The MoPR Blog

It’s fair to say that India has earned a reputation for competency and excellence in technology. New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore are well established research and development centers, yet mostly known (in the West, anyway) for the work they do on behalf of North American and European companies that come to India to take advantage of a highly capable workforce educated in world class universities and paid lower wages than their North American and European peers. But if you think that India is only producing cutting edge software and devices for foreign companies, you are missing a much bigger picture.

Exciting new Indian companies are bringing to the global market homegrown computing, telecommunication and other technology marvels, many of them disruptive game changers.

Not long after Apple began creating buzz for its forthcoming launch of the iPad tablet, New Delhi based Notion Ink started making its own waves with its planned launch of an Android-based tablet called Adam.

In the mobile handset arena, Karbonn, a company headquartered in Bangalore, Micromax, outside New Delhi in Gurgaon and Spice Mobile, located in Uttar Pradesh, are three Indian companies that have cut into the market share of major global manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson within the rapidly expanding India market. These companies produce phones that are often noted to have built-in AM and FM radios (an obvious feature that is strangely absent from phones sold in North America). These companies also produce phones designed to be used as Internet appliances for Web surfing and social networking, a feature universal to all handset manufacturers consumers around the world are using mobile as their primary method of connecting to the Internet in greater numbers every year.

But innovations of these Indian handset manufacturers extend far beyond simple features.

In a market of 1.15 billion people, India has only just surpassed 500 million mobile subscribers, 95 percent of which are on prepaid plans. At roughly 45 percent market penetration, the Indian market is practically a greenfield opportunity when compared to other countries in Asia, Europe and North America, many of which have a penetration rate in excess of 100 percent (in other words, some people have more than one mobile phone plan). Adding to the complexities of the Indian market is a figure startling to many westerners: fewer than 25 percent of households in India have electricity.

Micromax and Spice address these market conditions by producing mobile phones with long lasting batteries, allowing a person to have days – not hours – of talk time, and a month – not a day – of standby time. There are consumers in many markets around the world who can benefit from innovation such as this.
All three companies produce phones that support dual SIM cards, addressing approximately 100 million Indian mobile subscribers who have multiple mobile numbers. Cleverly, the phones switch to the second SIM when the phones are held upside down.

A vibrant community of mobile software companies likewise address the unique conditions of the Indian market with innovative mobile finance, productivity and entertainment software that run on simple “feature” phones to powerful smartphones, like the recently launched line of Spice Android smartphones and tablets.

Supporting this extensive technology marketplace is a growing list of Indian trade publications. The team at Mobility Public Relations has worked with many and read many more. Among our favorites are CellPassion, FoneArena, Telecom Tiger, Tech Tree and 9.9 Media. We are also fond of the MobiGyaan and MobileGyaan blogs. And this list only scratches the surface.

We also quite like the TV show Tech Guru, not just because they covered our clients.

Think of it, even at more than 500 million subscribers – 200 million more people than live in the United States – the Indian mobile market can still more than double! These stats mixed together with India’s universities, talent pool, increasingly connected (and mobile population), and vibrant tech media landscape make India one of the most compelling technology markets as we look toward the next decade of the 21st Century. Just as “made in Japan” was commonly found on devices in the 1970s and 1980s, and “made in China” is found on devices made today, I predict we’ll see many high-end and cutting edge mobile devices with “made in India” in the years to come.

As the CALM Act makes its way through Congress, more and more industry leaders are chiming in on the Act and what exactly it means for cable, satellite, telecom and other providers of multi-channel video. This is a timely discussion should the CALM Act eventually become law, which is likely as it has passed the House and it’s one bill that Democrats and Republicans in the Senate can get behind without much rancor.

One industry executive in particular is tackling the issue of how video service providers can actually identify overly loud commercials embedded in their programming, which is the first step in combating them.

Mixed Signals’ Steve Liu tackles the topic in his article “Monitoring Multi-Channel Audio Loudness Issues” in the latest edition of Broadband Gear Report.

In the article he outlines the specific requirements of the CALM Act and how effective and comprehensive content monitoring can not only enable service provider to meet the conditions of the Act, but also increase the quality of the viewing experience for customers.

Because as we’ve discussed in the past, no one likes the crazy hike in the loudness of commercials. What do we want instead? An optimal viewing experience that is void of ear-blasting audio. Surely that can’t be too much to ask for, especially in a time when we have the tools we need to effectively monitor the issues and catch the offending errors.

As always, we’ll keep you updated on the current state of the CALM Act along with other industry commentary.

Stay tuned!

There Really is an App for That

Consumers know that their smartphones can do just about anything. Shopping lists, sports scores, weather, videos, Facebook… There are thousands of consumer apps. But weren’t smartphones originally intended to be business devices? The cover story of this week’s “InformationWeek” magazine is all about the business applications of smartphones, and the innovative way corporate IT departments are putting them to use. In “What Goes Mobile” Mary Hayes Weier has written one the most comprehensive looks yet at the potential mobile apps will have in various business environments, from auto sales to health care.

In a companion piece in the same edition, Peter Rysavy writes about using the Mobile Web as an alternative to developing mobile applications. This theme is one that MoPR has hit on before with our own clients, such as Bitstream, the makers of the BOLT Mobile Browser. In “The Mobile Web Imperative” Rysavy speaks directly to IT departments and the developers building tools for businesses.

It’s the Year 2010: Still No Flying Cars

We’ve entered the season where writers and publications prognosticate about the trends of the coming year. You’ll see many articles with titles such as “2010: The Year of the _____.” “PC World” magazine has an interesting article which asks the question “2010: The Year of the Table PC?” Table PCs aren’t new. They just aren’t popular. Yet. But a lot of new features, such as touch screens, are reinvigorating the category. With pictures and videos along the way, writer Ian Paul walks us through the new landscape of tablet computers and makes a compelling case for why 2010 may be for tablet PCs what 2007 was for smartphones.

A Map You Can Step Into

I know, I know, the title of this column is “Weekend Reading” not “Weekend Viewing.” But one of our favorite writers, Jon Fortt at “Fortune” magazine has a video that showcases some of the cooler developments in location based technologies. Not coupons for the coffee shop around the corner from where you’re standing, but interactive maps unlike anything you’ve yet seen. Take a look:

In Case You Missed It: Cell Phones Cause Cancer… or Do They?

Throughout 2009 there were several stories about studies that showed a link between cell phone use and cancer. Not good news for those of us who not only are power users of our mobile phones, but also work in the mobility industry. In “Mobile Enterprise” magazine, Michael D. Cole looks at the results of a study released last week, an exhaustive 30 year study conducted in Scandinavia which concludes that there is no such link between cell phone use and cancer. Wait, don’t breath a sigh of relief just yet. Read “Study Refutes Cancer-Cell Phone Connection — But Rancorous Debate Persists” and judge for yourself.

As always, we invite you to share your comments.