With third generation (3G) mobile services set to roll out early next year in India, service providers are banking on the value-added services (VAS) segment to ring in additional revenues, with many new features like personalised radio, mobile blogging and social networking.

The VAS market, currently valued at Rs.65 billion ($1.35 billion), constitutes about 9-10 percent of the total revenues for telecom operators in India with short messaging service (SMS) alone accounting for 44 percent of that share.

With 3G services to be rolled out by next year, the VAS industry is expected to increase its share manifold, with some industry estimates pegging the figure at Rs.200 billion by 2015.

Almost 20-25 percent of market share is occupied by ring back tones (RBT), which have 40-50 million users.

Once the 3G services are launched, social networking, blogging on mobile and advanced use of mobile radio will become more popular.

‘Very few people are now using personalised radio services as they are not aware of it. With personalisation of radio, the mobile phone can become ‘poor man’s I-pod’.

The 3G services will enable mobile users to access high-speed data services such as movies on demand, mobile TV, high-speed Web access, video calls, fast music and video downloads, interactive gaming and global positioning over the Internet.

Currently, VAS includes those services that add value to standard voice calls such as ringtones, caller ring back tones (CRBT), video games, imagery, jokes and information services.

According to various telecom experts, mobile phones will soon double up as a smart card, replacing plastic cards.

Remittances of funds through mobile phones is also expected to fulfil the gap in rural banking infrastructure, industry officials said, adding this would be yet another growth driver for the Indian VAS industry.

However, cost of service will be the key ingredient for growth of this industry.

Affordability is going to be a factor. Over a period of time, with lots of freebies, it will certainly be there.
Though m-commerce is still at a nascent stage, telecom players are already increasing their advertising spends to promote their VAS offerings.

‘The challenge, however, lies with handsets enabled with 3G to be available at lower costs. Very few consumers are now equipped with 3G enabled handsets.

For the telecom operators and VAS content providers, average revenue per user (ARPU) should reach Rs.100 and the entry level handsets should be priced at Rs.9,900 for success in this arena.

3G will be an acceleration of VAS. But everything will depend on how fast 3G is rolled out and the number of cheap/affordable 3G-enabled handsets available in the market.

Source: Yahoo News

Source: Economic Times

Source: AdMob’s Mobile Metrics Report

Came across a Job requirement, thought our guys will be interested. Please apply directly to the email address.

Hexolabs, a mobile VAS company being incubated at IIT Kanpur innovation cell is looking for a voice developer with following qualities.

Job Position:  Startup Mobile VAS company looking for Voice application developers

Job Description: Voice Portal Application Development in telecom domain – GSM, CDMA, FixedlineStrong programming skills in Voice XML, mySQL, PHP/JS1+ year of experience in Telco based applications would be strong value additionPlease send  your resumes to jobs@hexolabs.com

For more info, Please visit www.hexolabs.com

The good news is that using PHP (or another server-based scripting language), it’s sort of easy to detect some devices by parsing the UserAgent string. Because the code is run on the server rather than in the browser itself (such as JavaScript), these PHP-based techniques yield better reliability in detecting mobile devices. Just remember that there are lots of important caveats, including:

• These technqniques depend on the contents of the UserAgent string. As a result, these techniques may not work if the browser is emulating a different one (e.g., some mobile browsers can be set to emulate Internet Explorer).
• Mobile operators can also change the UserAgent contents when the device is customized for their networks and added to their stock device portfolio. Operators also sometimes change the UserAgent value as the page request passes through their networks.
• UserAgent strings are moving targets. Once implemented, you’ll need to monitor the effectiveness of your code against the list of your high priority devices or platforms. “

Read the full article at Hand Interactive and download the PHP codeSource & Link : Hand Interactive

The mobile value added services (MVAS) sector is expected to generate sales of Rs 11,000 crore by 2010. The MVAS industry will achieve compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 44 per cent in the next few years. As of today, 60 per cent of MVAS revenues come from audio downloads. But with the entry of 3G services the video downloads will perform a major role.

Source: Television Point

“3G services will provide higher bandwidth on mobile that will enable MVAS provider companies to sell the data that is in the form of video. Currently, video clips having the duration of hardly five seconds can be downloaded. Against this, 3G will allow 10 to 15 minutes of video shoots. Internet access will be much faster and it will give an edge to MVAS providers.”

The Indian consumer’s capacity to adopt new technology is faster than many other nationals. It will lead towards offerings of many more value added services like financial transactions, different advertisements depending upon demography, entertainment downloads and much more.

With the advent of 3G, services like video conferencing and video streaming are expected to refresh the present MVAS space. Given the gradual slump in basic prices 3G services will have a significant role to play in terms of creating a differentiation for operators. With options like mobile number portability (giving options to the subscribers to decide on operators without changing the number) MVAS is bound to play a major part in customer retention.”

As of today, the total wireless subscriber base stand at 28.7 crore and is increasing at a pace of 80 lakh subscribers per month. Out of this, roughly 10 per cent have availed internet services which means that the same number may opt for 3G at the time of the launch of the 3G services.

Write to Vineet: vineet.kaul@one97.net or vineetkaul@gmail.com

The dual-slide Nokia N96 is a blend of style and cutting edge technology.Optimized for web access and entertainment it represents a whole new chapter in mobile technology.

Its features include:

A memory size of 16GB expandable to 24 GB through an external micro SD card, which allows users to store up to 18000 songs, up to 20000 images at 5   mega pixel, up to 60 hours of video or 20 full length movies.With multifunctional media keys and a 2.8” screen, music, movies, games and more are   available at the touch of a button.
To make playing, watching, listening or experiencing the content even more enjoyable, it features a ‘kickstand’ on the back cover that allows for   hands-free viewing.

It is the first ever mobile device to come preloaded with Wave Secure, a S60 unique security application that allows consumers not just to track   their handset in the event of loss or theft, but also create a backup for the phone data via the Internet.Additionally, in the event that it is lost or stolen, WaveSecure helps remotely wipe out all data from the device to prevent misuse, lock the device remotely and even track any new sim card inserted.  This is an application being offered exclusively to consumers in India.

Users can also explore the world through Navigation and the Nokia Maps 2.0 application. The new Nokia Maps application offers richer and more   detailed maps and has upgrade options such as City Guides, turn-by-turn pedestrian mode and voice-guided car navigation. Further, with the integrated A-GPS, consumers can now ‘location tag’ their pictures with location data and share them with their online communities.
 
A high-speed USB 2.0 connection and WLAN and HSDPA support, which enables the users to find, create, transfer multimedia files and share them on   their social network.The Nokia N96 supports the OVi family of Nokia internet services, including maps, music, media sharing and more.

A 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, a dual LED flash and video light which allows DVD-like quality video capture at 30 frames per second.One  can also find, play and queue favourite tracks on the go with the most advanced music player. It features media keys, a 3.5 mm headphone connector and built-in 3D stereo speakers which gives the users a superb music experience. The N96 also enables game enthusiasts to compete with friends from   the palm of their hands. Users can enter the N-gage arena and challenge the world to a wide array of games or even blog about their     favourite games and chat online with other gamers.

Source: Economic Times

It is an easy to use aplication. The user simply has to:

 a)Download the AirMe application from the Apple App Store

 b)Launch AirMe and take the picture

With the help of this application, all photos are auto-tagged with location, time, weather and any user customised information. It is currently being used in 56 countries around the world. 

AirMe is currently available on the iPhone and has plans to launch the application on the Nokia and Sony Ericsson platforms in the near future, with other phone platforms to follow.

Source: Economic Times