Soft Launch of 3G services in India

MTNL launched its 3G network in Delhi - with services initially restricted to the main business district, and they are expecting commercial launch in January 2009.

MTNL will offer 3G services under the ‘Jadoo’ brand name, and the applications including internet access, videoconferencing and gaming. The company will invest US $82 million capex to roll out its 3G network in Mumbai and Delhi.

Economic Crisis - Impact to Asia Mobile Industry

The effects of the economic downturn will have an impact in 2009 across most of the Asia Pacific region, causing consumers to cut back on spending.

This will lead to a slowdown in spending, with emphasis on value and price . Samsung and Nokia may also take a hit across the region.due to the influx of cheap but full-featured handsets from China.

China Unicom 3Q Results

China's second largest mobile phone operator said its total revenue for the nine-month period grew only 3 pct due to fierce competition in the sector.

ARPU - Average revenue per user - in the nine months for GSM service dropped slightly to 42.8 yuan from 43.6 yuan in the first half.

APRG beleives China Unicom is well-positioned to benefit from the next phase evolution of the mobile industry in China, now that the company will sunset the lackluster CDMA business and merge with China Netcom. Additionally, we belive that the government's policies are seen to favour this smaller player over the giant China Mobile.

Looking forward, China Unicom is progressing in its plans build and operate 3G networks, and will establish an entity for the service once it obtains a 3G license. China Unicom is expected to operate a WCDMA network.

Playscreen Coming to Asia

PlayScreen is a social entertainment company delivering mobile social games, ringtones, wallpapers, videos, and text services on all major US Carriers. The company has ambitious plans to extend beyond the current offering of ringtones, wallpapers, and videos to enable independent developers to market their mobile apps.

The business model is simple : With a Playscreen membership, users can start creating and selling mobile content at no cost, and "turn creativity into cash".

How much does mobile content cost on Playscreen? For US Customers: RingtonesWallapers sell for $2.00, Videos $2.99. Subscription to a Kewl Text is $5.99/mo.. Additional messaging fees may apply - depending on the users carrier and plan. Seems like a lot of money...price adjustments may be required for Asia.

India Mobile Entertainement Market - Top Applications

In recent survey ( September 2008 ), APRG conducted of Indian phone subscribers, showed that 38% of users are using their device regularly for mobile entertainment purposes. Some of the most popular mobile applications include: Cricket World Cup, Sudoko, Mission Love, Ultimate Kiss. Typical costs of mobile applications in India? About US $1.50

Mobile Application Portal

Software Mall, a WAP portal that has been very successful in Thailand, has just be launched in Singapore. The service allows mobile phone users to browse, buy and download genuine software and other mobile content legally and directly from their mobile phones.

Software Mall was developed by a group of young entrepreneurs in Thailand in 2007. The group first entered into the mobile value-added content business in 2003 by signing contracts with software and gaming companies to provide content direct to phone users through PC downloads. They later went on to develop the unique multi-featured WAP-based Software Mall that now serves as its key distribution platform. Today, they resell over 200mobile software applications

Pay as you go Blackberry

Indonesia’s Indosat and Canda's Research In Motion announced the launch of prepaid BlackBerry Internet Service in Indonesia called “BlackBerry On Demand.”

Available as a 7-day or a 30-day data plan, the new service is designed for small businesses and mobile professionals with a flexible approach to access the BlackBerry platform, and for those that want to try out the service prior to jumping to any contracts.

The “BlackBerry On Demand” includes unlimited data usage for mobile email, attachment viewing, Internet browsing, application downloads, instant messaging and other mobile data usage.

SMS Prices in Asia - Who's the cheapest

Some interesting developments in the Philippines with a public consultation hearings conducted by a Congressional committee and the industry's regulatory body, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). Seems there is strong support to roll back SMS prices to free or near free, to help those challenged in the economic downturn,

According to some opinions " "Mobile operators, which have been raking in billions of pesos in revenues as the Philippines rose to become the self-proclaimed text messaging capital of the world"

SMS rates in the Philippines cost about of one peso (US$0.2) for sending a text message.
But many operators offer packages such as Lahat ("All") Text which can bring the price of text messages to as low 35 centavos (US$0.008)."

A statement attributed to Globe Telecom's legal counsel Rodolfo Salalima said the current rate in the country is "extremely low" when compared to India's 61 centavos (US$0.013), Malaysia's 67 centavos (US$0.015), Indonesia's 1.18 pesos (US$0.026), China's 1.55 pesos (US$0.34), and Hong Kong's 15.91 pesos (US$0.35) per message.

Vietnam and Viettel Continue to Surge, Ringtone Mania

I just got back from trip to Hanoi. The growth and development in Vietnam this year is just stunning.

After decades of being known for its corruption and miserable poverty, Vietnam will soon rocket past Malaysia and Thailand as the growth engine of ASEAN. Some key facts:

• Economic output has doubled in the five years,
• Poverty reduced by half since 1998
• Foreign direct investment is at a higher rate ( per capita )than both India's and China's.
• Intel is building a massive chip factories in southern Vietnam
• Canon is already building the world's-largest laser printer factory
• And as of June 2008, the mobile phone service providers have more than 48 million subscribers.
  

We just finished a research report on the consumption habits for Mobile Application Services such as ringtones, Java Games, wallpaper. A lot of consumers are customizing their cell phones, and we heard more international pop artists ringtones in Saigon than we did in Boston.
A new research report has been created by our team - if you need more information about the mobile services applications in Vietnam: http://www.aprg.com/asp/pub_vietnam_mobile_2008.asp