IMImobile, the Hyderabad-based value added service provider for operators, media providers and enterprises, has announced the launch of DaVinci Social, a service that enables social networking users to manage their account and keep it secure, all from one destination on their handsets.
The service allows users to connect with their contacts from multiple social networks, update their status information, send pictures and videos and receive instant Messaging and email notifications from a single interface.
As per a statement issued by the company, DaVinci Social is powered by IMImobile’s DaVinci technology that brings together multiple services and third party applications, which enable operators to offer a competitive social service, and rapidly launch their own service without the associated high operational costs. Operators can also differentiate their service by extending it into other third party services and applications.
Anu Shah, head, IMImobile Europe, said in the statement, “DaVinci Social fulfills some of the most fundamental needs of consumers today; to be able to easily stay in touch with everyone they want to and protect personal contacts…Combined with an intuitive user experience built on IMImobile’s open technology, it is a spring-board to launch other consumer services such as music, content and advertising.”
DaVinci Social is part of the DaVinci services and products portfolio that brings together music, social networking, mobile advertising, mobile marketing, voice and messaging services.
IMImobile is working with operators, content owners and media owners including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, MTN, Virgin Mobile, Reuters, Yahoo, Google, EMI Music, Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music. The company has operations in 66 countries with offices in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.
IMImobile launches social networking platform
RCom launches voice portal for Orissa
Reliance Communications has launched a voice portal for its subscribers in Odisha (Orissa). The regional language portal enables subscribers to listen Odia songs, albums and Odia devotional music. The service is available to all Reliance CDMA and GSM customers in Odisha.
The voice portal features local starts such as Akshay Mohanty, Best of Tansen Singh and Sambalpuri hits. Through the Odia portal, subscribers can set their favourite songs as caller tunes or dedicate a song.
Santanu Chakrabarty, hub head, RCom, Madhya Pradesh , Chhattisgarh and Odisha circles, said, “We have always aimed to bring maximum value to our customers. The launch of Odia Portal is another step towards offering our customers a wide range of music collection at affordable rates.”
The Odia voice portal will cost subscribers Rs 30 per month and listen to the content will cost 10 paisa per minute. Non-subscribers will pay Rs 3 per minute.
According to TRAI, RCom had 2.5 million subscribers in Orissa in December 2009.
Mobile phone market to rebound: IDC
The worldwide mobile phone market grew 11.3 per cent in October-December 2009. According to IDC’s worldwide mobile phone tracker, vendors shipped 325 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to 292 million units during the same period in 2008. Vendors shipped a total of 1.13 billion units on a cumulative worldwide basis in 2009, down 5.2 per cent from the 1.19 billion units shipped in 2008.
“The mobile phone market has rebounded in dramatic fashion. The Asia-Pacific region and the United States of America were primarily responsible for pushing the market back into growth territory. Overall, vendors offered a wide array of converged mobile devices (smartphones) and Messaging devices in the seasonally strong fourth quarter, to take advantage of increased user demand,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s mobile phone tracker, in a statement.
“Consumer tastes for mobile phones have increasingly shifted from simple voice telephony to greater data usage, and both handset vendors and carriers have been eager to meet demand despite ongoing economic challenges. IDC believes that the converged mobile device market grew nearly 30 per cent year over year, and that the market will continue to gain momentum as device selection increases and price decreases continue into 2010 and beyond,” added Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team.
Overall the market outlook by IDC suggests that the worldwide mobile phone market will rebound in 2010. Segmenting the regional analysis, the report reveals that in Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan), 2009 as a whole was relatively flat year on year, marked by a stronger preference for low-cost handsets in China and India as users substituted away from more expensive options. However, the Asia-Pacific market saw strong gains in the fourth quarter of 2009, reflecting a strong start to recovery. Touchscreen-enabled devices remained a hot segment of the market, helping to drive the demand for converged mobile devices across the region.
The top five mobile phone vendors by the end of fourth according to IDC included Nokia, Samsung, LG and Motorola. Motorala showed a mixed growth in this quarter while Sony Ericsson posted its sixth consecutive quarterly loss this month.
19 mn mobile subscribers added in December
The Indian telecom industry registered 19 million additional mobile phone subscribers in the month of December. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the wireless or mobile subscriber base increased from 506 million in November 2009 to 525 million in December 2009, at a monthly growth rate of 3.78 per cent. The mobile teledensity stands at 44.73 per hundred as of December 2009.
Circle A registered 6.2 million new mobile subscribers in December, Circle B added 7.5 million new subscribers, Circle C had 3.2 million and metros added the least number of subscribers at 2.2 million.
TRAI also said that wireline subscription declined by 90,000 to reach 37.06 million in December 2009 from 37.16 million in the previous month. The two state-owned operators, BSNL and MTNL, hold 85.22 per cent of the wireline market share, but they lost 120,000 subscribers. Overall wireline teledensity stands at 3.16 as of December 2009.
Category wise, Circle A lost 51,375 wireline subscribers, while Circle B and Circle C lost 45,822 and 7,944 subscribers respectively. However, metros added 13,696 wireline subscribers in December 2009.
Circle A consists of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Goa. Circle B comprises Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Kerala, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), West Bengal, Sikkim and Lakshwadeep. Circle C comprises Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Assam, North East, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. The metros are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, according to TRAI.
Android to be fastest growing mobile software: IDC
A study published by USA-based market intelligence firm IDC has revealed that the worldwide shipments of converged mobile devices, also known as smartphones, will surpass 390 million units, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.9 per cent for the 2009-2013 forecast period.
” In a market that was once dominated by BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile, newcomers touting open standards (Android) and intuitive design and navigation (Mac OS X and webOS) have garnered strong end-user and handset vendor interest,” the report further stated. Android is a mobile operating system owned by Google.
“Mobile operating systems have become the key ingredient in the highly competitive mobile device market. Although the overall look and feel of the device will still play an important role in the buying process, the wrong choice of operating system coupled with an awkward user interface can mean the difference between success and failure,” said Stephen Drake, vice president, mobility and telecom in a company statement.
The key findings from a new IDC market outlook revealed that Symbian will retain its leadership position worldwide throughout the forecast period. Due primarily to the strength of Nokia in markets outside of the United States, Symbian continues to lead all other mobile operating systems.
Further the findings show that Android will experience the fastest growth of any mobile operating system. Starting from a very small base of just 690,000 units in 2008, total Android-powered shipments will reach 68 million units by 2013, making for a growth rate of 150 per cent. Android will benefit from having a growing footprint of handset vendors supporting it and will finish second to Symbian in shipments by 2013, states the report.
Set up in 1987, IDC (India) is a subsidiary of CyberMedia, is a source for market intelligence and consulting in the fields of IT, telecommunications and consumer technology. With its head office at Gurgaon, the company has branch offices in Bangalore, Chennai, and Mumbai.
New telcos strike root
According to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) figures on GSM cellular subscribers for December 2009, two new GSM telecom operators, Uninor and S Tel, who had launched their services in the country last month, have added 1.2 million and 0.1 million (one lakh) subscribers within a month of their launch. In comparison, established players Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar added 2.8 million and 2.7 million subscribers respectively in December 2009.
Uninor, the venture between Norway’s Telenor and India’s Unitech group, is currently present in eight telecom circles but holds a pan-India license to offer services in each of India’s 22 circles with spectrum to roll out these services in 21 of the 22 circles.
Notably, Uninor has acquired 2.6 lakh subscribers in Karnataka, 2 lakh in Tamil Nadu, over one lakh subscribers each in Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttar Pradesh (East), Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, and less than a lakh in Kerala and Orissa.
S Tel has acquired 16,327 users in Himachal Pradesh, 67,675 users in Orissa and 57,409 in Bihar. The company is a joint venture between Siva Group (formerly Sterling Infotech Group) and BMIC Limited, a subsidiary of Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco). Apart from the three circles where S Tel is already present, it will launch its services in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East circles soon. The company has license and spectrum to operate in six C circle towns.
The COAI statistics also show that the number of GSM subscribers added by MTNL in December 2009 is significantly less than the number of users added by it in November. The state-owned telco registered 57,000 subscribers in December as opposed to 73,000 in November.
However, the other state telco, BSNL, added about two million users in December as compared to 1.2 million in the previous month. Its market share stands at 15 per cent.
BSNL 3G gets underway in Tamil Nadu
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has launched 3G services in the Tamil Nadu circle. The services are being launched in Coimbatore, Coonoor and Ooty town in the first phase. Gradually 3G services will be introduced in 38 cities and towns across Tamil Nadu within next three months.
The total capacity addition planned under this phase is 2.3 million lines of which 1.9 million are for 2G services and 400,000 lines for 3G. The total expenditure involved is approximately Rs 1,000 crore including Rs 130 crore for 3G.
At present, in theTamil Nadu circle 3,124 sites are in operation for mobile services and 3,262 new sites are planned in this project out of which 1,119 sites are for 3G services and 2,143 sites for 2G. On completion, a total of 6,386 sites will be in operation for mobile services throughout the circle.
The total expenditure for Coimbatore under this phase is Rs 163 crore. In Coimbatore town 184 sites are planned for 3G services and the entire city will be brought under the 3G coverage. Capacity for 3G services in Coimbatore is 78,000 lines and for introduction of the services around Rs 33 crores is being spent.
The total spending for Coonoor under this phase is around Rs 33 crore. In Coonoor town, seven sites are planned for 3G coverage. The capacity for 3G services in this town is 2400 lines and for introduction of 3G services in Coonoor around Rs 1 crore is being spent on the same. Similarly, in Ooty town 11 sites are planned for 3G coverage and the capacity for 3G services is 4,000 lines; and Rs 2 crore are being spent for the introduction of the services.
Global SMS revenue at $102 bn: report
According to a report on mobile Messaging by Ireland-based international market research firm Research and Markets, the worldwide mobile messaging market was worth $150 billion in 2009, and this figure will race to $233 billion by the end of 2014.
According to the’ Mobile Messaging Futures 2010-2014′ report, among the four popular mobile messaging services – SMS, MMS, mobile e-mail and mobile IM (instant messaging) – SMS yielded the highest revenue for operators in 2009 and will continue to do so. In 2014, the firm predicts that SMS will generate more revenue than the collective revenue of the other three services.
In 2009, the worldwide SMS revenue stood at $ 102 billion and this is expected to grow to over $109 billion by end of 2010. Annual worldwide SMS traffic volumes rose to nearly 5.5 trillion in 2009, and will go to 6.6 trillion in 2010.
Despite MMS not picking up as expected, the report states MMS remains the second most successful non-voice mobile service in the world after SMS. MMS revenues will reach $31.5 billion by end of 2010. In 2009, worldwide MMS revenue saw a year-on-year increase of over 22 percent, and worldwide MMS traffic in 2009 achieved a year-on-year growth of 48 per cent.
The report finds that the worldwide mobile e-mail user base stood at 330.5 million at the end of 2009 – an increase of 34.6 percent from 2008 – and will grow to nearly 3.5 times its current size by end-2014. “While growth in mobile e-mail revenue is not expected to keep pace with user base growth, worldwide mobile e-mail revenue will still more than double from (last year’s) $17.3 billion to nearly $40 billion by end-2014,” states a company release.
In 2009, the worldwide mobile IM user base stood at 191 million and this is forecasted to grow five-fold to an 955 million users in 2014. According to the report, worldwide mobile IM revenues will multiply four-fold from $ 4.3 billion in 2009 to $18 billion by end of 2014.
‘Mobile advertising needs time to mature’
The Mobile Conclave 2010 – Mobile Advertising and VAS Conference was held in New Delhi on Friday to discuss the current state of mobile advertising and VAS business in India, and to compare it with the mobile media industry in developed markets abroad.
At the keynote address, Vivek Singhal, chief executive officer of mobile intelligence firm CellStrat spoke on the phenomenal growth of mobile phone usage in India and also on how better content can lead to more revenues from advertising for VAS companies. He said, “In India, content is mostly pirated but now it is gaining traction. We will now see more of paid content from big brands and this will help us in generating more revenues.” He compared the mobile ad industry in India to that in the West and said, “India is about SMS advertising whereas western world is about banner advertising.”
Milind Pathak, vice-president, Comviva brought the focus to challenges faced by the VAS industry and said, “The ecosystem in India is not suitable (for growth), as there is a fight on revenue sharing and penetration is low on VAS front.” He, however, said that he is optimistic for this year as “a lot of players would bring in a lot of traction to help consumers discover. There would be a rise in free content penetration and downloading and m-commerce would also pick up.” He added that 20-25 per cent of data services penetration in India is possible in the coming years.
The keynotes were followed by a panel discussion on ‘Mobile Advertising: Today, Tomorrow and Beyond’. The panel, comprised Chirag Jain, vice-president, marketing, Webaroo (SMS GupShup); Ankur Agrawal, general manager, Indiatimes; Debasis Chatterji, chief executive officer, Netxcell and was moderated by Singhal of CellStrat.
Jain started the discussion by throwing light on the present mobile ad channels – SMS, voice, WAP, applications – BlueCast Bluetooth (advertising solutions that enable advertisers to deliver location targeted mobile campaigns) and mobile video. He said that every medium takes time to mature and the industry should give some more time to mobile advertising. He added, “There are two things to keep in mind. Firstly, one should not set unusually high expectations without allowing the medium to mature. Secondly, its comparison with other media is unfair.”
Chatterji took over the discussion and explained in length the factors responsible for slow growth of mobile VAS and advertising in India. According to him, “Mobile advertising is important because you can overcome time and age barriers with it, and it is the only medium where you can be very interactive.” He said that factors such as small screen size, do-not-call service, low Bandwidth with no trace of 3G and smartphone prices are posing big problems for the growth of mobile advertising in the country. Chatterji added, “A lot of contextual study is required for understanding the kind of advertising, both quantitative and qualitative, that is needed.”
90% growth expected in m-commerce in APAC
The second panel discussion at The Mobile Conclave 2010 � Mobile Advertising and VAS Conference was on ‘Mobile Value Added Services – Touching all corners of life’. The session saw senior executives from the industry discussing services existing in the market and new services to be launched in the near future. They also analysed mobile services such as alerts, banking, product promotions and entertainment.
The panel was moderated by Anagat Pareek, global business head, UshaComm; and comprised Milind Pathak, vice-president, Comviva; Jagdish Mitra, chief executive officer, CanvasM; Amit Mehta, head, sales and marketing, VAS, SDP and mobility, Tata Consultancy Services; Sachin Gupta, national head ,SMS and USSD, Tata Docomo and Sudarshan Dharmapuri, vice-president, IMImobile.
Pathak spoke on the mobile commerce industry in the country and said, “Mobile services and mobile finance is the way to go. In years to come, more than 90 per cent growth is expected in m-commerce in Asia Pacific region.”
Mitra took the discussion forward by speaking on the need for convergence in the digital space. He said, “Convergence is the key in India but we have to find out a suitable mechanism for converging.” He also spoke on why is convergence not successful in India, and added that factors such as digital divide, narrow transmission bands or bandwidth, low uptake of services and regulatory hurdles are making it difficult to bring about convergence here.
Gupta was the next to speak and he brought the focus on strategies that can help increase VAS revenues. He said that to increase VAS ARPU (average revenue per user), it is important to change the customer mindset on incoming promo calls, develop different models on VAS adoption, introduce differential mobile VAS, make subscribing and unsubscribing simpler, take a consumer segmented approach and launch a separate customer care service for VAS.