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India generally lags 2 years in the implementation of technologies compared to the developed nations like UK, Australia and USA. The Indian Government is yet to finalize and distribute 3G licenses, a time when 4G has been conceptualized and ready for implementation in super-advanced countries like Japan. Smartphones are being introduced all over the world, with iconic devices like Google G1, Blackberry Storm, iPhone 3GS and Nokia N97. but what we need in India at the moment is for the infrastructure to support these phones. 3G figures right up there, on the wish-list of techies all over India, and an affordable 3G at that.
Smartphones, are called so because of the ever decreasing sizes and ever increasing list of features and technologies being integrated into them. I was especially very excited looking at the HTC Hero, running the revolutionary Android O/s, something which also will be converted into an O/s for netbooks. In the meantime, general websites like Web Mails, Facebook , Twitter and MySpace are all riding the smartphone bandwagon. This means a greater market share for them, since mobile internet would mean more people using them in the near future and thus more usage time. It is also an area of opportunity, where smaller IT companies are now developing applications for these smartphones, like iPhone Apps, and in turn fuel the growth of India’s economy.
3G, the essense of smartphones, has to start delivering soon, as the opportunities are too valuable to be missed. The latest steroid of 3G is a technology called High Speed Packet Access(HSPA), which makes 3G more viable for both the service providers and the end consumers. The next step is the HSPA+ which will be able to provide upto 42 Mbps of blazing speeds, provided your phone supports it and we have service providers investing in this technology all over India, and not just the metros. The Semi-Urban citizens like those from Tier-II and Tier-III cities are now fueling the growth of the mobile market in India, and its time the service providers did something to keep that intact. In fact India is one of the only countries which has fought against the trends of Slowdown and Recession by keeping its growth rate going at an impeccable rate.
Nokia has smelled an opportunity and announced the Nokia Comes with Music in the Indian Market, which gives free music downloads to the customers buying their phones or their music vouchers. This will be possible with the Nokia Music Store, on the lines of iTunes Store. They already have tied up with loads of companies and will provide millions of downloadable and affordable music tracks and albums, all through the consumer’s mobile phones. This will be just the right time for the 3G license bids for service providers to begin. Its also as simple as, the more people spend on something, the cheaper and more affordable it becomes. This is something that the Mobile Industry has achieved already and thus can boast of the lowest call rates in the world, though its data rates can make customers throw their phones away.
Ananth Acharya
Guest Blogger
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