BANGALORE, INDIA: With 3G mobile service going to makes its presence felt in India in a bigger way very soon, the mobile data service market is set to grow heavily and steadily in the country.
Apart from 3G, the high uptake of services such as MMS, mobile web browsing, call conferencing, call forwarding, call waiting, mobile banking, and access to other data services are also catalysts that can enhance the outlook for mobile data services market in India.
According to a data from ABI Research, mobile application downloads in set to make a giant leap in 2010. If the mobile applications download was estimated to be 2.4 billion in 2009, it could touch 6 billion in 2010, says the report.
And the major drivers for this expansion is the rapid adoption of smartphones, registering a sales growth of 20 per cent in 2009 as also the proliferation of application stores.
“Mobile value-added service (VAS) providers are preparing to offer cellphone applications delivering live news and movies to medical diagnosis and tutorials after the release of 3G spectrum, which is expected to give a boost to the estimated Rs.16,250 crore VAS market,” says Sandiip Kapur, CEO Promodome Communications.
According to him, 3G which will enable video calls and high-speed data transfer, spawning a whole new ecosystem and creating a new revenue stream for media agencies.
Though the figures may vary, research company Frost & Sullivan is also expecting the mobile value added services (VAS) market in India to experience strong growth, with the proliferation of 3G. According to the company the mobile VAS market in India would be over Rs. 5,400 crore by the end of this year and it could cross Rs. 12,000 crore by the end of 2015.
It is this potential of the 3G in the VAS segment which prompted the Indian Merchants’ Chamber to call a conference on on 28 May, 2010 in Mumbai to discuss the 'Impact of 3G & BWA on Mobile VAS'.
The highlight of the conference would be the importance for the mobile value added services in India and how 3G will open the door to innovative value added services which will bring everything to just one convergent device.
According to experts, 3G would bring a technology revolution in India, and it will also create a paradigm shift in the VAS market in the country.
“The iPhone will continue to be the leading app platform, with a database of over 125,000 applications offering niche and localized content,” says ABI's wireless research associate Bhavya Khanna. “Other platforms are still playing catch-up, with Android being the fastest gainer among them. ABI Research expects that with over 30,000 applications now available, over 800 million Android applications will be downloaded in 2010.”
However, the revenues from mobile app sales are expected to decline by 2012, as competition has led to downward pressure on application prices; and a greater proportion of “must-have” applications will begin to have free or advertising-supported substitutes, says ABI.
Mobile apps: In education and social networking
Apart from the commercial side of VAS, mobile applications too have a huge potential of transforming and giving all the new look to education sector of the county, feels Raghavendra Agarwala, CEO, mBit Infotech. “There have been aggressive campaigns and initiatives towards rural development including rural education by various telcos,” he points out.
According to him, “Most of the student crowd has the accessibility to the handsets in turn, who are the power users of the mobile apps. Rural part of the country is vested with the huge potential of using the apps for boosting up the education sector as a whole as India's face has transformed from an agrarian society to a service society which is based on the education been imparted.”
And the trend will also give a boost to the developer community, says Agarwala.
“Currently speaking, mobile application download is one of growing patterns as both the demand and supply has been growing manifold,” he pointed out.
“Mostly, the younger crowd has a peculiar affinity towards the new applications been launched in a country, be it paid or free of cost. More the apps in the handset, more in vogue the person is considered, so by looking at this trend approach, I feel the developers' community will definitely have the positive boost so as to match up the growing demand of the users in terms of 'what new do you have to offer',” ascertains Agrawala.
Also the online social networking sites will get a boost with higher technologies coming in, he says.
“There will be much more than just simple social networking in the times to come as we have already seen the changing trends in terms of just being connected to the friends, then finding your old friends, schools and affinity groups through communities, applications, games, credits, etc. making these sites more and more sticky with every added module to the current.”