Hotspot Movie Cards, Cinema goes mobile...

The Indian retail has been constantly innovating new ideas to woo the consumers and tap the potential of the individual & thier purchase capacity, the latest conception is from Hotspot.

Hotspot is selling Bollywood movies for mobile phones in a 1GB SD card, called as Movie Card, this latest offering is available as a SD card slot for mobile phones. Most mobile phones which are available today in the market have basic video playing capabilities. 

BK Modi's Spice Televentures company HotSpot has announced the launch of Movie Card, which would enable mobile phone users to watch latest Bollywood flicks on 320x240 pixel screen.

"Given the fact that 30-40 per cent of mobile handsets in the country support various movie formats but there are no options for a legal shareable format for movies, we expect this segment to grow rapidly. This is just the first phase of launch of the product in the Indian market and we soon will introduce more than 50 movies on this medium by December 2009," Hotspot CEO Sanjeed Mahajan added.

With the digital format leading all formats of content consumption, is encouraging the potential to tap all possible content right from Mobi-Books, entertainment, news, mobile blogging etc the industry is expected to be around Rs 850 billion by 2010.

Movie Card phase I construct : 

Price is 350 rupees
Memory of 1GB
Resolution (pixels): 320 x 240
SD Card slot
Video formats: MP4 & 3GP

Movies available: Namaste London, Om Shanti Om, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Omkara, Devdas.Games, wallpapers, ringtones will also be available.

This strategy is not new as Nokia N96 was pre-loaded with Om Shanti Om movie, games and wallpapers. The choice of movies offered by Hotspot is limited right now to get any mass adoption. If given a great choice this could set a new revolution.

Domestic & ILD charges may fall

Domestic and International long-distance call charges may dip as the government may accept telecom regulator TRAI's recommendation to allow using calling-cards to provide the subscriber the option to choose his or her operator. 

Introducing calling-cards for making STD and ISD calls is the best alternative to the carrier selection code (choice of operators) as this would save cost, which can be spent on upgrading the networks of existing operators. Using calling-cards will increase competition in the long-distance segment and in turn will benefit over 370 million subscribers, telecom analysts said, adding this may bring down international calling-charges by up to 70 per cent. 

In its recommendations submitted last year, TRAI had said that considering implementation issues like estimating and sharing network setup/upgrade cost by long-distance operators, implementing Carrier Selection may not be justified in the present scenari o and consumers will be better served if the cost is spent on developing next-generation telecom infrastructure. 

The Department of Telecom (DoT) had constituted a committee of senior officials and those from its technical wing Telecom Engineering Consultant (TEC), and has forwarded its report to the Telecom Commission for approval. 

The Telecom Commission is meeting here on Monday to consider the report, sources said, adding the committee has recommended introducing long-distance calling-cards for subscribers to select carriers. 

Long-distance calls will be allowed from both basic and mobile phones. In India there are 23 domestic long-distance and 18 international long-distance service providers, who will benefit from the move. 

Nokia & HCL's joint venture for mobile VAS in India

Nokia has tied up with, HCL Infosystems (HCL already distributes Nokia's mobile phones in India), this joint venture is to offer mobile value-added services like navigation, music and other entertainment to Indian consumers. Nokia may also look at other partners to offer the services to consumers.

The services are likely to be offered under the Ovi brand that Nokia uses for its online services, as told by Nokia India spokeswoman on Wednesday.

The company also has a program to offer services and content customized for rural consumers in India. The channels for the services will be different.

India added 10.81 million mobile subscribers in December, taking the total number of mobile subscribers to 347 million, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said on Wednesday. The country added 10.35 million new subscribers in November.

Telecom sustains recession times....

The economic slowdown and the resultant lay offs in sectors such as IT and automobile have not deterred people from spending on mobile phones. 

Judging by statistics produced by the Cellular Operators' Association of India, 9.75 lakh new mobile phone connections (GSM) were provided in Chennai and Tamilnadu circles in December 2008 alone. In the last three months of 2008, about 26 lakh new connections were given across the state. While about 1.15 lakh new service connections were provided in Chennai in October, the new additions fell to 56,000 in November. For the corresponding periods in the districts, the figures were 7.7 lakh and 6.5 lakh, respectively. Significantly, for every new connection in Chennai, five new ones were added elsewhere in Tamilnadu. 

Though Tamilnadu (4.29% growth in December) is only the third fastest (after Bihar that recorded 5.21% growth and Uttar Pradesh, 4.78%) growing telecom circle in India, in terms of actual numbers (two crore connections) it is the largest circle in the country, ahead of even the two largest metros, Delhi and Mumbai. Although Uttar Pradesh comes a relative close second with 1.77 crore mobile phone connections, Bihar is way behind with only 59 lakh subscribers. 

With 23.41 lakh subscribers in Chennai and 71.69 lakh in the TN circle, Aircel is the leading player in the state. The service provider holds 34 per cent of the subscriber base in Chennai and 35 per cent in the districts. In December, Aircel added 87,123 new subscribers in Chennai and 3.98 lakh in the districts. Bharti Airtel, which has the second highest subscriber base, serves 20.5 lakh people in Chennai and 56 lakh elsewhere in the state. Vodafone Essar is third, ahead of state-owned BSNL. In December, while Vodafone added 16,000 new customers in Chennai, only 5,562 plumped for BSNL. In the TN circle, Vodafone, with 1.63 lakh subscribers, had really no competition from BSNL (40,000). 

Among metros, Kolkata recorded the highest growth in terms of new subscriber base. With a 3.03% growth, it registered 70 lakh connections in December 2008, up from 68,000 the previous month. Mumbai (2.57%) recorded the second highest growth, followed by Chennai (2.21%) and Delhi (1.68%). In terms of overall numbers, Delhi led with 1.24 crore connections, followed by Mumbai with 1.12 crore.

Nokia under stress....

Nokia, the global market leader in mobile phones, yesterday posted its Q4 and FY08 earnings showing a massive 69 percent drop in Q4 profits matched mobile device volumes down to 133.1 million units, representing a 15 percent drop year on year.

The main geographic areas hit most were Middle East & Africa (-22.9 percent), Greater China (-36.1 percent), North America (-19.6 percent).

Net profit from October to December 2008 was €576 million, down from €1,835 during the same period the previous year.

“In recent weeks, the macroeconomic environment has deteriorated rapidly, with even weaker consumer confidence, unprecedented currency volatility and credit tightness continuing to impact the mobile communications industry,” said Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.

Nokia expects industry mobile device volumes in the first quarter of 2009 to decline sequentially to a greater extent. The company estimates its market share for Q4 2008 was 37 percent, compared with 40 percent Q4 2007 and 38 percent in Q3 2008. The average mobile device selling price (ASP) in Q4 2008 has declined drastically to that of Q4 2007.

Nevertheless, the company exhibits a strong confidence & that they will continue to believe that Nokia is best placed to deal with the current market conditions....