Published:
05-Feb-10
Three leading Indian mobile network operators, Bharti Airtel, Aircel and Idea Cellular have unveiled plans to launch their own mobile application stores. The new stores will provide a range of mobile content including games, applications, music and personalisation services such as mobile ringtones and wallpapers. Idea Cellular has partnered with the Indian mobile content specialist Spice Digital for its store. Idea's Mobstore will offer much of the same content that is currently available from its WAP portal. It will also be available as a downloadable application, designed to work on a range of devices. In addition to the new store, Idea will offer its subscribers new ways to pay for content, including daily and weekly rental and subscription services. India's largest network operator, Bharti Airtel, plans to launch its App Center during in Q1 2010. Aircel, with around 30m subscribers, has partnered with Infosys for its application store, which is due to launch later in 2010.
Our take...
Whilst mobile application stores have proved popular in Western markets, Screen Digest does not expect them to have the same level of impact in India. The success of application stores in Europe and North America has been driven by increased 3G coverage, the popularity of high quality smartphones and the availability of data plans. 3G coverage in India has so far been limited to trials and launches in a few major cities. Over 90 per cent of India's mobile subscriber base are prepay users and the vast majority use low-end feature phones, rather than smartphones. The new stores are likely to increase the range of content available to mobile subscribers. New payment options and easier content discovery, should provide a boost to the Indian mobile content market. But until 3G coverage and smartphone usage are widespread, mobile application stores are unlikely to have a radical impact on the Indian mobile content market.
India,
