A fellow Blogger acknowledged a Post here…

I am writing here after a long time but this is for good…

An article that I posted here (Mobile 2.0 is all about VAS) has been acknowledged by someone who himself is a regular blogger for over a year. Watblog describes him as follows:

“Maneesh has been actively blogging on various blogs since over a year. He writes about social media and entrepreneurship mostly, and adds liberal doses on online advertising once in a while. He also sings the strangest of songs and makes the weirdest of faces when left in a room full of people.”

The article is titled “25 must reads for the mobile marketer“.

It is always a pleasure for a writer (read blogger in my case) when a post is liked by the people and I am ecstatic to realize that Maneesh has put it in the must read section.

This ensures a new exuberance in me and will ensure that I take time out regularly and keep the blog updated that I have not been able to do for quite a while.

Cheers!!!

Jatin Madan

jatinmadan@aol.in

Mobile 2.0 – Just thinking aloud…

Mobile Operators are still looking for new services that enhance ARPU across the nation. But there is an additional insight to it. Their main focus largely remains at customer acquisitions like Vodafone is looking forward to the new licenses that they have acquired and multiple other players that are ready to foray into the Indian telecom space.

Richard Branson of Virgin fame also made a grand appearance sometime back and claimed to do 10 firsts in the Indian telecom space. But the major statement he passed according to me was acquiring 5 million customer and to breakeven in 3 years to come.

This was a major surprise to the people in the industry where 8 million subscribers are added per month for the past quarter. Was Richard being conservative here or was he being realistic by mentioning the number of youth he is planning to acquire is yet to be seen.

Would Mobile 2.0 succeed (read – data based services) in India is a debatable question and how much of an ARPU increase it would help is largely to be seen. I belong to the opinion that active data services with comfortable bandwidth to make the user savvy and compelled to use data on mobile is still far fetched idea since even the laptop data cards provide you an access of barely 4 Kbps.

Another Challenge that I foresee is the internet penetration associated with the Indian population. With 3 % of population actively using internet services I would not expect many users to be adding on to the ARPU by using internet on the tiny mobile screen.

Jatin Madan

Happy New Year… VAS Resolutions!!!

Another Year Dawns…Here’s wishing you all a great year ahead…

On the new year’s eve there were a lot of parties and get-together across the country and people like you and me got together. Some of us got drunk and some of us did not.
People have made resolutions and am sure of those people existing who resolved to make it big this year. And I am also sure that some of them belong to VAS arena too…
I am confident because I resolved the same as well i.e. to make a significant difference to this industry

God Bless us all!!!

Jatin Madan
jatinmadan@aol.in

My First Post…

I got my first mobile phone way back in 1998. It was a Siemens huge black device that could easily be used for self defense as well. Carrying it in my pocket was a fuss so I bought a new sling bag in addition to my college bag that was used to carry it.

And then the times started evolving and we moved towards the smaller and sleeker devices. Along-with this came the colour display and multi – functionality phone that could do more than voice and SMS. And today we are trying to port the entire PC suite into the small device for which we are increasing the size again. Looks like a complete circle…

My mobile is the most personal device I have ever owned and life looks incomplete without it. A couple of hours out of battery and I feel I am disconnected from the world. I suddenly tend to remember all the people whom I have not spoken to for a while or forwarded a message to though when my phone is ON, am busy with all the other things in this world.

But that is not only what the mobile is used for today. I use my phone for a plethora of things like listen to radio, download some cool ring-tones and wallpapers, play games for passing some free time, receiving my bank account updates, et al.

Being an active VAS user and a part of the same industry, this blog is focused on the things I understand about the VAS landscape in the country. Some things that have changed the mindset of the mobile savvy generation and some things that are taking our actual lives away from us and pushing us into the dependency of these gadgets.

Jatin Madan