A look at India – the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world

India has been the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world for quite some time now. There are already 250 million mobile phone users in India and the number gets increased by 6 million every month, thanks to new users. There are a few reasons behind this impressive growth.

1. Indian economy is on a roll and has had an impressive growth over the past few years. This has increased the purchasing power of the people significantly, especially that of the middle class people. As a result, the 30 million middle class people in India are the target customer segment for mobile companies now.

2. The price range of mobile phones is quite big. You can get low-end mobile phones in the $20 - $30 price range and at the same time you can get high-end mobile phones in the $600 - $800 price range. So, whether you belong to the super rich category, middle class, or lower middle class category, you can get a mobile phone which fits into your budget.

3. There are several major mobile operators in India and there is intense competition in the market. Almost all of them have slashed their call charges, text message charges, and offer a lot of value added services. What this means to the user is, not only can he get a handset at an affordable rate, but he can also afford to keep his phone charges within his budget every month. This has led to more and more people buying mobile phones.

Recent reports predict that India will have a whopping 500 million mobile users by 2010. This is the reason why mobile advertising is considered the next big thing in the Indian market.

Though mobile advertising by third party advertisers is yet to become popular, several mobile operators are already doing it successfully. Notable players like Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Tata Indicom, Reliance, and Vodafone regularly send text messages to their users regarding latest offers, new plans, and other issues.

That said, a few big players have already tried their hands on mobile advertising through third party advertisers and have had a good response. Recently, Hindustan Lever and Coca Cola launched mobile advertising campaigns promoting their products and have had good response rate so far. Since Indians are very active in using features like text message, MMS, and mobile internet, mobile advertisers have tons of choices to come up with personalized mobile advertising campaigns.

All in all, India will be a market to watch out for in the next few years as far as mobile advertising is concerned.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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Cellphone advertising in 2007 - A review

2007 is almost over and we’re eagerly expecting the arrival of the New Year. So, it’s that time of the year when people look back at their silly mistakes, achievements (if any), resolutions they made, and all other useless stuff. I’m not gonna do any of them; don’t worry. Instead, I’m gonna look back at the cellphone advertising and marketing industry and share some of my thoughts with you.

The single biggest event that changed the course of the cellphone advertising and marketing industry was the launch of the Apple iPhone. It was more than just a phone and the truckload of features made it a favorite with users instantly. At a time when cellphone advertisers were thinking about advertising via text messaging and banner ads, the Wi-Fi enabled iPhone offered them a hell lot of options. Interestingly, iPhone is not the only phone in the market with such features. Blackberry, AT & T and T-Mobile Network phones, and a few models from Nokia also have Wi-Fi facility and other features that the iPhone boasts of. But the most important difference was in the way Apple marketed their product. The enormous hype created before the launch of iPhone was simply never heard of in the market before and thankfully, it lived up to the hype.

The second biggest event, in fact the one that almost outshone Apple iPhone was the launch of Google Android. Google had been timing the market to take the plunge for a long time and speculations were running wild. A lot of market experts and market watchers (including yours truly) had predicted that Google would come up with Google Phone, which could be the fitting answer for the iPhone. But when Google announced that it will not develop its own phone, at least in the near future, they had their foot firmly in their mouth. But Google Android proved out to be a bigger success, considering the buzz it created in the market. With its Open Handset Alliance with 30 plus big names, Google simply stole the show from the iPhone. I’ve already explained why Google Android could lead to the undoing of iPhone and it remains to be seen whether I’ll be proven wrong in 2008.

2007 could possibly go down as the most eventful year as far as cellphone advertising industry is concerned, as the year saw some major names like Microsoft, New York Times, Coca Cola, Facebook, MySpace, Fox Interactive Media, and of course Google enter the market in full fledge. Most of the industry experts and research firms predicted a huge growth for cellphone marketing and advertising industry whose revenue was estimated at around $1 billion. Also, it is said that in just about five years, this revenue could increase tenfold.

Also, 2007 was the year of acquisitions. Big players in the market realized the enormous potential of cellphone advertising and marketing and started acquiring cellphone advertising firms. We saw Nokia acquire Enpocket, AOL acquire Third Screen Media, Microsoft acquire ScreenTonic, Publicis acquire Phonevalley, and so on. This definitely marked the arrival of cellphone marketing and advertising in a big way.

Though 2007 is undoubtedly the biggest year for cellphone advertising, there are still some unconquered territories within the industry. First of all, mobile internet facility should be within the reach of the majority of consumers for advertisers and marketers to be able to reach them fully. A lot of companies have realized the potential of mobile websites and for consumers to be able to make the most of it, the price of high-end mobile phones should be brought down. Already, Apple has started the process with a hefty price cut on its iPhone and we can expect other handset makers to follow suit, hopefully. Also, thanks to mobile advertisers, the price of premium services has come down drastically and in a lot of cases, these services are available free of cost, thanks to ad-funded services. With some operators even offering free talk time to customers who opt in for cellphone advertising, I really think cellphone advertising has hit the target big-time. Its continued success though, lies only in the hands of operators, advertisers, and handset makers for they are in a position to lead the industry in the right direction next year.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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