tap into the youthful energies of India,”
Thank you Dr. Pitroda.
ET reports that Mumbai-based mobile value added services (VAS) provider Mobile2win has received around $15 million funding from Norwest Venture Partners and Nexus India Capital.
Pramod Haque promoted Norwest Venture Partners is one of the world’s largest VC firms, while Nexus India is founded eBay India (Baazee) co-founder Suvir Sujan.
Mobile2win was set up in September 2003 and is from Alok Kejriwal’s Contests2Win stable. Its investors include Siemens Mobile Acceleration, Softbank China and Contests2win.
All the top content aggregators and mobile VAS players in India have seen infusion of VC money in the last year viz. Mauj, IMI Mobile, Nazara and OnMobile. Whatever these companies do with their millions of dollars warchest — availability of this kind of money to Indian entrepreneurs is only going to hot up the innovation ecosystem around mobiles.
October recorded the highest ever wireless (GSM, CDMA and WLL-F) subscriber growth in any single calendar month.
The GSM segment added about 4.73 million subscribers, while CDMA segment added over 2 million users.
Wireless segment added 6.71 million new users, taking the total wireless subscriber base to 136.22 million.
Wireline subscribers declined by 0.19 million, taking the total wireline subscriber base to 40.56 million.
Gross telephony subscribers stood at 176.78 million and tele-density reached 16 at the end of October 2006.
For detailed stats see: COAI, AUSPI, TRAI
Story on Microsoft’s India Development Centre (IDC) in Hyderabad, which is developing some key mobile technology applications for the Windows Mobile platform.
The Hyderabad centre has total responsibility for mobility applications like Office Mobile, Office Communicator Mobile and Microsoft Mobile Media.
Sudeep Bharati, director (developer tools) at Microsoft IDC-Hyderabad:
Hyderabad is the only Microsoft remote development centre (outside US) that’s doing mobile applications, databases and design environment work. The rest of the company’s Windows mobile initiatives are done out of its global HQ in Redmond.
According to Microsoft officials, the global business opportunity in the enterprise mobile applications business would be in excess $750m in terms of revenue and is growing at nearly 35% annually.
GSM operators added record 4.7 million subscribers in October. All India GSM subscriber base has touched 96 million at the end of October.
- Category B witnessed the highest rate of growth at 6.3%
Within Category B, MP and Haryana recorded the highest growth at 9.2% and 8.8%, respectively.
- Category C witnessed a growth rate of 6.2%
Within Category C, the highest growth was recorded by North East (9.4%) followed by Jammu & Kashmir (8.7%).
- Category A witnessed a healthy growth of 5.4%
Within Category A, Andhra Pradesh recorded the highest growth of 6.9% followed by Maharashtra at 6.2%.
October also saw Delhi joining the elite club of 12 other cities, including London, Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, New York and Mexico City, which have more than 10m mobile users.
Delhi has 7m GSM subscribers and another 3m CDMA subscribers. In the GSM space, Bharti Airtel, with 2.6m subscribers, is the market leader, followed by Hutch with 2.1m subscribers
Source: ET
The November event of Mobile Monday Mumbai is on the topic “Mobile Applications”.
We are thankful to Tata Consultancy Services for sponsoring and hosting the event.
Speakers:
- Mobile Yellow Pages
Dr. Gian Sunder Singh, Head - BREW Centre of Excellence, TCS
- M-Ticketing
Shankar Narayanan, Founder & President, Tagit
- 3G opportunities in India
Nikhil Jain, Chief Technology Advisor, Qualcomm India
When:
Monday, 13th November, 2006
6.30 pm - 9.30 pm
Where:
Tata Consultancy Services
Banyan Park, Suren Road,
Andheri Kurla Road,
Andheri East, Mumbai.
Sponsors:
Admission to the event is free for mobile industry professionals and enthusiasts. But seats are limited.
So please Register if you are planning to come.
UK-based GLG Partners buys 8% in Idea
Last month private equity firm Providence Equity Partners bought a 15% stake in Idea Cellular. Another private equity firm, TA Associates, also grabbed a minority stake in Idea.
No one can beat us in India: Nokia
With customer service and distribution network well in place, “We shall be very difficult to beat in this market,” Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, president and CEO of Nokia said adding, “We are far ahead of competitors having in market for long time. Nokia is a strong brand and well respected in India.”
Indiatimes launches Indi5566 in Dubai
Content is available to subscribers for a monthly fee of AED30 or at a daily rate of AED1. New subscribers can logon to Indi5566.com and select the information they require and will be receiving their customised content henceforth.
Hutch ties up with Flightraja.com
Hutch has entered into an agreement with the Bangalore-based Flightraja.com, an online travel portal, to help customers book domestic airline tickets and access flight information through SMS.
ValueFirst launches SMS helpline@6070 for working women
In case of emergency, using this helpline, any employee can send in the SMS to the number 6070 (SMS help GNG ) which would then be automatically forwarded to the police department.
‘Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses’ launched across mobile networks
Rajshri Media to launch Barbie MobiWorld on their short code and a series of mobile games too.
Venture Intelligence presents Mobile VAS Connect
A roundtable event focused on venture capital investment in the Mobile VAS sector. The conference will feature interactive panel discussions involving venture capitalists and top executives of Mobile VAS companies.
When:
December 12, 2006
Where:
The Oberoi, Bangalore
Click here for more details and registration.
Confirmed speakers include:
- Sanjay Goyal, ACL Wireless
- Sanjiv Mital, Bharti Telesoft
- Probir Roy, Coruscant
- Kanwaljit Singh, Helion Ventures
- Gopala Krishnan, Mobile2win
- D.P. Venkatesh, mportal
- Nitish Mittersain, Nazara Technologies
- Chirag Patel, Net4Nuts
- Amish Jani, Pequot Ventures
- Taron Mohan, Phoneytunes
- Mohit Bhatnagar, Sequoia Capital
ET article quotes a telecom report from Citigroup on Indian handset market in 2007.
Mobile handset sales, including new users and replacements, in India will increase by 26% to 9.3 crore (93 million) units in 2007.
Total handset unit sales in India is estimated to more than double to 7.4 crore in 2006, from 3.1 crore units in 2005, while total shipments stood at just 20 lakh units in 2001.
Asia will drive the global growth in handset sales as units will rise 14 per cent to 36.7 crore in 2007 and reach 35 per cent of the world market,
Analysts said that a 14 per cent growth in Asia would be primarily driven by India, “as combination of subscriber growth and replacements continue to drive perhaps the best unit growth globally.”
Citigroup expects the worldwide handset shipments to rise 7% to 103.9 crore in 2007, after a 19% growth in 2006 to 96.8 crore units.
Motorola has opened a new research and development facility in Hyderabad.
The new centre will house over 1,000 engineers and will develop software for an intelligent user interface for Motorola phones, work on technologies such as WiMax, network management and autonomics, security and high-availability platforms.
Motorola set up its first R&D facility in India in Bangalore in 1991. The company designs and develops software in India for its entire range of products, employing about 3,000 staff.
Source: Computerworld
Mobile content available in Indian languages is in high demand by non-metro subscribers according to this Business Standard article.
Content providers have seen phenomenal growth in UP, Punjab, Gujarat, and to some extent, in Maharashtra too. The tier II, III cities of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kolkata, Gujarat and Punjab have a marked demand for regional content.
Special downloads during festivals such as Baisakhi, Pongal, Onam, Diwali, Ugadi, Christmas and Eid also helps in the penetration of localised content.
Currently 7,000 full songs/videos are sold daily in India, of which only 10% accounts for regional content.
Music claims the largest share of India’s mobile VAS market size, estimated to be worth about $130 million.
For Cellebrum, regional content contributes around 20% to revenues. Savinder Sarna, Head - Marketing and Alliances, Cellebrum says
“Today about 60 per cent of the mobile content downloaded in south India is in local languages and we are seeing devotional content growing bigger in south zone.”
Mandar Thakur, GM, Soundbuzz India:
“Tollywood, Kollywood, and Bhangra are certainly among the most popular download categories as far as regional genres are concerned”
Arun Gupta, CEO of Mauj, is quite confident that Hindi, Tamil and Bengali content will pick up as soon as the user interface starts supporting local scripts/fonts.
“Despite being bombarded with newer content such as mobile gaming, fashion, non-cricket sports, foreign films, regional music and festival based SMSes remain the staple diet of subscribers and are registering three-digit growth”
Related:
Reliance Info bets on localized content
Mauj launches games in Indian language
