Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson are excited about the potential of m-blogging in the Metros according to this article in the Economic Times. The article is bullish about the future of m-blogging but does not really put across any hard facts.
Notice the fact that of the consumers who opt for a GPRS-enabled handheld, less than one in 4 opt for GPRS from their mobile provider. Only the carriers have themselves to blame for the current trend. I believe that poor support for GPRS services and awareness of applications for the service are to blame.
There are over 156 million mobile subscribers in India. According to industry estimates, around 10% of mobile subscribers in metros use GPRS facility and 2-3% in tier II and III cities have hooked on to GPRS facility, which allows fast internet access on mobiles. Approximately 40-45% phones sold in India are GPRS enabled. According to IDC, in India the sale of camera phones is registering around 25% quarter-on-quarter growth.
Globally there are 200 million bloggers. Industry estimates put 100,000 as the figure for India. (According to Blog Herald, there are 1.2 million bloggers in India). And the number is growing. “The number of m-bloggers is fast growing though the trend is just an year old,” says Nokia’s Mr Taneja. Nokia N series has m-blogging feature to capture the potential of this segment.
Santosh
Anjali
13 responses so far ↓
Mandar // February 23, 2007 at 5:26 am
Similar to earlier comment, the providers need to come up with pricing models that will allure end users to this world. How about giving out 30 mins of free surfing or X MB free data transfer with some medium sized billing plan? Users will use it first to see how is the experience and then just to utilize the facility that is included in their plan. I hate this kind of marketting but I feel it works at least to force people to try something new.
- Mandar
Pranav // March 13, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Not to mention two other factors:
1) GPRS is very,very slow. I dont have first hand experience. But this is what I gathered based on what my friends told me.
2) Getting the GPRS profile settings and stuff is a pain in the ass. I can attest to this since I tried to get GPRS activated on my dad’s cell phone. And the crazy ass Hutch support folks had no clue on doing it efficiently.
I guess m-blogging and other VAS related stuff needs to wait till 3G is in place.
Santosh // March 14, 2007 at 4:47 pm
@Pranav - don’t Hutch push out pre-configured GPRS settings for different phones like AirTel does? It is possible to do so using service messages, I think.
Pranav // March 15, 2007 at 5:38 am
Santosh,
They do…But if you run into any issues, the support folks have no clue about debugging the profile settings and the likes..
for some reason, the profile settings they pushed to my phone wouldnt work.
Santosh // March 15, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Conveniently blame it on ‘Last mile’ issues
Customer service is very important.
Arvind // August 21, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Excellent blog Santosh,
I really like the information given here. I wanted to know the source for your information when you said “Industry Estimates”.
Is it based on some report - IDC, Garnter?
Thanks.
Sameer // March 18, 2008 at 6:53 pm
well till the time operators dont let people exprince GPRS the situation will not change. giving free service for trail has worked well for operators in past remember how sms wee free iniatially and then we all got hokes on them and never left texting even when we started geting charged, the onus ies ere on the operators to facilitate and educate users on gprs and then st back and reap the rewards. what surpriss me is that there is no statistic which throws light on actual GPRS users in india, i guess even the trai statistics of 38 milion are overstated as they have included every user who has ever downloaded a ringtone or wallpaper from the operators walled garden wap site lik airtel live etc
Santosh // March 18, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Hey Sameer,
I had no idea SMS was free initially. Great point!
- Santosh
bryanh // March 20, 2008 at 9:44 am
Slammy! I just found this through twitter, ironically.
Data adoption will come; whether it’s GPRS or otherwise. The article itself is a little laughable because industry people see m-blogging as “taking a picture and posting it for your friends.” Typical SMS-centric-thinking.
The power of m-blogging isn’t in my ability to POST out to my friends (since, according to forester, most people aren’t “creators”), but in my ability to subscribe (ie via rss or twitter) and monitor what people are doing.
I saw the power of this first hand at sxsw where i was “following” people (that I don’t know personally) on twitter, and they were talking about which bars they were at, interesting events/ talks happening. I suppose it’s the fact that the people i’m “communicating” with AREN’T my friends that makes m-blogging more interesting to me.
riya // May 8, 2008 at 11:51 am
hi,
I am doing a research on integration of health care services n mobile application example-u can get appointment through sms or may be once u have feed the prescription on your handset u will be probed when u need to take the medicine etc).If u have any relevant information about the same plz share it.My email -riya.bvp@gmail.com
SAGAR BHATIA // June 27, 2008 at 11:24 am
Hi,
We have applications which can solve all this purpose. Application called as KONEKT by MOBIKON technology, which works on GPRS.With this application you can book table in any restaurant , home delivery even you can ask for a painter,electrician….infact they are working on doctors appointment too. you just need to type KONEKT and send it to 56070, then you can install the application on to your handset.
Jack // September 4, 2008 at 4:49 pm
More than free mbs and downloads - what is needed is strong applications which will drive data usage.
Moblog // September 4, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Even we launched a free Mobile Blogging Platform MoBlog and we are dissapointed. Mobile blogging is so in thing elsewhere but not for Indian Bloggers.
Get your MoBlog at http://moblob.mobi
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