India mobile users to cross 1 billion by 2015

India’s mobile subscriber base should up to 993 million by 2014, according to researcher Gartner, which expects the world’s fastest-growing mobile market to close 2010 with more than 660 million subscribers.

India is the second-largest wireless market in the world after China with its 618 million mobile subscribers at end-May, according to data from the country’s telecoms regulator. Mobile connections were at 525 million at end-2009.

While the regulator’s data also includes fixed wireless subscribers of operators like Reliance Communications and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Gartner forecasts exclude these subscribers, Neha Gupta, a senior research analyst at the research firm, told Reuters.

She estimated India had about 519 million mobile users at end-2009, excluding the fixed wireless subscribers.

More than half of the population in India now have a mobile phone, and Gartner sees the penetration reaching 82% in 2014, it said in a statement.

Sharp fall in call charges and launch of services by new mobile operators have helped the country step up mobile subscriber additions in the past one year, but increasing mobile penetration could lead to some slow down in future growth.

“We were expecting a degrowth in 2009, given the penetration rate, but because of the entry of new operators and decrease in price points, it didn’t happen,” Gupta said.

“We are not expecting that kind of triggers in 2010,” she said.

Gupta estimated Indian operators would add mobile subscribers at a monthly average of 12 million, lower than 15 million seen in 2009.

Gartner estimated mobile service revenue in India to reach $19.8 billion by the end of 2010, up about a fifth from 2009 and reach $23 billion by the end of 2014, it said.

Will Twitter permit ads on website?

Twitter, the fastgrowing microblogging site now seeking ways to make money, expanded its terms for users to allow advertisers to reach the site’s more than 45 million monthly visitors.

Twitter, that lets people send an unlimited number of 140-character messages, is just now beginning to ramp up efforts to monetize, or gain revenue from, its popular site.

On Thursday, it revised its “terms of service” to specify that it may run ads. “We leave the door open for advertising. We’d like to keep our options open, as we’ve said before,” founder Biz Stone wrote on Twitter's official blog.

Advertising revenue is the time-honored way for websites to generate revenue while remaining free for users. Explosive growth in social networking is attracting interest: worldwide unique visitors to Twitter’s site reached 44.5 million in June, up 15-fold year-over-year.

Agencies

New servers for small companies from Microsoft

Microsoft Corp on Wednesday launched a new range of server systems for small companies, (SMBs) scaling down its existing offerings to attack one of the fastest-growing segments of the business computing market.

The world's largest software company is launching into the market for small companies as competitors introduce cheap, open-source alternatives to its relatively costly Windows-based servers, and the use of pirated Windows products proliferates.

Microsoft's new product line, called Windows Server 2008 Foundation, can accommodate up to 15 users and will cost less than $1,000 for the hardware and software combined, the company said.

A server is essentially a powerful computer that provides services to other computers. A doctor's office, for example, might use a server to allow staff to share files, access the same systems or maintain a website.

Analysts reckon the low-end server market for products costing less than $1,000 has grown four times faster than any other price range for comparable single processor servers.

Microsoft's new offering is a stripped down version of its Windows Server
family of products, which tend to be beyond the price range of small businesses.

The computer makers will set the prices for their products, which may vary by country.

Agencies

Internet users rise 17 pc in 2008, says IAMAI study

The number of active Internet users in the country has grown by nearly 17 per cent in 2008 over the same period a year ago, a study says.

According to a study by Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, India has 45.3 million active users at the ended of September 2008, of which 42 million are from the urban community.

"Urban users continue to dominate Internet use contributing to 42 million of the 45 million odd users," a study by the organisations 'Internet in India' finds.

In the same period last year, the number of active users in urban India was 36 million, which shows a year-on-year growth of 16.66 per cent.

"The growth rate was alarming compared with the rest in past years as well as with some other countries notably China where the number of Internet users are more than 250 million," IAMAI President Subho Ray said.

Study defines active Internet users as those users, who have used the Internet at least once in the last one month, which is an internationally accepted benchmark for enumerating internet users

Meanwhile, the study also found that the number of "claimed" Internet users in September 2008 was 57 million compared with 48 million of last year. Claimed users are those, who have used the Internet sometime but not in the last one month.

I-Cube (Internet in India) study is conducted annually by IMRB International and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

Agencies

Nokia’s recycling campaign in India

Nokia will be launching its ‘Take Back’ campaign from Thursday (January 1) encouraging mobile phone users to dispose of their used handsets and accessories, regardless of the brand, at any of the recycling bins set up across Nokia priority dealers and Nokia care centres. For each handset dropped into recycling bins, Nokia will be planting a tree, besides giving gifts to people participating in its campaign.

As part of its initiative to educate mobile phone users on the importance of recycling of e-waste, India’s top mobile phone seller will begin the initiative from Delhi and then gradually roll out the programme in phases across the country. “We have laid out a robust recycling infrastructure across the country with over 1,300 recycling bins installed at our centre across India. We work with qualified recyclers around the world to ensure proper end-of-life treatment of used devices,” said Nokia India Vice-President and Managing Director D. Shivakumar.

The ‘Take back’ campaign aims to increase awareness of the concept of recycling.

Source: Agencies

Do Internet users want more languages?

Which is the one language that the people of India aspire to learn? Which is the one language that most Indians use while communicating on the Internet?

The answer is English. But you obviously knew that.

At the Internet Governance Forum being held in Hyderabad, Ajit Balakrishnan, CEO of Rediff.com, said that there is no evidence from the last ten years of the Internet business that users want Indian languages. Rediff has email in 11 languages, and 99% of the users prefer to use email in English, says a report.

Balakrishnan believes that a majority of Indians use the Internet for non- or little language skill associated activities like sending send messages, download music, view pictures or videos. These activities hardly require text input/usage.

Interesting comment from the Rediff CEO so is he trying to say that the investment he made to make those 11 languages available for its users was futile?

Not really; in fact, it could be called future-ready. In the coming years when Internet penetrates into large sections of rural India, that's when the regional languages will come handy, perhaps?

Source: Techtree

India ranked fourth with 81 mn Net users

India has been ranked fourth among the top 10 nations in the world with 81 million Internet users. United States leads the chart with 220 million Internet users followed by China (210 million) and Japan (88.1 m).

Brazil comes next to India with 53.1 million users, UK 40.2 million, Germany 39.1 million, Republic of Korea 35.5 million, Italy 32 million and France 31.5 million.

The Internet Governance Forum has released these statistics on the eve of its third four-day global conference that begins at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre on December 3.
From about 70 million people (1.7% of the world population) who had access to the Internet at the end of 2007, the figure crossed 134.8 crore by 2007. Asia has the highest number of Internet users with an estimated 568.7 million people followed by the Americas with 377.9 million.

Europe ranks third in this list with 335.9 million users and Africa and Oceania close the rank with 51.8 million and 14 million users respectively, according to the IGF. India, however, does not find place among the top ten nations in terms of broadband connections where too the US stands first with 73.2 million connections.

China has 66.4 million, Japan 28.28 million, Germany 19.6 million, UK 15.6 million, France 15.5 million, Republic of Korea 14. 7 million, Italy 10.8 million, Canada 9 million and Spain 8 million broadband connections. While there were a total of 13.5 million Internet subscribers in India, representing 1.15 per 100 people, broadband subscribers accounted for five million among them.
However, the number of users, who have online access but do not themselves subscribe, is a whopping 81 million or 6.93 users per people.

Source: PTI

80% of APAC Internet users go online to shop

The internet is proving as appealing a shopping destination as the likes of shopping centres in Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong or Orchard Road in Singapore. According to a Visa e-Commerce Tracking Survey, nearly 80 percent of internet users surveyed in Asia Pacific say they made an online transaction and spent an average of over US$3,000 each in the past 12 months.

The top three draws for shopping online were being able to shop at any time (88 percent), at the best prices (83 percent), and being able to shop easily (82 percent). According to the respondents, their most commonly made online purchases were digital entertainment (59 percent), travel (51 percent) and fashion (49 percent).

Among the wide range of products and services available on the internet, Asia Pacific online shoppers surveyed reported that they spent the most on travel services with an average spending of $812 in the last 12 months. Travel items included airline and rail tickets, hotel accommodation and travel packages.

Mohamad Hafidz, regional head, e-Commerce, Asia Pacific, Visa, said: “Nearly a quarter of the world's population – roughly 1.4 billion people – used the internet on a regular basis in 2008 and in Asia Pacific, on average, a person spent about 20.2 hours a month online. Our own survey has revealed online consumers in Asia Pacific recognize the convenience of online shopping as reflected in the high percentage of internet users who buy a wide range of products, from that for everyday use to the occasional high-value item online.”

In the region, Japanese and Koreans surveyed emerged as the most frequent shoppers, with 99 percent and 93 percent respectively having made an online purchase over the last 12 months. However, Australians were the biggest online spenders with an average 12-month tab of $4,160 – $680 more than Singaporeans, who are the next biggest online spenders.

In India, purchasing digital downloads was the most popular form of consumer e-commerce. Seventy-six percent of respondents from India, the highest among Asia Pacific, have bought a form of digital entertainment over the internet in the last 12 months. Music downloads (63 percent) emerged as the most popular digital entertainment purchase.

The internet has also brought about an increase in the number of cross-border transactions with 75 percent of internet users surveyed in Hong Kong having bought an item from an overseas website in the preceding 12 months. Visa (both credit and debit cards) was their most popular payment method with nearly 60 percent of online shoppers surveyed choosing to pay with Visa. Mohamad added: “With almost four in five internet users buying online, people in Asia Pacific are taking full advantage of the global shopping experience that the internet provides.”

Past 12 months online shopping spending by website category – Top 10 in Asia Pacific

1 Airlines / airline tickets
2 Online travel agents
3 Travel accommodation
4 Clothes / shoes
5 Car / motorcycle
6 Computer hardware (PC)
7 Food and groceries
8 Electrical appliances (TV, stereo, etc)
9 White goods (refrigerator, dishwasher, etc)
10 Other types of transportation for traveling

Average online spending in the past 12 months
1 Australia - US$4,160
2 Singapore - US$3,480
3 Japan - US$3,175
4 South Korea -US$3,027
5 India - US$2,147
6 Hong Kong -US$1,698

Source: Visa e-Commerce Tracking Survey