MUMBAI, India (AP) - Virgin Mobile launched new services in India Sunday, targeting the youth market in one of the world's fastest growing regions, the company said. Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson said the British company would offer music, entertainment and news on India's film industry, sports and stock markets to about 400 million young
Indians in the 15 to 30-year-old age group. The British billionaire said his company would launch Virgin Mobile handset services through Tata Teleservices Ltd, a top Indian mobile operator, in 50 cities initially, expanding to more than 1,000 cities by December.«India looks very, very promising. We need only a small percentage of the market to do well,» Branson told reporters at a news conference.Branson said the size of India's youth market was staggering. «It's six times the size of the U.K.'s population and we are bound to have lots of fun here,» he said. Branson did not divulge financial details, but said he hoped to attract a customer base of 5 million subscribers . India is a key mobile phone market, adding more than 6 million new connections every month with its economy growing at more than 8 percent annually.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Virgin Mobile launches in India, targets youth market
Weekly Recap
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute has adopted the technical standards governing Mobile Near Field Communications (NFC) services supported by the Association and its members. The completion of the core of the technical standards removes a potential obstacle, enabling mobile operators to prepare for the rollout of contactless payment services and other applications that make use of this flexible short-range radio technology.
Mobile Phone Industry Expected to Resist Economic Downturn as Majority of Growth Will Come From Emerging Markets. Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users surpassed 1.15 billion units in 2007, a 16 per cent increase from 2006 sales of 990.9 million, according to Gartner, Inc. Mobile phone sales at the end of the year were consistent with the yearly trend, as fourth quarter sales reached 330 million units.
Today's active social networking members represent more than one-third of the total worldwide Internet user base, for a figure of 530 million members worldwide. Looking ahead, Pyramid Research expects social networking sites to gain prominence as sites add increased functionality and more people are introduced to them by friends and acquaintances. By the end of 2012, there will be 950 million users accessing social networking sites via their mobile devices.
Priceline.com announced the launch of a suite of mobile services that enable travelers with Web-enabled wireless devices to search hotel inventories, pricing and availability in real-time, book rooms, check the status of their flights, and see recommended restaurants and local attraction reviews from Zagat Survey.
The Chinese smartphone market grew by 37.7% in 2007, with total shipments of 14.4 million. The introduction of feature-rich mobile Internet service and GPS-based services will fuel the market over the next several years.
Sprint announced it will launch a US unlimited pricing plan that gives customers unlimited voice, data, text, e-mail, Web-surfing, Sprint TVSM, Sprint Music, GPS Navigation, Direct Connect and Group Connect for $99.99 a month.
Parks Associates report finds mobile game revenue generated through carrier decks will decrease from 90% of the total U.S. mobile gaming revenue to 72% in the next five years. By 2012, off-deck channels and ad-supported or subsidized mobile gaming will account for 28% of the market.
Vodafone UK and Telmap, the world leader in advanced mobile mapping and navigation solutions, are introducing Vodafone Sat Nav– an operator branded mobile navigation solution available for the UK consumer market.
midomi mobile allows users to search for music by singing, humming or even whistling into their mobile devices. The application accesses midomi’s online user-generated database of songs and uses MELODIS’ patented Multimodal Adaptive Recognition System (MARS) to identify what users are searching for.
LocaModa introduced breakthrough social connectivity to its interactive Out-of-Home platform. LocaModa 3.0 enables mobile consumers to control and interact with social media around them using any mobile phone on any network.
Juniper Research reports global ringtone revenues heading for a decline while the global mobile music market is expected to continue to rise. The total value of the global mobile music market is expected to rise to more than $17.5bn by 2012, driven by rental music services and full-track downloads.
Report Buyer, has added a new report which finds that the number of mobile subscribers in China will reach 738 million in 2010.
Combining the design concept of Panasonic large-screen flat-panel TV 'VIERA' and its high-quality picture technologies, the P905iTV is a sliding handset featuring "One-segment" mobile TV.
Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might bestretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobiledevice into radically different shapes. It demonstrates the ultimatefunctionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexiblematerials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces.
Completion of Core Mobile NFC Standard to Spark New Services
ETSI decision adds a key piece to the Mobile NFC jigsaw puzzle
London, GSMA Press Release 2008: The GSMA is pleased that the European Telecommunications Standards Institute has adopted the technical standards governing Mobile Near Field Communications (NFC) services supported by the Association and its members. The completion of the core of the technical standards removes a potential obstacle, enabling mobile operators to prepare for the rollout of contactless payment services and other applications that make use of this flexible short-range radio technology. Last week, members of ETSI selected the software protocol to control communication between the handset’s NFC chip and the SIM card, completing the standards necessary for handset makers to begin production of NFC-enabled phones in large volumes. As part of the GSMA’s Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative, 13 mobile operators are running, or preparing to run, trials of contactless mobile payment services that make use of NFC technology. These trials are the precursor to commercial services that will enable consumers to use their handsets to quickly, easily and securely pay for goods and services in shops, restaurants and train stations. "ETSI's approval of the specification for a dedicated interface, or 'Host Controller Interface' (HCI), helps end uncertainty, complete the core mobile NFC standards and is an crucial milestone for the plans of the GSMA and its members to deploy contactless mobile payment services,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer of the GSMA. “The software protocol solution chosen by ETSI will make these new services easier to use by enabling consumers to access all the secure applications on their handset, no matter where they are stored, through one common interface."
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