1 lakh Windows Mobile sets sold

Microsoft’s Windows Mobile has recorded sales of 100,000 units in 15 months of its launch in India.

Sumeet Gugnani, Director Mobile Communications Business, Microsoft India says the company is aiming to touch the 2 lakh figure by end of fiscal 2008.

This April 2007 post on MobilePundit puts the number of Windows Mobile devices sold in India at 50,000.

Windows Mobiles offers portfolio from Smartphone device manufacturers like HTC, HP (iPAQ), Imate, O2 and Motorola, with close to 35 models (including 20+ Touchscreen phones) at prices starting from Rs 11,990.

Posted on 2007/09/28 in Phones | Permalink | Comments (0)

Its 200 million

India has met the 200 million (20 crore) mobile subscribers target four months ahead of schedule and 15 months after crossing the 100 million mark in May 2006.

8.31 million wireless subscribers were added in August 2007, taking the total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA, WLL-F) base to 201.29 million.

Total telephone subscribers = 241.02 million
Wireless subscriber base = 201.29 million
Wireline subscriber base = 39.73 million
Teledensity = 21.20%

Top operators

Bharti Airtel = 2.05 million new users, 46.8 million total
Reliance Communications = 34.82 million users total
Vodafone Essar = 1.67 million new users, 34.11 million total
BSNL = 33.45 million users total
Tata Tele = 18.90 million users total
Idea = 17.87 million users total

Hutch is now Vodafone in India

The operator logo on my mobile started showing Vodafone today.

Vodafone

World’s leading mobile operator, Vodafone, has started using its brand across India from today. Vodafone had acquired Hutch for nearly $11 billion in February this year.

Vodafone will spend around Rs 200 crore ($50 million) on the biggest brand change exercise in the country, covering nearly 35 million customers and 4,00,000 shops across India. The company has entered into an exclusive deal with Star India network, whereby it will use all of the commercial airtime from 9 pm on September 20 to 9 pm of September 21 to run TV commercials and promote the Vodafone brand.

Am not impressed with the ads so far. They look like a product made in haste - struggling to meet the September 20 deadline. Seeing Vodafone ads run continuously on Star TV in the past hour is beginning to get on my nerves.

Even the outdoor campaign is unimposing. The hoardings are advertising the new website vodafone.in but its not yet working. Does someone in an agency check all the response media mentioned in an ad like the phone number, sms shortcode and website address - before releasing the ad?

Though they are not paying me for this, but I am renaming the category “Hutch” to “Vodafone” on MobilePundit.

Also Read: Vodafone wants India to see red as it readies major brand launch