Mobile statistics are specifically impressive in the BRICs — Brazil, Russia, India, China. China is poised to overtake the United States as the world’s largest smartphone market, and new Chinese app data suggest it has already done so.
In a recent report, BI Intelligence interviews a half-dozen mobile industry leaders and entrepreneurs on opportunities in the BRICs, breaks down how mobile-focused companies can pursue those opportunities, analyzes key mobile statistics (smartphones, app downloads, app revenue) from the BRIC countries, isolates and analyzes the four lessons that are essential to any mobile project in these markets, and looks at a case study of a successful music streaming service focused on Indian and Bollywood music.
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Here’s an overview of the 4 essentials to mobile projects in BRIC countries:
- Don’t ignore the feature phone: Market-leading apps are still keeping one foot in the feature phone market, and for an important reason: That’s where the numbers are. Smartphone penetration among Chinese mobile subscribers won’t end the year higher than 20%, according to BI Intelligence estimates.
- Work with carriers: Emerging market carriers hold the keys to two important aspects of the mobile business — network effects and billing. Billing is a challenge in emerging markets. Credit card penetration is low. Only carriers have the reach, systems, and technologies to draw payments from prepaid and postpaid mobile consumers.
- Follow the rollout of low-cost smartphones and tablets: Since many devices in these markets are purchased for prepaid plans without the help of carrier subsidies, price cuts instantly make tablets and smartphones more accessible to consumers. Smartphone prices in India have fallen 30 to 35 percent in the last three years.
- Understand Android’s dominance and its limitations: Android is the leading mobile platform in all the BRICs. Android dominance presents a challenge for app developers and publishers since the Google Play store, the main Android app store, has not proved an easy route to monetization in emerging markets. In China, there is very limited support for Google Play. Worse, app store fragmentation on Android is an even more serious problem than it is elsewhere.
- Breaks down some mobile statistics (smartphones, app downloads, app revenue) from the BRIC countries.
- Isolates and analyzes the four lessons that are essential to any mobile project in these countries.
- Looks at a case study of a successful music streaming service focused on Indian and Bollywood music.
For full access to the report on Mobile In The BRICs sign up for a free trial subscription today.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/mobile-in-china-india-and-emerging-markets-2013-8#ixzz2bIYEm4iU
Ovum Principal Analyst Tony Cripps was quoted in a blog entry as saying that “while all five major smartphone platforms score well, it is BlackBerry OS and Windows Mobile that currently lead the opposition, rather than Android or Symbian.”
By “opposition,” Cripps means non-iPhone (and now iPad) development. Ovum surveyed 217 mobile application developers and found that 81 percent are working on iPhone apps — or planning to do so. That continues to be where the money is, but developers know it’s not the only game in town.
RIM’s BlackBerry OS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 OS take second and third place, respectively, with 74 percent and 66 percent of shops building apps for them. Android comes next, at 64 percent, and Symbian, the OS for Nokia phones, brings up the rear of the “big five” at 56 percent. Symbian’s last-place finish is also a surprise, given that it has the largest installed base and highest shipments of any smartphone platform, according to Ovum.
“Over the last year or so, it’s been perceived that Microsoft and Symbian had been a little bit left behind in public perception of those platforms,” Cripps says, “and [there is] linkage between consumer acceptance of a platform and developer acceptance of that platform. The iPhone shows that.” But even though the iPhone remains king, the other major platforms are still thriving. That’s one indication of how big the market is.
One interesting finding of the survey, Cripps says, is that application development companies tend to develop around similar groups of platforms. The majority that develop for iPhone, for example, also tend to develop applications for both Google’s Android and BlackBerry. A smaller number of companies develop for four or more platforms, and very few have the financial and manpower resources to develop for as many as six platforms, according to Cripps.
That’s been a big help for BlackBerry, Cripps says. “It’s piggybacking on the success of the iPhone. If developers are writing for one [platform], chances are they’re writing for Android and BlackBerry as well.”
BlackBerry’s success hasn’t been all about riding iPhone’s coattails, however. Cripps says he was surprised at “How well BlackBerry came out of this. It’s not just enterprise apps it’s being used for.” RIM’s recently-stated goal of being more consumer-friendly and not just a business phone has “come true,” Cripps says. “RIM deserves credit here. Its showing is surprisingly good.”
Things aren’t so rosy for platforms out of the top five. For instance, Palm can’t seem to get much traction around its Pre smartphone. “It doesn’t look great either for palm or any other smartphone beyond the top five as things stand,” Cripps says. “To rise above will require significant investment in developing products and convincing developers to build an ecosystem around it.”
Resource:
http://adtmag.com/articles/2010/04/16/smartphone-development-is-more-than-just-iphone.aspx