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The Indian mobile phone industry is considered to be the largest and fastest growing telecommunication niche in the world after China. Although China beats India in the number of mobile telephone connections, it will not be long before the statistics are reversed owing to whopping growth rate (estimated at over 8 million new connections a month). Based on weekly statistics, the number of mobile connections sold in India is higher than anywhere else in the world. Mobile call tariffs in India are among the lowest in the world. As per estimates over 400 million of the Indian population carries a mobile phone. It is expected that every Indian would own a mobile phone in the next five years.

The estimated number of mobile subscribers on the planet is 3.5 billion making over 10% of these are Indian. The ratio between mobile phone connections and broadband connection in India is 65:1 and the ratio is on the rise. An average mobile phone bill in India is less than $5.

The above facts may seem unbelievable to some but this is the situation and the size of the market in India. Let us examine a few more facets of the mobile phone industry in India.

Technology

Mobile phone technology in India is divided into two distinct technologies, GSM and CDMA. GAM or Global system for mobile communications is the more dominant market and it has over 2 billion subscribers spanning 212 countries. On the other hand, CDMA or Code division multiple access technology has brought down mobile service prices in India and has become quite popular on the lower economic scale.

Players

Major players in the Indian mobile market are divided on technology while the CDMA providers also provide GSM services and not vice-versa. Although there are many players in the GSM arena, the CDMA space is taken by only two providers – Tata Indicom and Reliance. Most major players work in segregated markets and the markets are divided into four major metros and 3 circles that encompass the whole country.

• Delhi: The capital metro of India is covered by four major GSM service providers – Idea, Airtel, MTNL and Vodafone. Airtel is clearly leading the race with Vodafone in close chase along with some smaller players like Spice. The CDMA providers active in Delhi are Tata Indicom and Reliance.
• Mumbai: Mumbai’s cellular waves are dominated by Vodafone (as a result of taking over BPL) followed closely by Airtel and MTNL bringing up the rear along with other smaller players like Uninor. CDMA is again offered by Tata Indicom and Reliance.
• Chennai: This south Indian city is dominated by 4 big GSM providers – Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone and BSNL. CDMA again is covered by Reliance and Tata Indicom.
• Kolkata: Kolkata is ruled by Airtel and Vodafone while other smaller players like BSNL, Aircel, Idea and Uninor are still stimulating the market. CDMA is covered by the only two players – Reliance and Tata Indicom.
• Circle A: Circle A as per the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory authority of India) covers five states – Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. This circle is dominated by GSM players – Vodafone, Airtel, Aircel, BSNL Spice and IDEA.
• Circle B: Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana and Punjab along with Rajasthan, West Bengal (including Andaman & Nicobar Islands) and Madhya Pradesh comprise Circle B. The major players are Airtel, Vodafone, Ideal, Reliance, Idea, Uninor, Tata Docomo, Aircel, BSNL and Dishnet. CDMA is available through Reliance and Tata Indicom.
• Circle C: This circle comprises of Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, North Eastern states, Assam and Jammu & Kashmir. Major players in this circle are Reliance, Airtel, Escorts, Vodafone and BSNL with CDMA being brought up by Reliance and Tata Indicom.

Mobile operators in India provide a host of value added services to their clients and most of these services are customizable at the client’s end. These services include the latest technological innovations like Blackberry, 2G/3G connectivity, SMS, MMS, USSD, GPRS, CRBT, location based services, polls, contests, advertising, video streaming, audio streaming, IM over IP, mCommerce and content downloads. These services are normally charged extra.

Let us look at a few statistics:

• Over 16 million Indians access the Internet using their mobile phone daily.
• As of February 2009, over 63 million Indians accessed internet using their mobile phone.
• 10% of mobile subscribers in India use GPRS.
• The age group of 20-25 is known to use 82% of the content based value added services.
• VAS (Value added services) market is expected to reach $1 billion mark this year (2010).

Thus, with the VAS market expanding fast and growing at an astounding rate, the market for mobile application development is also growing fast. Mobile applications that include access to social media, content downloads, games, GPRS based games etc are in greater demand and with a market like India that is evolving fast, finding economies of scale would not be difficult making the cost of development inconsequential.

However, marketing mobile applications has not yet hit the top. Expectedly, with revenues increasing and more and more GSM providers willing to tie-up with mobile application software developers, things are looking brighter. With 3G slotted to debut in the end of 2010, mobile application developers would have more to rejoice since the speed of deliverance and interest would only help expand the market further.

Companies like Semaphore, Qualsoft, Aquilonis, Zeron Consulting and Synapse are a few contenders in the mobile phone application development niche in India. Products like MoSync which allow cross-platform development, particularly for some of the older types of devices, also have a toe hold in the Indian app development market. 2011 is slated to see a rise in demand for mobile application development in India due to the advent of 3G. The testing phase for 4G has already begun and things are already looking up for the mobile application development niche.