MOBILE FUTURE

Mobile Blogging for the very first time in the world is being introduced in India by Airtel, where you can update your status with your voice, also various bollywood celebrities’ are IN for it, like Amitabh Bachchan, Arshad Warsi, Neetu Chandra etc. Well the unique thing about it is that ,one can also listen to the status updates of their favorite celebrities’ or can get the updates through SMS’s and can update their status as well.

This unique  first in India and the World, has also been termed by few as Micro Blogging, but it hardly matters, whatever you call it, the main point to be noted down here is, India has in reality be became the  virtual play ground for the mobile thing, where everyone is for surely in, to gain something out of this virtual arena and a gain is there for from the audience’s pocket as well.

In short it is currently the win-win situation for all at present, be it in the operators’ segment or the OEM’S.

But looking at the current scenario, no one can answer with certainty that who will hold the bigger piece from the cake, since loads of new players with the likes of Lava, Micro-Max, Inq, Karbonn & Maxx Mobiles along with Lava have emerged in the recent past and have really shook the “Bottom of the Pyramid” where Biggies like Nokia, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson etc have set the field for themselves, this immediate flooding of the market in such a manner have made the Think Tank from the Biggies to again go back to their working tables, sit, think and re-think on their basic strategies and to re-set their future goals, their product portfolio, price ranges and few other basics as the customers are getting more choosy in terms of purchasing a new handset/Mobile Phone, as they are having more choices at their disposal right now, in comparison to what they had in the past, i.e. Limited number of handsets to choose from with the good features.

Also the point of concern over here is that, who is going to stay in the field in the longer run?

As even one time Monopoly holder of the Indian Handset market (Nokia) is also facing the heat of the competition, and also there was a time, they were enjoying the glory of being called as a Household product for every Indian, since every time one runs out of the battery, can easily find at least one Nokia charger at any place, be it a restaurant, relative’s place etc etc., now a days they are almost out of the scene, but mark my words, they are not going to give in so easily over here, as they have plans to be back with a bang.

Interestingly, new trend has suddenly emerged in the market, where consumer electronic majors like Onida, Videocon also couldn’t resist the temptation to stay out of this arena.

Now coming to Sony Ericsson Mobile Communication, a joint venture between the Ericsson and Sony, once on the verge of extinction from Indian Market, closed down their R&D centre in Chennai, again gave it a thought, not to leave this beneficial market, and again pumped in loads of initiatives into the market with the Likes of Vivaz, Vivaz Pro, Xperia X10, X10 Mini, X10 Mini Pro and various consumer promotions as well and believe me they surely have gained something if not everything out of it. They have also kept their basics as clear as ever, the latest in the technology to offer and Excite their consumers, as their Tag also suggests the same- “Excite, Evolve, Engage”, earlier they were the pioneers in offering Cyber Shot-Offering the good quality camera effect-Almost excellent.

Then came the Walkman Series phones and in one way or the other they have shown their interest towards targeting youth always, which one must say is a good thing to stay hip-hop in the market.

At the same time, they have also targeted the niche customers always by launching above 10,000/ category handsets, but now competition is growing hardlike (whatsapp status) and they have also plans to get down into the lower category handsets.

While getting geared up for the 3G Launch, behind the scenes who knows that they might be getting ready for the LTE thing, which only fewer people are aware of, LTE-Long Term Evolution, it lies somewhere in between the 3G & 4G, with 4G being already operational in U.S.A & China.

Who knows when 4G will take its own time to get started in India as 3G did, they will come up with LTE ready phones before anyone else did.

Let’s wait and watch, since Future is all about Communication, be it in the offerings from the Service providers (May be more of VAS initiatives), be it the service offered from OEM’s end.

Thanks,

Sahil Sachdeva.