Mobile dressing

From jewellery for cellphones to covers for mobiles, there's big money in accessories.

Bored of your mobile phone? Want to exchange it for another? Wait, there might be another solution "" simply dress it up. Or maybe you'd like to jazz it up anyway as part of your style statement.

Anything from disguising it like a pendant to dressing it up in Swarovski, the market was never as huge for mobile accessories as it is now.

As Indians increasingly turn their handsets into fashion statements, the accessory market is proving to be a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs.

For now, much of this business is in the grey market, and experts feel a mere 5 per cent of the Rs 2,500 crore mobile accessories business is legitimate. But with monthly additions of 6 million subscribers, it can only grow "" hopefully the official way.

Already, Indian companies are tying up with their international counterparts to import mobile fashion accessories.

These might include Finland-based Golla branded covers for Rs 200-300, mobile jewellery from a South Korean firm in the Rs 250-700 range (think rings that can be attached to the mobile phone to carry around easily), China's Screenlife scratch-free covers (Rs 65 onwards) offers scratch fee covers for the screen of the mobile phone "" and for a really good splurge, mobile pendants with embedded Swarovski crystals (even perhaps in Ganesha motifs) that could cost a staggering Rs 11,000.

Among those who're taking the lead in the segment is Delhi-based Molife Communications, which has tied up with US-based Disney Mobile accessories for attractive arm strap and hand strap mobile pouches.

Molife will also offer the Golla range of covers and jewellery for mobiles. "We will offer branded accessories and target brand conscious consumers in the metros and in major cities," Ashoek Kumar Gupta, director, Molife, says.

Molife is planning four stores, apart from the one in Delhi, and also proposes to place its products in handset outlets and fashion and gift shops.

In all, these products could be available in as many as 10,000 shops in the next six months. "We are looking at increasing the availability across the country in the first phase," Gupta adds.

Despite a high (35 per cent) duty on some products, the company is hoping for a turnover of $2-3 million in the first year, and is also working on tie-ups for bundling offers with handset manufactures.

The Indian Cellular Association (ICA)is now taking up the issue of high duties with the telecom ministry, as a likely deterrent in increasing official imports.

"Because of the high duty on accessories," says Pankaj Mohindroo, president of ICA, "about 90 per cent of it is traded in the unorganised market."

The Indian handset industry expects to sell 60 million handsets this year "if we look at 200 million mobile subscribers by 2007". Says Gupta, "Even if each of them spends $5 a year on phone accessories, the market will expand in a big way."