Market Pulse - Mobile Market Newsletter

Mobile Market Newsletter » May 2009

Hello!

Welcome to the latest release of the Mobile Market Newsletter of Market Pulse. This newsletter brings you unique insights from the fastest growing mobile market in the world.

We welcome your feedback.

Do let us know if you would like to leverage our expertise to gain insight into your respective markets.

Best Regards,

Telecom Market Research Practice
Market Pulse

Emerging Market Segment

The mobile subscriber population increased by 50% in the period April 2008 - March 2009. (Source: COAI & Auspi). Almost 15 million new subscribers were added in March 2009 alone.

Our latest research reveals that mobile telephony is certainly reaching out to youth belonging to all economic strata. 3 out of every 4 of the new mobile subscribers were 18 - 35 year olds and half of them belonged to homes earning less than Rs. 9000 per month.

About 61% of new mobile subscribers were first time prepaid mobile buyers, while the balance had either bought an additional new connection or churned from other service providers.

Mobile VAS Usage Pattern

In this competitive market that is witnessing falling ARPUs, mobile service providers are thinking beyond voice revenues.

According to our study, approximately 20% of urban mobile subscribers send at least one SMS a day.

8% of mobile subscribers claim to have downloaded any one VAS; Caller Ring Back Tones are significantly more popular than others. Though games and video clips are downloaded by a small proportion of subscribers, the quantum is large.

Surprisingly almost 11 million mobile subscribers access the Internet through their mobile phone. Approximately 7 million of them access email, while web search is limited to 5 million.

Majority of mobile Internet users belong to the upper income segment; interestingly a significant proportion of the users are school students.

For further information please write to: Prabal Sarkar

What’s new in Market Pulse?

Market Pulse will soon be launching a syndicated retail audit for prepaid mobile SIMs. The first report is expected in March 2010.

Coverage of mpELECTRIC has been increased to 28 towns and a sample of 2550, including modern retail outlets is being covered. Panel management has been strengthened further to ensure even more accurate data for the clients.

Market Pulse has launched a Census of outlets retailing building electrical products in 35 towns across India. This will cover products like switches, MCBs, CFLs and FTL Consumer Luminaires.

The market reports on CFLs and modular switches have been published. A proprietary model for demand forecasting has been used, to arrive at accurate estimates.

Market Pulse supervisors have now been posted to 15 towns. This will enable efficient project management and better market information.