When you say Android phones and India in the same sentence, you will hear a lot of pessimistic rants about how small is the market and how there are not enough phones. But while looking closer at it, to me it looks like a huge potential opportunity in a year’s time.
Here is why I think so.
1. Fits Indian Market needs and Price range.
India is an economy where we have hugely aspirational users who are very conscious about ‘value for money’. This means we expect high-end functionality from our phone in the range of Rs 8000/- to Rs 18000/- ($200 -$500). In past, Nokia has successfully proved it by selling bucket loads of their most popular N series phones in Indian Market. Some notable examples have been N70, N72, N73, and of course N95.
Android licensing terms and open-sourcing policy makes it an ideal choice to build such a device. For example, Nexus is priced at ~$500 (it’s still a tad higher for Indian sensitivity but it surely has a promise of getting much cheaper over time).
2. Dual sim variants
Due to the prepaid nature of the Indian market, and aggressive pricing by new operators, we are seeing huge growth in dual sim phones. Nokia is yet to release its first dual sim phone. But for any non-Nokia manufacturer, Android is a perfect platform of choice to build a dual sim Mobile. Check out one such credibly rumoured device
3. Fits the bill for ‘Indian’ manufacturers
If the new breed of Indian manufacturers such as Onida, Videocon, Max Mobile, and Karbonn want to enter smartphone games there is no better OS available than the one from Google to counter Nokia. Android should provide them with much-needed brand publicity, credibility, and quick time to market!
4. Motorola is banking on it
Surprisingly, Motorola is making steady gains from its position last year. The ‘Droid’ is a reasonable success so far in the US market. And as we have seen in the past with RAZR, if Motorola is able to ship a half-decent device, it has the potential to make an impact in the Indian market.
In addition, we have Samsung, LG, and HTC with their range of Android-based smartphones too.
So to me, it looks like by 2012, Android will emerge as the credible competitor to Nokia in the Indian smartphone market which is currently ~10 Million handsets per year, not at all a bad place to be!
So app developers, hope you are listening and adjusting your technology road-maps accordingly.
