Monday, June 18, 2007

Vital Wave Consulting Blog

Thank you for visiting my blog.

This blog will be discontinued and I shall now be blogging on my company's - Vital Wave Consulting - blog.

Please visit, and interact with us on, the Vital Wave Consulting blog - http://vitalwave.blogspot.com/

Look forward to seeing you there.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Reliance roars into mobile phone handset market in India

Reliance Communications of India announced that it sold more than 1 million of its Classic 777 mobile phone the first week it was put on the market.

Reliance enjoys an extensive distribution network and brand recognition in India, but its core business has traditionally been telecom services, not hardware, so it was not a given that this handset would be a success

Reliance is committed to it's founders' - Late Dhirubhai Ambani - commitment to “Make the tools of information and communication available to people at an affordable cost." At 777 Rupees, or US $19, the Classic 777 is one of, if not the, least expensive mobile phone on the market and was designed specifically to lure first-time buyers of cell phone - users who may have been tempted to purchase secondhand phones. The Classic 777 is a basic communications tool with few bells and whistles aside from the FM radio, which is extremely popular on handsets in India (Motorola's Motomobile handsets also have FM radios).

Reliances' competitor, Vodafone, recently announced it will also sell private label phones in India (made by ZTE of China). Will be interesting to see what features Vodafone choose to/not to add to these models and if they have the same initial success as Reliance. Nokia and Motorola, stay tuned.