Social Networking App RockeTalk To Be Pre-Loaded On LG Handsets

RockeTalk, a mobile application, has inked a deal with LG Electronics to pre-load the app on their KT610 (Rs. 14,990) and KF750 (Rs. 18,990) mobile phones. The pre-loaded handsets are already available in India, and as per the deal, the LG will preload the app on other handset models throughout 2008 and 2009. However, by the looks of it, the phone with the pre-loaded app was launched last month.

RockeTalk was founded in November 2004 Rajiv Kumar, who had previously co-founded bluetooth company Widcomm (subsequently bought by Broadcom), and raised $7.1 million in funding in 2007 from iSherpa Ventures, EDF Ventures and Mission Ventures. Jim Greiner, former SVP and general manager of MapQuest came on board as CEO.

The latest version of RockeTalk integrates Instant messengers - Yahoo, Google Talk, MSN, AOL, ICQ, apart from making mobile downloads like ringtones, wallpapers, themes, games and other content available. What’s perhaps a little tricky, is that RockeTalk allows users to create their own galleries, share content and also upload content to sites like YouTube. RockeTalk’s public galleries can be a rather risky - India doesn’t have a safe harbor law, and as a platform, RockeTalk may be held accountable for the content its users upload. I checked a few pages of their Bollywood gallery (which took almost 30 seconds to load a single page with six thumbnails), and…there were no Bollywood images, whatsoever.

At the same time, I really do like how simple it is to upload content - both images, and a voice recording, with the application initializing the camera and the voice recorder.

Another IM app which quite a few people I know use in India is Fring.

Nokia Q3 Sales, Marketshare Down; $70 Million In Chennai NSN Facility; Push For Push Email

Handset manufacturer Nokia, which has the largest marketshare in India, warned of uncertainty as it reported a decline in Q3 net sales of 5 percent year on year, and 7 percent quarter-on-quarter. During the analyst conference call, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said that the it is unclear how the global financial situation will impact different markets, particularly since many consumers in markets like China, India, AsiaPac and Latin America have consumers who prioritize their spending; spending from this segment was impacted by high commodity prices over the last year, but that bubble has now burst, with a decline in the price of oil and rice.

Reuters reports that Nokia Siemens Network will set up a factory in India, near Chennai, investing $70 million over three years on the facility. The factory will make and distribute mobile communication equipment.

Nokia’s global marketshare fell to 38 percent (down from 39 percent), though device volumes were down 3 percent sequentially in Q3 at 117.8 million units. While India numbers were not shared, Nokia suggested a 3 percent q-o-q decline in overall handset shipped volumes in the Asia-Pac region. Kallasvuo blamed the decline in marketshare on competitors who “have cut prices to either clear stock, or drive scale. We have not participated in these unsustainable price wars. This time we decided not to participate in the price competition. We will and try and take marketshare in a sustainable manner. We will continue to manage the business tactically, and manage the margins and market share.” According to Nokia estimates, over market volumes were at 310 million unites, up 8 percent y-o-y. Nokia expects a seasonal uptake in Q4 in the device market, but is slightly muted.

Push Email: Nokia appeared to be quite bullish on its Push Email solution: Kallasvuo said that the company has shipped over 1 million units of the E71 - “This is our first true mass market QWERTY device”. They’ve seen a great deal of activation of email with his product, and expect it to be popular going forward. “We are beta testing our consumer push email solution, which we plan to roll out commercially soon. We are going to add more languages.”

Details: Earnings Call, Earnings Call Transcript, Earnings Release, Presentation , Financials

Nokia Roundup: Tough Q3; Ovi - Phone Backup; Mobisodes

Nokia may have followed up the iPhone hype in India with an announcement of their own - the launch of the N96 - but the company has now said that Q3, globally, for them isn’t looking as good due to “weaker consumer confidence in multiple markets”. Basically, there is a price war at the lower end of the market, and Nokia expects a drop in their market-share; they’re not willing to compromise margins in the segment which defines their profits and volumes. Another comment worth noting - “users in developing markets are taking longer to replace their handsets.” More at Reuters and Bloomberg

On the services side, Nokia has unveiled the new version of their service Ovi, alongwith the Nokia Ovi Suite, which allows users to sync their calendar, contacts, notes and tasks with Ovi.com. This free service is similar to the paid Phone Backup service that OnMobile is offering with mobile operators in India.

(more…)

Nokia To Target Rural India Market For Growth, With Microfinance Options, Services

On why Nokia needs the Rural Indian Market

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, President & CEO of Nokia was in Delhi to announce the companys plans to launch entry level handsets in India, in order to cater to the non-urban consumers. To facilitate adoption, Nokia will initially offer a base phone with microfinancing options, and is currently running pilots in order to tweak its offering to make mobiles more affordable, reports the Hindu. In terms of services on offer, Nokia is in talks with content providers for information on the weather, and market prices for agricultural products. That’s fairly similar to the Reuters Market Light product which Reuters India has piloted, and I wonder if there’s a tie-up in the offing there.

In Q1 of 2008, around 10,000 phones per hour were shipped to India. Nokia has a significant lead over its nearest competitor - LG. Nokia has a market share of 52.8 percent, followed by LG at 10.2 percent, and Samsung at 8.3 percent in terms of units shipped during the quarter ended March 31, 2008. There are around 25 handset vendors operating in India, and the average selling value of handsets has been steadily declining, according to IDC. However, IDC doesn’t mention how many of the handsets are actually sold.

Handsets are essentially consumer durable items - you really don’t need to buy a new one. The entire handset business is dependent on creating a new need - whether it is a higher resolution camera, more storage capacity, clear music, a slimmer phone, a gold or a pink phone. It is this durable nature of the handset which has driven innovation. From a feature perspective, the urban Indian markets are plateuing (do I really need a camera with more than 5 mega pixels?), and Nokia faces a significant challenge from the iPhone, which Vodafone and Airtel will introduce later this year.

A rural push offers Nokia the opportunity of entering a market that is still in its early stage of growth, and then pushing for users to upgrade their phone, feature-by-feature. Of course, rural markets do not operate in complete isolation to urban centres, but it will take time to plateu. In order to drive this growth, Nokia will have to push consumer adoption by educating users and a significant distribution and service push.

Update: As Shefaly rightly asks in the comments to this post, what does Microfinancing refer to in this context? Nokia is studying means of making it easier for rural consumers to purchase mobile phones, probably with Equated Monthly Installments (EMIs), or some tie-ups to reduce the cost of purchase. This is different from the Microfinancing that one associates with the Grameen Bank.