Socialisation of mobile phones

There were days when a call used to cost Rs 16 a minute and an SMS Rs 5. Today, telecom service providers have shifted to per-second billing, and call rates have slipped from one paisa to half a paisa per second. So, while telecom providers are scratching the bottom with their tariff rates, handset market is evolving on its own. This is social revolution.

Social media is a well-known phenomenon on the web, with millions logging on to Facebook, Twitter and Orkut every day, but, it is also fast becoming a necessary feature on all mobile phones. Be it Nokia, home-grown players Micromax, or recent entrants like Lava or Rage mobiles, all boast of instant access to your favourite social networking sites. The story doesn’t end with mobile phone manufacturers alone. Even telecom operators have plunged into the social wave. MTS, a telecom provider based in South India, has launched its own handsets, called MTS Alive. Manufactured by Chinese handset manufacturer ZTE and brought to India by MTS under its own brand, MTS Alive comes pre-installed with access to social networking websites, as well as ready-to-use Opera mini browser (for mobile web access).

This isn’t the first time a social networking-enabled phone has been launched in India. Earlier this year, INQ partnered with telecom operator Aircel to launch its brand of social phones, which gave access to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, pre-installed on handsets.

More importantly, these social phones are being priced reasonably. MTS Alive is priced at Rs 6,000, while Micromax and Maxx Indian phones with social access are priced between Rs 4,000 and Rs 7,000. A handset by MVL (another Indian manufacturer) provides social networking and push mail in a handset priced at just Rs 4,000. It is the proliferation of these handsets that is driving social networking into the hands of the consumer. It comes as no surprise that Facebook is being pitted as the competitor to Google.

With access to social sites on handsets and India’s over 600 million mobile subscribers yearning to go online, it’s no wonder that social networking has begun to dominate mobile phones.

The author is the founder and CEO of WATConsult, a social media agency. He also founded WATBlog.com, a leading digital media blog.