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NEW DELHI: HMD aims to play a role in migrating nearly 300 million 2G users in India to high-speed 4G networks using affordably priced, Internet-enabled ‘Cloud phones’, said a senior executive of the handset maker. HMD has signed up US-based CloudMosa as the technology partner to equip its feature phones with a web browser-driven operating system (OS) capable of running multimedia applications, such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, and Radioline for streaming online radio channels. “The objective of the ecosystem here is how do we migrate these 300 million subscribers to a better user experience through cloud apps or multimedia apps?.
..the market data for the last one and a half years shows that our proposition to consumers is being accepted very well which is resulting in growth of share for us,” Ravi Kunwar, CEO & Vice President - India & APAC for HMD, told ETTelecom in an interview.
Advt To recall, billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio launched its JioBharat 4G feature phone at Rs 999 in July 2023, in a bid to attract more than 250 million entry-level 2G mobile broadband users, especially in the rural markets. The telco subsequently followed up with similar device launches. Kunwar said while HMD and CloudMosa’s initiative is similar to Jio’s efforts, consumer preferences will ultimately depend on the user experience as well as back-end support for applications on the 4G-enabled feature phone.
“Any competition is better. It only makes the job much easier for consumers to choose from the better option.” Snippet from a CloudMosa presentation shared by the US-based company with ETTelecom.
HMD’s range of Cloud phones includes devices priced between Rs 1,999 to Rs 3,999. The telecom operator’s keypad handsets offer UPI functionality, video calling, YouTube, Facebook, Google Assistant, and JioChat, and they are locked to the Jio network. By contrast, 4G Cloud phones enable users to access applications and services hosted in Cloud (remote servers) without requiring onboard storage, or processing power.
Shioupyn Shen, Founder and CEO of CloudMosa, told ETTelecom that the company is open to working with any telecom operator in India on a revenue-sharing basis. “Our partnership with carriers is mostly revenue neutral. It is the device manufacturer that needs to pay us a nominal fee.
We are not going to go through with carrier for any exclusive partnership.” Advt CloudMosa also works with device makers Itel, Snexian, Blackzone, and MT, in India. Shen said CloudMosa’s technology can make a 4G feature phone affordable by 50-80% compared to current offerings in the Indian market.
“That would create a bigger opportunity to truly achieve our goal to bridge the digital divide.” Also Read | In-depth: 2G sundown may have a silver lining for industry India is a major market, representing over 80% of CloudMosa’s global user base presently. The company is backed by Morningside, GIC, Inventec, Lenovo, and Foxconn.
Recently, Vodacom South Africa along with Mobicel launched a similar handset powered by the cloud, at a price of only $13.93 (~Rs 1,160). Analysts expect the success of the Cloud phone approach to hinge on reliable 4G network coverage, especially in underserved regions.
Snippet from a CloudMosa presentation shared by the US-based company with ETTelecom. “With many users still on 2G networks, there is a significant opportunity for 4G feature phones to enable this transition. However, as smartphone adoption increases, particularly among younger demographics, maintaining interest in feature phones may become challenging,” said Menka Kumari, Analyst - Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CyberMedia Research (CMR).
CMR forecasts 4G feature phones to constitute approximately 30-35% of the overall Indiafeature phone market presently. Jio and HMD have fueled this growth by providing affordable connectivity options for users transitioning from 2G devices The research firm, however, expects the growth rate of 4G feature phones to decelerate compared to smartphones, but the 4G feature phone market may reach nearly 18 million units by 2025, maintaining a substantial share, particularly in rural and semi-urban regions. By Ashutosh Kumar , ETTelecom Published On Sep 23, 2024 at 01:28 PM IST Telegram Facebook Copy Link Be the first one to comment.
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