Mobile phone is a vital key to bridging the digital divide in India. A low cost, Internet-enabled mobile device will help more people access the Internet easily on the move. However, users not only need better, low-cost handsets but also Internet content modified to be accessed on mobiles. ET caught up with Vineet Taneja, Head of Go-to-Market, Nokia India, to discuss this and related issues. Excerpts:
For most Indians, especially in rural areas, the first experience of the Internet will be on the handset, and not on a PC. Can Internet access take off on mobiles in its current format?
The Internet will have to be modified significantly before rural India can access the web on their handsets. Currently, there is very little vernacular content on the Internet. There’s plenty of content available on the Internet, but this will have to change in terms of design. For instance, heavy images as present in the web cannot be easily accessed on the mobiles. Besides, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)-enabled versions of all websites will have to come up. This is perhaps the most simple and efficient way to access online content on the handset. In India, we can also make the Internet work on handsets in forms that are not visible to the consumer. Our studies have shown that communication and social interactivity activities (emailing, instant messaging/chatting, dating/friendship and matrimonial search) and entertainment activities (news, sports, movies/music, and cricket) and ‘social interactivity’ activity online (IM, chat, networking, communities, sharing pictures and videos, blogs) stand out as the most popular online activities—all these applications can be delivered on the handset in simpler formats that is different from that on the Internet. For instance, search can be done via SMS.
How are telecom operators and handset makers working towards changing the Internet to make it handset-friendly. As a dominant handset player, what’s your role in this space?
On the WAP side, we need to see revenues. Once inventories (ads on mobiles) start getting sold in the WAP space, everybody will rush in. Currently, Internet on mobile handset is able to get lots of eyeballs but has not been able to garner advertising revenues. Once this happens, the rest of the ecosystem will fall into place. As a handset maker or as a service provider, our role is to offer applications (like m-commerce, chat, social networking etc) that can help sell inventories. As Indians click through the net, more on mobiles and less on laptops, more marketers will target them through their mobiles and online; more services and entertainment will be delivered through mobility.
For an average Indian, the price of a converged device is still high. Can Nokia bring converged devices in the Rs 3,000-5,000 range to enable more users to buy them?
Converged devices are available around the Rs 3,000-mark. So the price barrier has been broken. But these are just basic devices that have a browser, camera and music capabilities. The real converged devices with a larger screen size and better features come upwards of Rs 10,000. I cannot tell as to how far prices will come down. It’s true that at Rs 10,000 plus affordability is an issue.
India is the second-largest market for Nokia globally. Is it also your second-largest market for converged devices?
Our size is largely driven by the entry segment. At the same time, we have a large market for converged devices here. People going in for converged devices here are more than global averages. We have observed that people usually buy a converged device as their second/third handset purchase. Converged devices have also become a significant part of the replacement market, which accounts for 30-35% of the handsets sold in the country
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment