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.

Kiwanja.net - Source for interesting mobile applications and resources

Had coffee with Ken Banks, founder of Kiwanja.net this week. He has created two resources worth mentioning here.

Mobile Applications Database - a searchable database with links to some 250 recent articles, documents and projects about innovative applications of mobile technology - with a particular focus on those with a social/environmental impact in emerging markets. Nice way for mobile handset manufacturers and service providers to keep a finger on the pulse of interesting uses of their technology in these markets.

FrontlineSMS - a SMS messaging management application designed specifically for NGOs (and free of charge for them). Was recently used by HELP in Nigeria to manage some 11,000 SMS messages they received from their volunteer presidential election monitors across the country....could also have commercial applications in the future.