Moblie Biz

All big players in the market have been vying the rural market for further growth. Media industry and advertising is set to see a huge change in the coming year with the new developments in the mobile market. Rural India and semi-urban markets are increasingly becoming the focus. Vodafone has created waves by introducing the solar powered handsets and their primary target is rural India. This has been done in an effort to empower the people with unstable electricity so that they can stay connected. Needless to say, that this product line would help them increase penetration. Vodafone’s current rural network coverage is 65% which is the second highest in India. They have tapped rightly onto the needs of the rural consumers and provided basic functions like Torch, FM radio, a prepaid balance indicator thereby delivering great value and utility to its consumers.  The inbuilt hardware and software ensures that the phone charges under normal daylight also. It is being made available at a very nominal price.

While we talk about solar powered mobile phones, I would like to share with you an interesting article I came across regarding the Bicycle charger kit. It’s an interesting concept where the mobile charges basis the speed of the cycle. The product is targeted at emerging markets where there are frequent power cuts. Nokia 1202 in fact has 1 hour talk time and 74 hours of standby time.

Interestingly Samsung has already launched a solar powered mobile phone while Nokia has ventured into the dual SIM market with the introduction of Nokia C2. Nokia has been facing some tough competition from Micromax whith 80% of its sales driven from the rural markets. However, Nokia continues to create a strong foothold in the market with unique services like Nokia Life Tools. Nokia in partnership with Madura Finance, Ujjivan and SKS microfinance has taken the route of micro-finance which enables rural residents of Punjab and Haryana to buy mobile phones on the EMI basis which is as low as Rs 100 per week.

Another important development has been that of mobile money. In my last post, I had mentioned how mobile money is fast becoming a norm and enables money transfer using a mobile account.

Rural market remains to be an untapped market and marketers are latching onto the opportunity. Social media platforms like Facebook are also trying to reach out to the Tier 2 cities. Semi-urban cities remain a huge challenge for platforms like Twitter and Facebook. However, Orkut has been successful in bridging that divide. Forums like Mig 33 have been able to penetrate the market and have understood the market well. They have managed to dig deep into the insights. Giants like Google have been using mobile buses to educate the rural areas and towns about internet and the use of search engines.

The moolah of market penetration lies in rural India.