You already have an MP3 player, a GPS navigation system, digital cameras, e-mail, video games, and browse the web on your handset. On a growing list of can-do?s on the gadget, add the cellphone-based boarding pass system. US? Continental Airlines says it will begin allowing customers to substitute paper boarding passes.
Whether this service comes soon to India or not, it is increasingly becoming clear that the wireless device will handle most of your work, and entertainment in the foreseeable future. Almost all the stakeholders ? handset manufacturers, service provides, value-added service creators ? are all agreed that the net is more likely to reach the Indian masses, especially in Category B and C towns and rural hinterlands rather than the PC, with the promise to empower the aam aadmi as none other.
According to an IDC India study, mobile entertainment currently generates revenues to the tune of Rs 15,000 million of the total VAS segment which stands at Rs 63,000 million in India, which now forms about 37% of the total non-SMS data revenues.
?Today people want to be more in control of how, what and where they acquire and consume their digital entertainment and we see them wanting to discover new favourites and share them without being confined to one location,? says Sudhin Mathur, GM, Sony Ericsson India. ?It?s devices like the Sony Ericsson W910i and the W960i with whose features we aim to offer the best of entertainment to enhance the customer experience,? he explains.
And the target is the youth, which makes up over 70% of the total mobile user base in India, and is generating a lot of demand for such entertainment content, says Vineet Taneja, business director, multimedia, Nokia India. In 2008, he sees entertainment as the biggest driver, one likely to dominate the mobile.
Verizon Wireless, US? second-largest carrier, announced plans to open its network to any device or application that meet certain standards in 2008. Google had earlier announced a plan to create its own broad slate of new-generation handsets. Both companies are reacting to a deep shift in the way people use mobile phones. Last week, top fashion brand TAG Heuer followed compatriots Prada and Armani in announcing their entry into the mobile phone space.
And the web is where everyone seems to converge. ?Mobile data services are, at times, plugging in a very real need for entertainment and information in smaller towns and villages, where the mobile phone is bridging the digital divide,? says Pankaj Sethi, president, value added services and enterprise marketing, Tata Teleservices.
For now, it is SMS, ringtones and caller tunes, music mixing and mobile internet which are the hottest, says Sethi. Going forward, video streaming, e-mail with new applications, live TV viewing will be the order of the day, he adds. ?The NextGen technology curve ? EVDO ? will enable all this in a seamless and high-speed manner,? says Sethi. Nokia announced OVi ? an internet services brand in October. ?OVi will enable consumers to easily access their existing social network, communities and content,? says Taneja. Major VAS provider Mauj already has a film production unit, People Pictures, and sees a future in mobile TV and film content, though as Manoj Dawane, CEO, People Infocom (Mauj) says, ?The 3G spectrum will be used mainly for voice,? while stating that 31% of new internet users do it through their handsets, according to the Internet and Mobile Association. Sameer Nair, CEO, NDTV Imagine, too says the TV is ?just the current broadcast medium, and we will look at other mediums in time.?
A frequent shortcoming cited by consumers is the opening of the browser in the wrong size, though service providers discount this. ?We already offer a unique ?full web browsing? experience to our customers, made possible by our tie-up with Opera Software and the Opera Mini browser on our handsets,? elaborates Sethi. The new-age browser is designed to provide mobile users a web experience at speed three-to-four times faster than GPRS, with access to all websites in regional languages. LG plans to launch a new model Viewty shortly in India ? a high-end phone with high-speed internet capabilities, says Anil Arora, business group head, GSM, LG Electronics India. Certain Nokia phones come with preloaded content such as top 10 music videos and comedy clips.
However as analyst Rajat Agarwal of Cellpassion.com points out, the audience in India is unused to watching on such a small screen. ?Digital media players, with two or three inch screens have been a part of people?s lives in some countries, so even the content is customised accordingly,? he says. ?2008 should make browsing easier, though 3G spectrum will be essential for this. Where it will help is in location-based services like GPS, navigation etc and social networking.?
Amen to that, with a silent prayer that the handset doesn?t hang at that crucial moment when you require it most!
