Smart mobile technology is making India smarter

T M Ramakrishnan

With the latest technology and the growing popularity of smartphones, India has witnessed a major transformation in the way people live and businesses being done. Healthcare is an area that has embraced mobile technology, and while it’s still in the infancy of adoption of this technology, it is already making profound improvements for many.

Healthcare providers can review home medical tests from anywhere and make crucial changes to the patient’s care. In the village of Karanehalli, about 40 miles from India’s high-tech capital of Bangalore, mobile phones have changed the way farmers do business. Atul Bharve, a farmer from Karanehalli mentioned that when the rains didn’t arrive in early June this year, he panicked. But that crucial SMS from a smartphone manufacturer was a lifeline for his family. Farmers believe that their life is much better with the mobile phone, as they can be reached by anyone while they are working in the fields.

Without mobile devices and the technology behind them, participation in social networking would never have grown as much as it has. Sharing seemingly trivial information like where we are, what we are doing, and what that looks like significantly impacts our relationships with friends and loved ones.

The country is the second largest market in the world in terms of mobile connections and unique subscribers, with nearly 900 million mobile connections and 350 million subscribers. Technology based facilities like Tele-medicines, Tele-education etc have marked a new era in the remotest parts of India. With improved spectrum pricing and management, growth of mobile broadband services is expected to continue, with 3G and 4G adoption projected to increase by 31 per cent - from 107 million 3G and 4G connections in 2013 to 409 million connections in 2017. However, the Indian mobile industry still lags behind most major economies in terms of mobile maturity and penetration.

How mobile devices impact business processes

The emergence of mobile enterprise applications will be a major trend in 2014, driving enterprise mobility, creating new ways of working, and transforming existing business processes. Although a number of business and technology trends will continue to play a crucial role in shaping an enterprise, the ones that are pivotal to the success of business strategy next year would be cloud computing. Infact today we see a considerable number of enterprise customers considering cloud as part of their corporate IT and it is high time they should adopt cloud in their business functions. Most enterprises will continue to adopt a hybrid model next year, while a number of organisations have already started exploring private cloud as well. The cloud security market will enter a new shift and next year, enterprises should develop a long-term strategy for continuous security improvement and deliver an executive reporting scheme that addresses cloud security needs in their organisations.

Smartphone penetration in rural India is growing. Adoption in the rural and suburban market has significant effect on the overall smartphone penetration in India. While this is a challenge for the smartphone manufacturers, it also provides huge opportunity for the segment to grow in the country by multifold. The local manufactures are main growth drivers in this market providing the smartphones at the lowest cost. Some of the trends which we will witness in future in terms of Mobile technology are:

The next trend that we will witness proactively in the coming future will be of Mobile Visual Search (MVS). With MVS, one can simply point at products or logos and shoot pictures with smartphones. Within seconds, the MVS application provides product or company information and even the option to make purchases right then and there.

Location-based mobile advertising (LBA) is yet another trend that we will witness in future. LBA is the most personal and direct marketing channel today that allows marketers to reach a specific target audience by creating campaigns aimed at age, gender, income and lifestyle segments.

Increased penetration of mobile technology in India will bring with it many socio-economic benefits. In agriculture, mobile solutions improve yields and support farmers with enhanced contact with markets. Greater access to healthcare and reduced mortality are also facilitated by mobile solutions, while mobile technology brings financial services to rural and underserved communities. Government has an important role to play in all of these areas by removing barriers to the integration of mobile solutions in an increasingly connected world.

The author is the CEO – Devices, Spice Retail

This article was published in PCQuest  June 2014 issue