Mobile makers now provide ‘push email’ services on cheaper handsets.
Kanna Rao may be based out of Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh, but the entrepreneur moves around quite a bit due to his work, providing for civil construction of ATMs. Earlier, every time Rao wanted to check his mails, he had to look for a cyber cafe. So, six months ago, he purchased a mobile phone that enabled him to check mails without paying a bomb for the mobile data service.
Today, he insists it was “Rs 9,300 well spent on a mobile device”, which brought in emails at the push of a button. “With an email-ready mobile phone, I have put off the plan to purchase a laptop with a broadband connection,” he says.
What Rao did was buying a Nokia device, much to the company’s delight, as customers like him are exactly what the telecom vendor has been eyeing of late. Early this year, the Finnish company focused on growing mobile email usage by providing free push email service on phones that cost just Rs 2,700 onwards.
Nokia is not alone. New entrant MVL Telecom, too, has been marketing its products around push emails. “Our target is to sell 4.5-5 million handsets by next June. We hope our push email handsets contribute at least 30 per cent of the sales,” MVL Telecom Director Arjun Rishi says.
A service that makes sense
In the case of mobile handset manufacturers, this fits in with their strategy to increase presence in the services space. Nokia and BlackBerry already have application stores. But, in a market like India, where the maximum usage of the internet is still for checking emails, push email services make sense.
According to a report by consultancy firm Informa Telecoms and Media, there were around 2.3 million users in 2008, and this number is expected to swell to over 50 million by 2014 — largely fuelled by easy activation of emails on entry-level mobile phones.
There are enough examples among retail consumers that point to this trend. Take the case of Calicut-based R K Raja, a food distribution entrepreneur. He realised his business — mostly involving purchase orders from clients — could be easily done over emails. Eight months ago, he opted for a push email service on his handset, and cut back the time to respond to emails from business clients.
Raja, a subscriber of Nokia’s messaging service, got free access to push email with the purchase of a Nokia device worth Rs 4,500. There is no monthly tariff for the service, but Raja is required to pay the basic data download charges (about 10p/kb).
“Push email has been a hallmark of BlackBerry and very few have been successful in tracking that market. But, with the price of smartphones falling and these becoming affordable, along with the impending launch of 3G services, it makes a lot of sense for mobile makers to push such services,” says Frost & Sullivan Industry Manager (ICT Practice - APAC) Marc Einstein.
His views are echoed by Ascentius Consulting’s co-founder and principal analyst, Alok Shende. “The new entrants are creating a new market for these services. In Tier-II and -III cities in India, people do access the internet, but probably once a week or, at the most, once in two-three days. The handset vendors are targeting these users who can access the internet on the handset itself. Besides, mobiles have become a point of communication. If the companies get the user hooked at this level, they will only see an increase in adoption for such handsets and even data plans,” he adds.
Individuals matter
Nokia, which is now pushing its messaging services among retail users, is witnessing good traction. The company has already revealed India is among the top-five consumers of the Nokia messaging service and it is confident that, by offering the service free of cost to users, the adoption of email and messaging services will surge. Industry sources estimate, 1.5 million users, so far, access push email services offered by Nokia.
The company has also announced another service called Ovi Mail that claims to have 10 million accounts activated in one year, adding about a million accounts a month. “This mail service is targeted at first-time users and we have seen a lot of traction in India,” Nokia India Head (Software and Services Portfolio) Raju Sastry points out. The vendor has about 35 handsets that are enabled with free push email and instant messaging facilities.
Research in Motion (RIM), makers of BlackBerry, may have made push email popular at the corporate level, but Nokia and MVL are going after individual consumers in rural and Tier-II areas. This move is substantiated by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ estimates, according to which, in the next five years, 24 per cent of 3G subscribers will come from rural areas. The report has also projected the total 3G subscriber base at 107 million, with the rural 3G subscription pegged at 26 million.
Even data packages are being subsidised. Nokia and MVL have no activation charges and provide free push email services. The user needs to pay for browsing, or GPRS usage charges. While MVL is working towards a tie-up with telecom service providers, Nokia already works with them.
In association with Nokia, Airtel offers a 2 GB package for the first two months for Rs 49, and later the offer converts to 32 GB for Rs 98. Reliance offers 200 MB free for the first six months (non-Ovi Music Unlimited devices) and 2 GB free for six months (OMU devices). Idea Cellular, BSNL and MTNL, too, have such offers with Nokia.
Ascentius’ Shende also believes that GPRS has become a commodity. “Most of the low-cost handsets have GPRS capability. Device prices are falling, but you want the user to increase utilisation. While push email services will be free for the time being, you will be charged for them later. Because, once a person gets used to accessing or checking email on the handset itself, he will not mind paying extra to do so in future,” he says.
(With inputs from Shivani Shinde)
