India's mobile-techno
mantra By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - It is described as a rapidly rising
technology quotient, which is beginning to define the
youth of India today, who form over 70% of the country's
population, with a substantial number employed in
India's burgeoning service sector - hospitality,
software, information technology, banking and call
centers. It is a generation that is growing up on
gadgets and gizmos that evolve faster than the time
taken to download the latest ring tone into an already
outdated cellular phone fitted with a digital camera.
Indeed, manufacturers have rightly identified
the credo of the young, hot and naturally happening -
earn to spend. Such purchases include the latest
featherweight, sleek, Wi-Fi Centrino laptop that will
allow mobile e-mail access at the recently enabled
Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, or
even on a flight at over 30,000 feet. Indeed, to be at
par with India's new generation is to know that that
Sony Discman so proudly displayed in the morning has
already become passe overnight, with the pride of
possession now being Apple's iPod. Not understanding the
virtues of Bluetooth (wireless technology) and ethernet
(network standard of communication) is being naive. A
CDRW-DVD (rewritable) combo , USB (universal serial bus)
ports, ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) and
CDMA (code division multiple access) are like the ABCs
of common techno-lingo. A car fitted with
power-steering, power-windows, Bose speakers and DVD
players in the back seat is no longer an aspiration, but
a reality.
"My shopping list is ready even
before I receive my salary," says 24-year old Priyank,
who works as a trainer in a call-center in Gurgaon and
is due to travel to London for a month-long training
program. Priyank lives alone in a high-rise apartment
and there are no prizes for guessing her expenses -
remote controlled air-conditioner, a smart refrigerator
that digitally informs the status of perishables, the
latest car accessories such as a mobile charger, a
remote-controlled locking system - the list goes on. A
few years ago such material comforts would have taken a
lifetime's earnings for a mid-course corporate executive
to afford.
"I spend all that I earn. Though my
parents sometimes tell me that I should save, I see no
reason to do so as my salary is only going to go up in
the future," says Priyank.
Indeed, as the
technology quotient only gets steeper, it is quite
apparent from statistics that the preference of the
young spending class of India today is for mobile
gadgets and gizmos - defined as items that can be used
any time, any place, anywhere. A fully loaded young man
or woman is fitted with the latest cell phone, PDA
(personal digital assistant), notebook and discman -
each of which cost between US$500 and $2,000. Add in the
Ray-Ban goggles and they look no different than US
Marines on the prowl, minus the guns.
The
comparison is quite stark - from the years 1999 to 2004,
the fast moving consumer goods market (TVs, ACs, fridges
etc) grew by 4% in India while the wireless market
(mobile phones) grew by 55%, which gives an indication
that the diversion of the customers' wallets towards the
mobile market has taken away some of the sheen from the
electronic goods market that grew at a rapid pace in the
1990s.
It is clear that the consumer has pitched
for mobility in preference to "white goods" (household
appliances), which makes it more apparent that growth is
being driven by the young and earning who spend most of
their time on the move working and partying, with little
time left over to catch up on sleep at home, where
parents lead a much more sedate lifestyle.
And
there is still as way to go. In Taiwan, mobile
penetration is 115%, which means that a large section of
the population is carrying more than one cell phone. In
India, penetration is only 2%, though the double-cell
syndrome is hooking more and more mobile users in urban
areas - one for professional and the other for personal
use.
With mobility being the mantra, new
competition is already eating into products that were
new-age just a while ago. High-end mobile phone makers
could very well upset the apple cart for digital camera
vendors such as Kodak, Canon and Fuji. The camera phones
are packed with increased memory and battery life,
improved standby time, better picture resolution and
multimedia diaries. It's still not clear what sells
better, digital cameras or phones with cameras, but
according to recently released statistics by Nokia, the
mobile phone market achieved a record growth of 16% with
471 million units sold worldwide. In India, the middle
and high-end phone market, largely dominated by Nokia,
seems to be treading on turf that once belonged solely
to digital camera vendors. Similar is the case with
notebooks, wherein a price war is emerging between
lower-end laptop makers - including branded offerings
from Compaq-HP, IBM and Acer - matching high-end desktop
costs. With added features such as external add-ons,
including Wi-Fi enabling, the notebooks match the speed
and space of any fixed computer, with the added perk of
mobility.
Indeed, anything to do with mobility
is big business and is always on the growth curve. Ring
tones rake in revenues for mobile operators all over the
world. Internationally, the size of the market for
mobile ring tones is estimated to have grown from $450
million in 2003 to $1.5 billion in 2004. In India,
though, the ring tone market still stands at a modest $6
million in 2003 it is expected to grow at over 50-60%
this year.
Of course there will always be
over-the-top stuff for the ultra-cool, techno rich -
PDA's at $500 or a Vertu platinum mobile phone for
$25,000. But we are talking about the mobile-techno
mantra that is sweeping hundreds of thousands in India
today, a craze that takes the term "keeping up with the
Joneses" to a whole new level.
Siddharth
Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
