India saw 9.9 million cellphone activations in September which is 3.9 activations per second. Pretty nuts, right? The market is 310 million right now with 27.5% penetration, meaning 3/4 of the country will still be heading to the local Tata store to pick up the latest models.
GSM dominates the Indian market with 75.2% of the total. It recorded a monthly gain of 7.65m in September, its second best ever figure, while CDMA was up 2.34m, its third highest gain.
If I were Android/HTC/Moto, I’d be shipping smartphones to India pronto.
I will not be amazed with this figure bcous Mobile service is Damn cheap ova there as compared to Canada and US. Any1 can afford a cell phone over there. If you compare the prices with Rogers(Canada), the plan fo which you pay $60 in Canada is only $10 in India. And yeh GPRS(Internet) is free with most of the Post-Paid plans or its only $2(if in case its not free) for unlimited use whereas a Data plan is Canada is Xtra $30 on top of your regular plan.
If I get to Decide whre to Launch phone…i will put india in ma Top 5 list and thts wt NOKIA is doing.
John,
The thing is that most of the phones sold here are ultra-low cost phones which ranges around Rs. 1000-3500 ($20-$70). High-end phones doesn’t sell much as the actual buyers are very less than what the manufacturers will find in US.
and yeh there are Around 10 wireless companies and yeh NO CONTRACTS….soo yeh if u r not happy with 1, Change it Right away.
I agree that call charges are very cheap. Free incoming calls and outgoing calls cost only a rupee per minute. But, GPRS is not free. We have only 5 carriers not 10. Changing the carrier right is not easy as we lose the phone number. phone numbers here are tied to the carriers.
With all those phones going at once I bet reception there is not good at all. I didn’t know there were no contracts though. That’s pretty convenient.
Reception is pretty good.
Reception is much better than in US/Canada. Its cheaper here to Install a tower on a private house roof by paying rental to owner. There are plans like pay $15 rental for a year and 1 cent per minute for local calls and 2 cent per minute for National Long distance, Free incoming calls and text. Still telecom companies have high profitability. You can find mobile phones at remote places in India which doesn’t even have roads and other infrastructure. A real example of Fortune at bottom of pyramid.
@ Srinivas
5??I can give you the names of 10 Cellular companies if u want!!
Airtel
Vodaphone
BSNL
MTNL
Spice
Hutch
TATA
IDEA
RELIANCE
Aircel