CloudMosa looks to the cloud to speed up 4G feature phone journey

California-headquartered CloudMosa is aggressively offering its Cloud platform to mobile handset manufacturers in India, so that they can sell their 4G feature phones at an entry-level price point of $15 each. The phones work on all telecom operator networks, and they don’t have to fork out a hefty subsidies to woo customers. And, the US-based Cloud computing company is offering a full Android experience rather than the Kiosk Operating System (KiOs), which is popular only in China. 

CloudMosa sees its offering as a big opportunity to hasten the upgradation of consumers from 2G to 4G feature phones. And the price is low because it offers a full data experience by running apps and storing data in the cloud, as the device doesn’t have enough storage. 

Shioupyn Shen, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company, in an interview, said: “India is our largest market and we have already sold 1 million cloud phones on our technology, accounting for 50 per cent of our mobile sales in Vietnam, Bangladesh, and South Africa. And the cloud phone has seen a 500 per cent increase in daily unique users in the last three months in India. But the market is big as there are 300 million 2G phone users, who are looking at upgrading to a 4G feature phone. There are 1.5 billion 2G phone users across the world, but they need an affordable phone.” 

The company has provided its platform to phones sold in India by Nokia, Itel, HMD, and now Lava, apart from many other regional brands, which serve smaller cities and rural regions, with over 31 models on offer in the country. It is also close to signing up with some of the major mobile brands in India. Globally, its platform is being used by HMD, Mobicel and Vodacom, among others. Its flagship in the country is the Nokia 110, which is retailed at ₹1,499 apiece. 

Shen is not the first one selling cloud-based feature phones. The big boy in the game has been Reliance Jio, whose 4G feature phones under the Jio Bharat brand name were on offer at ₹699 by the company. It has helped the company get 100 million subscribers shifted from 2G to this affordable phone. 

But these phones are locked-in with the Jio network, they use the KiOs platform, and Shen said they have a high subsidy content — his estimate is 50 per cent. 

The business model for CloudMosa is simple. It charges 40 cents per phone for two years for providing the technology platform (app) with around 50 widgets as well as the cloud service, which help customers watch YouTube, Facebook, movies and much others, but not WhatsApp. For a five-year deal, it charges 50 per cent more per phone. 

Aiming high

  *  Offers Cloud platform to help handset makers sell 4G phones at bargain prices

  *  This will address rural and small city consumers still using 2G

  *  Aim to upgrade 300 million 2G users to 4G

  *  Has sold around 1 million phones in India, but now upping the ante with 31 new models

  *  Lava, Nokia, Itel and HMD offering these phones in market

  *  Phones not tied to any operator, and offer Android operating system 

  *  Moreover, operators don’t need to subsidise the phones