UP Channels going gaga over mobile handsets

The Indian mobile market has been growing rapidly for quite sometime now and channel players in the UP region are busy
devising strategies to firmly entrench themselves in this segment. From the state capital of Lucknow to
the holy city of Varanasi, the channel community is too exited be a part of India's telecom revolution.

"We are going in for mobiles as the segment is hot these days, specially because it helps us attract customers to our
showrooms. This gives us a chance to introduce our other products to them as well," explains Kanpur
based Bhukania Computers CEO Sanjay Kumar Bhukania. After having sold Nokia for about two months, Bhukania is now looking forward
to selling Samsung handsets as well.

The growth in the mobile handset market is encouraging new players, services, and features in the Indian market. More than a
dozen vendors currently sell handsets in the Indian market, led by Nokia, Ericsson,
Motorola, Samsung, BenQ and LG. Off late there has been an spurt of activity in foreign mobile players like Kejian, DBTEL and Tel.Me which have subtlety
entered in the market targeting the high-end segment. 

Moving on the same lines, the Lucknow-based CSPL Computers is all set to plunge into telecom arena targeting the
corporate segment. "We have decided to focus on the mobile segment specifically towards the corporate segment.
We are speaking to a national telecom service provider for reselling its services in the corporate segment in the UP region," informed CSPL CEO
Pankaj Kapoor.

Timing is important Telecom is one such segment, where things move pretty fast and operators and
distributors are now developing new region- specific models to meet the needs and develop different markets. 

This excitement among the channels in the UP region is well justified in the light of Bharti's plans to introduce Airtel into cities
like Lucknow, Varanasi and Allahabad within a period of three to four month's time. 

With the entrance of new players and new technologies, suppliers and operators are fighting to maintain market share. As the
high-end market becomes increasingly saturated, operators will be forced to turn to
lower-income populations in order to continue growth. Therefore, operators are now focusing on low-end products and lower prices.

Analysts close to the industry claim that the low-income market segment will continue growing faster than any other, and
suppliers with the largest share of unit sales will be the ones that focus on low-priced offerings.
According to Allahabad based Tritech Enterprises CEO Manish Mehrotra, effective product and pricing strategies for different consumer segments
will be key to the success of suppliers in the Indian mobile game. Low-end market consumers tend to be very price conscious. Tritech is also planning
its entry into mobile reselling business shortly with introducing brands like Nokia in the region.

Moving ahead, the best-selling phones will be those targeted at the low-end and mid-level markets. Thus, suppliers are
focusing on low- to mid-level markets, with the likes of Nokia, expecting to capitalize on continued
strong sales growth. On the other hand, companies with smaller production capacity are targeting the more mature high-end market niche, with the aim
of better margins to help grow profits.

Zia Askari

New Delhi  (CyberMedia News)