Now, Kiosks Come Up To Upgrade Mobile Content

AHMEDABAD: Logging on to websites for downloading latest mobile ringtones, games and music is a passe. Uprgading your cell phone in an instant is now possible as you shop in a mall, sip your favourite drink, or just walk into a mobile kiosk. With the growing retail wave about to wipe off the hassles with GPRS and connectivity, the future for Indian mobile value added services (MVAS) seems bright.

Mobile content providers are tying up with phone stores for setting up the kiosks that allow customers to preview and purchase downloads such as ringtones, themes, wallpapers, games and music videos at prices ranging from Rs 15 to Rs 40.

The kiosks have two components: a digital touch screen, which has a user interface allowing the customers to choose from the list of options and a server which allows the transfer simply through Bluetooth, data cable or memory cards.

Explaining why such mobile stores will gain ground in India, Rajiv Hiranandani of Mobile2win says: “Low broadband penetration has been the biggest challenge for Indian MVAS industry to expand. A large chunk of mobile users still do not have GPRS access and even if they do, they do not know how to buy mobile content.” Agrees Hungama Mobile CEO Neeraj Roy: “Less than 20% of mobile subscribers in India use GPRS and about 65% have cell phones that support rich content.”

Another advantage of the kiosks is presence of an attendant who can assist customers. It is for this reason that retailing is being seen as a good way of reaching the largely untapped rural market. “Expansion of mobile subscriber base beyond cities presents a great opportunity to the MVAS industry to grow.

Almost 50% of the internet subscribers are from rural India; mobile phones have permeated to smaller towns, cities and villages expanding the opportunity for adoption and use of value-added services,” says Mr Hiranandani. “More than 10% of the total revenue would come from rural markets as operators expand and retail models are made available in these areas,” he adds.

Essar group has invested $250 million (Rs 1,100 crore) to create a pan-India network of retail telecom outlets branded ‘The MobileStore’. It launched 40 stores across all major as well as tier II cities. The stores offer telecom solutions and a host of unique value-added services.

Similarly, there are 25 MobileNXT retail stores spread over cities including Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Manipal, and Mysore. MobileNXT has also struck sales tie-ups with Shoppers Stop and Tata’s Star India Bazaar.

Planet M and Cafe Coffee Day outlets across the country will soon have kiosks where Hungama mobile would provide the content. The company has tied-up with Mobile Magic, a Nagpur-based retail chain of mobile phone store. Targetting 80% of the non-GPRS of 225 million mobile phone users it offers a catalogue of 500 movies and 5,000 songs. It plans to reach across 10,000 retail outlets within two years.

Jump Games, one of the leading game developers, for the launch of its Hanuman Returns mobile game recently, had set up two kiosks to get the game directly into mobile phones via Bluetooth. Encouraged by the positive response, the company plans to set up more such kiosks in Mumbai and Pune.

“We are in talks with a lot of multiplexes, malls and other popular joints to set up kiosks where people can choose from an array of game options, download and pay upfront,” says Jump Games CEO Salil Bharagava.