A Smart Choice

face="Times New Roman, serif">Many
channel partners might not have yet noticed it, but the business
attitude towards smartphones is changing and the shift may well
present some great opportunities for resellers and integrators. The
launch of tablets and smartphones by PC vendors, has giving
opportunities to the telecom channels as well.

For
channel, there is a lot of potential in the smartphones segment.
Smartphones have marked the beginning of a new era in the business of
mobile communication. The ease of a complete operating system
software, with PC-like functionality, voice services with email, fax,
pager or Internet access has created a huge demand for smartphones in
India.

face="Times New Roman, serif"> style="font-weight: bold;">HUGE
POTENTIAL

In
a country like India which has more than 700 mn mobile phone
connections (729 mn total subscribers, as of November 2010, as per
Trai), mobile phones have passed through the shift from being a
'want' to being a 'need'. Given the rapid growth in India's mobile
market, there is a tremendous opportunity to grow in the smartphones
category.

Smartphones
are growing in India and IDC India reports that 6 mn smartphones were
sold in 2010. This indicates that the smartphones market in India has
a huge potential for growth and has become a focus market for major
players worldwide.

Emergence
of smartphones as a new tool for conducting businesses and personal
networking has been a major driver for increasing its demand.
Smartphones have been instrumental in bringing business transactions
into the palm of people's hands-with anytime, anywhere
accessibility. According to Gartner, smartphones will globally
outsell all personal computers-desktops and notebooks by 2010. It
touched 54.3 mn units in the first quarter of 2010. This implies that
more consumers will now be reachable by mobile web than by
traditional Internet.

“With
the falling price, essentially, martphones are now being used as a
primary communication device for a range of needs like entertainment,
social networking, uploading and sharing content etc, the same way
as computers, especially among the mobilesavvy professional and GenY
segments,” said Mahesh Bhalla, GM-consumer and SMB, href="http://www.dqweek.com/Vaswani-joins-Dell-India-as-chairman">Dell
India.

face="Times New Roman, serif"> style="font-weight: bold;">OPPORTUNITIES
FOR SMART PARTNERS

Smartphones
are better placed than a standard mobile phone to deal with several
advances because of their large display screens and speedy Internet
connections. “There is a huge demand for smartphones not only in
India, but across the world and these trends are here to stay for
long. Hence it is an emerging opportunity for partners, which is
growing by leaps and bounds,” said Rajeev Mehta, MD, Zest Systems.

There
are at least 1,20,000 retail outlets selling mobile phones-and some
vendors say that this number could be closer to 2,00,000. However,
selling of smartphones is quite different from ordinary handsets.
Channel partners need to be true solution partners in order to sell a
smatphone. “VARs can make a lot of bucks on this. Smartphones are
intelligent phones, there are several applications and features for
partners to understand so that partners can communicate to customers.
We are selling BlackBerry smartphones. Largely, the users of
smartphones are people on the move, hence customizing the
applications as per user's needs is something that the partners have
to learn, which ironically not all the partners are able to deliver,”
said Mehta.

Another
area where smartphones are offering opportunities to solution providers
is security applications. Smartphones are everywhere, and
they carry vital corporate data, whether they are secured or not.
With the exposure of 1,50,000 iPad owners' personal data recently,
along with new reports that highlight Android securityproblems,
opportunities are abound for channel partners, to create a mobile-
ecurity practice for business customers. “A smarphone executive
does not necessarily need to know how the mobile security and other
applications usage is made, they just need to know whether the risks
are being remediated or mitigated. And that is very, very lucrative
for the VAR partner who can deliver it,” pointed Bhalla.

According
to Vishal Chopra, business head-mobile communications, LGEIL,
“Smartphones are not going to grow by leaps and bounds compared to
where they are today, but they will be closer to becoming the single
most important device we own. Partners should capitalize on 3 key
trends that will cause a fundamental change in the role and nature of
smartphones over the next few years. These include-broadband
everywhere, digitization of all content, and pocket computing power.”

Bhalla
feels that there is a huge convergence of user devices that enable
consumers to easily connect anytime, anywhere. Our strategy is to
continue creating smart, innovative and new mobility experiences
to help people discover new ways to enjoy the web, connect with
friends, and navigate their lives. We believe in following Dell's
purpose, to give our partners the power to do more, and enabling them
to understand customer needs and requirements.”

face="Times New Roman, serif"> style="font-weight: bold;">CHALLENGES
FOR PARTNERS

Mehta
said, "The key bottleneck in selling smartphones is lack of
training. Most customers do not use advanced services, due to lack
of awareness or understanding. Therefore, this is a missing link
which vendors should fulfill. Clearly, smartphone selling is not all
about selling a box; it is a solution. Hence, it is essential for
partners to have the right skill sets and make it a lucrative
business."

"The
smartphone industry is a cut-throat industry that never seems to
sleep. Every time we turn around there is another feature or
cutting-edge technology that makes the existing smartphone a thing of
the past and makes the consumer think about his next smartphone, even
before the current one is damaged. Today, we can already predict what
tomorrow's smartphone will be capable of. Hence, growing with the
time and scaling up business is crucial for partners to keep in
mind," concluded Chopra.