siliconindia

Mobile consumer electronics revolution heralds progress for the masses

Author: Sanjay Mehrotra
President and COO, Sandisk
Thinking of the India of my dreams, I can’t help but go back to a poignant incident that happened in my early teens. I wanted to buy a camera and had hoped to find a store that would be able to help me choose a camera to suit my needs. Unfortunately, the few stores carrying cameras had an extremely limited number of cameras and salespeople who knew well about the products. The India of the future, as I see it, will be a place where no person will experience such a situation.

This can be made possible by a revolution in organized retail. Only an organized retail chain has the funds and logistics necessary to keep and replenish an inventory of multiple products and brands and to train the sales staff to assist customers. Such services are commonplace in the U.S. and, to a fairly limited extent, in metropolitan areas in India. However, in India’s tier-II and tier-III cities, this retail model is rare. Efforts to spread the reach of organized retail to smaller towns are underway but such endeavors are still in their infancy. I envision that this arena will rapidly develop over the next few years.

The current growth spurt in the organized retail space across India increases competition among various brands and their suppliers, enhances access and availability of electronics products to the masses, and makes buyers more aware of the multitude of choices available to them. This facilitates informed consumer purchases, resulting in a satisfactory buying experience. Additionally, the inherent efficiencies of organized retail lead to greater product availability to consumers in a cost-effective manner. For a large and diverse consumer base like India, these benefits are critical to accelerate the growth and large-scale adoption of consumer electronics products across the economic strata.

In spite of limited buying power, there is a growing Indian consumer base with a greater amount of purchase power with enhanced income rates which is hungry for the kind of experience that the latest mobile electronics products provide. Whether it’s digital cameras, mobile phones, MP3 players, USB drives, notebook computers, or other portable electronic devices, the country has seen a huge rise in demand while a very large part of the potential market still remains untapped. These electronic products lend themselves to attaining a lifestyle of easy, affordable communication. They also allow for consumers to capture, access, experience, or share pictures, music, videos, and other personal or business information “on the go.” The upwardly mobile Indian lifestyle drives the demand for these products.

I must add that the desire to lead a mobile lifestyle and the necessity to stay connected at all times has fostered the mobile phone market in the country. No other device has held the interest of the country the way the mobile phone has. In fact, more than 7 million handsets have been sold in a single month. The research firm iSuppli Corp. expects the Indian cell phone market to triple over the next three years. Advances in technology are enabling the growth of increasingly affordable mobile phones with multimedia features such as built-in camera, MP3 player, video, internet and email access, and data download capability. Interestingly, flash memory storage is at the heart of enabling the digital lifestyle and mobile experience provided by such features on mobile phones. The flash memory cards from SanDisk, for example, are used to store the pictures or videos captured and shared on the phone, or they are used to store, download, and play the MP3 songs on the mobile phone.

Within the thriving market of the mobile phone lies the possibility to bridge the digital divide. The revolution in organized retail plays a big role in making mobile handsets increasingly accessible in non-urban areas at affordable rates. Furthermore, a rise in the per-capita income, decline in tariffs, and pro-industry and pro-consumer regulations enacted by the government will lead to greater usage of mobile phones by the masses. As the number of people that own a mobile phone increases, the economic divide that separates different social classes will reduce overtime. Mobile phones can enable all individuals to have equal footing in both their personal and business communications.

Moreover, over the next few years, mobile phones will have new applications supported that will potentially enable people from all different economic backgrounds and environments to carry out their personal day-to-day tasks, whatever they may be, with a new ease and with an opportunity to learn and develop. Mobile phones and related infrastructure in the future will help to grow the economy through various means. For example, they can be used to help individuals overcome their language or literacy barriers and even provide farmers with access to real-time market prices for their crops. Such opportunities can ultimately contribute tremendously to narrowing the economic divide.

However, this entire picture of the future I envision for India is missing one block – the infrastructure. Infrastructure that can enable easy, affordable, and reliable internet access on the mobile phone is just not available widely in India. In addition, the physical (roads, power, water, and communications) and social (schools, hospitals, etc.) infrastructure growth severely lag behind and remain a major hindrance to future growth. If the powers that run the country can eliminate the crippling bureaucracy, this can accelerate the efficient build up of the required physical and social infrastructure so that the Indian masses will be poised to leap to the next level. With huge opportunities ahead, the next ten years will be tremendously exciting
for India.
Previous  article
Next article
 
Write your comment now

Email    Password: 
Don't have SiliconIndia account? Sign up    Forgot your password? Reset
  Cancel
Reader's comments(2)
1: From: Mrs. Mary David

This mail may be a surprise to you because you did not give me the permission to do so and neither do you know me but before I tell you about myself I want you to please forgive me for sending this mail without your permission. I am writing this letter in confidence believing that if it is the will of God for you to help me and my family, God almighty will bless and reward you abundantly. I need an honest and trust worthy person like you to entrust this huge transfer project unto.

My name is Mrs. Mary David, The Branch Manager of a Financial Institution. I am a Ghanaian married with 3 kids. I am writing to solicit your assistance in the transfer of US$7,500,000.00 Dollars. This fund is the excess of what my branch in which I am the manager made as profit last year (i.e. 2010 financial year). I have already submitted an annual report for that year to my head office in Accra-Ghana as I have watched with keen interest as they will never know of this excess. I have since, placed this amount of US$7,500,000.00 Dollars on an Escrow Coded account without a beneficiary (Anonymous) to avoid trace.

As an officer of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to this money thus I am impelled to request for your assistance to receive this money into your bank account on my behalf. I agree that 40% of this money will be for you as a foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, and 60% would be for me. I do need to stress that there are practically no risk involved in this. It's going to be a bank-to-bank transfer. All I need from you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund so that the fund can be transferred to your account.

If you accept this offer, I will appreciate your timely response to me. This is why and only reason why I contacted you, I am willing to go into partnership investment with you owing to your wealth of experience, So please if you are interested to assist on this venture kindly contact me back for a brief discussion on how to proceed.

All correspondence must be via my private E-mail (dmary4love1@yahoo.fr) for obvious security reasons.

Best regards,
Mrs. Mary David.
Posted by: mary lovely david - Monday 26th, September 2011
2: tataosah@yahoo.com
Hello.
My Name is Tata I was impressed when i saw your profile at ww.siliconindia.com and will like you to email me back to my inbox so that i can send you my picture for you to know who i am.i belive we can establishe a long lasting relation ship with you.In addition,i will like you to reply me through my private e mail box (tataosah@yahoo.com).
This is because i dont know the possibilities of
remainning in forum for a long time.
Thanks,waiting to hear from you soonest.
Tata.
Posted by: tata tatababy os - Friday 30th, October 2009
More articles
by Kaushal Mehta - Founder & CEO, Motif Inc..
The retail industry is witnessing an increased migration of customers from traditional brick and mortar retail to E-commerce (online retail)...more>>
by Samir Shah - CEO, Zephyr .
You probably do because you are on the phone with them! For all of you working in some technical management capacity here in Silicon Valley,...more>>
by Raj Karamchedu - Chief Operating Officer, Legend Silicon .
These days are a mixed bag for me. Of late I have been considering "doing something bigger and better," in my life, perhaps seriously though...more>>
by Madhavi Vuppalapati - CEO of Prithvi Information Solutions .
IT Services Rise of Tier II companies The Indian IT outsourcing industry is going through very exciting phase in its business life...more>>
by Bhaskar Bakthavatsalu- Country Manager, India and SAARC of Check Point Software Technologies.
Data loss occurs every day through corporate email. In fact, given the sheer number of emails an organization sends every day, data loss inc...more>>