SmartTrust looks into its mobile crystal ball

RELATED NEWS Airtel goes ringing in US Nokia to pilot mobile TV in India Airtel partners with Google to offer search services Reliance Comm launches Stock Mania Nifty BSE | NSE 25/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

The mobile industry moves fast with trends coming and going at a lightening pace! So what will be the next big thing in mobile and what can Indian consumers expect in 2007?

 

Mobile Device Management company SmartTrust offers its own view on some of the hot topics we'll be hearing more about in the coming 12 months.

 

1)       Advent of 3G

India recorded 6.2 million new mobile subscribers in September 2006 alone. Operators vying for the new 3G licenses are hoping to cash in on this by offering low-priced handsets and advanced services that target an enormous market. The availability of cheaper 3G handsets is a major factor that will drive growth of 3G throughout India. Another factor in favour of 3G is that it will provide more efficient services not only for standard applications but also for high end applications such as Mobile TV etc. In fact, service providers such as Bharti Airtel, Hutchison Essar, MTNL and BSNL are already testing their 3G networks which brings us to conclude that 3G is definitely the way of the future.

 

2)        Mobile TV

Globally, Motorola, Nokia, LG, Samsung, Panasonic, SEMC and NEC have already launched their mobile TV handsets. Mobile TV ownership and usage are growing dramatically in markets such as Europe, Japan, Korea and US. The present global sales are estimated to be eight million mobile TV-enabled handsets. According to London-based Informa Telecoms & Media, they are expected to mount up to 185 million units by 2010. The projected global market could be worth $8.4 billion by 2010, says. Although India may not be as big a market just yet, the concept is creating immense buzz in the market and being touted as the next killer application. It is also creating newer business avenues for content creaters and broadcasters. 2007 is definitely expected to be the year of mobile TV.

 

3)       Mobile IM

Something that Yahoo! has made popular, mobile IM is fast picking up globally. Although this depends on the popularity and penetration of GPRS, the "I'm on mobile" option made available to working professionals is an appreciated convenience and is bound to see further growth in 2007.

 

4)       Mobile Radio

As radio starts to transform away from analog transmission, globally big investments are being made on satellite, digital, and internet delivery. Close on the heels of the internet revolution in India, Internet radio promises to be the future of entertainment amongst the netizens. With plethora of internet radio services available today, there are limitation of mobility and personalization feature for content, tedious access, poor quality sound that hinders optimum enjoyment of music on mobile phones. As a result, internet radio on the mobile is slowly but surely making its presence felt in India. Companies such as Geodesic have launched "Mundu Radio" which offers this service.

 

 Contd on page 2....