We want to establish sales presence in 100 cities before Diwali

With both Pocketsurfer and Ubisurfer, we are aiming to bring the Internet
into the hands of an average individual with its breakthrough technology

How has the last fiscal year been for the company?

As many manufacturers, we too were impacted by the worldwide credit-crunch.
Revenue growth in the last year was stagnant over the previous year. The last
quarter of the year showed dramatic growth, and with the launch of new products
and new markets, we expect significant growth in the current year.

With the Ubisurfer and Pocketsurfer brands, what is your positioning and
which are the customer segments you are targeting? Will you also look at
corporate clients?

With both Pocketsurfer and Ubisurfer, we are aiming to bring the Internet
into the hands of an average individual with its breakthrough technology.
Ubisurfer is positioned as a revolutionary category called the mobile netbook
that will break the affordability barrier for computing and Internet access with
its price point at Rs 7,999. Pocketsurfer on the other hand is the world's
fastest hand-held Internet device offering free mobile Internet access.
PocketSurfer2 is an ultra thin, sleek mobile device, the first of its kind to
actually deliver full power and original graphic intensity of the desktop Web,
rapidly and wirelessly on a mobile platform.

Yes, we are also targeting corporate customers for both Pocketsurfer and
Ubisurfer to offer easy connectivity and Internet access to their executives who
are on the field and need to access Internet for reporting purposes.

What is the USP of the Ubisurfer and PocketSurfer over devices like
notebooks/netbooks and smartphones. How does your product portfolio measure up
against this scenario?

Smartphones have generally not posed a great alternative to the PocketSurfer.
The small screen sizes (often only 320x240 pixels) and even smaller keyboards on
such devices make the user experience very unfriendly. Most smartphones on the
market cannot handle AJAX, javascript, active-X controls, frames and other
complex web functionality, further reducing the usability of such products. Slow
download speeds, high device costs and unaffordable monthly fees has further
restricted adoption of the mobile Web.

The following chart from Admob shows the number of mobile Web pages
impressions generated in the UK in December. At almost 14.5 million page
impressions, the PocketSurfer is the device most heavily used for mobile Web
access, after the iPhone/iPod touch. This illustrates the success of the
PocketSurfer against devices by Nokia, RIM, HTC etc.

The UbiSurfer comes with an embedded CDMA modem, SIM and year of usage,
whereby the complexity of setting-up a dongle and subscribing to monthly fees is
eliminated. Again the key differentiator is cost. A data-card/dongle costs
around Rs 2,000 and a year of mobile Internet access can cost another Rs 6,000,
total Rs 8,000 in the first year. Over three years, data usage costs would
easily reach Rs 20,000, and even an entry level netbook would cost Rs 15,000,
resulting in a total of Rs 35,000. At Rs 7,999, the UbiSurfer includes the first
year of usage, and each subsequent year is only Rs 999. So, over three years,
the total cost is still less than Rs 10,000, compared to alternatives at Rs
35,000.

With patchy data connectivity in India, the user experience on mobile
networks is generally lacking. Datawind's patented compression/acceleration
technology significantly improves the quality of the mobile Web experience.
Datawind's technologies solve the bandwidth limitations of cellular networks by
accelerating content delivery by factors of 10x to 30x.

What are the market challenges you expect to encounter bringing your
products to India? How do you plan to overcome them?

We feel the key market challenge in India will be of creating awareness.
Distribution channels and the retail segment in India are fragmented and
e-commerce is at its infancy. Television penetration though is very broad, and
we intend to use that as a medium to create awareness.

Since Datawind is fairly new in the market, how will you promote the brand
this year in India? What sort of service support will you extend to customers?

A revolutionary product such as Ubisurfer needs a strong campaign to educate
consumers; which we plan to execute through infomercials and TV home shopping
networks. We have leveraged this route very effectively in markets such as the
UK, Germany and Australia and will aim to replicate the success in the Indian
market as well. We operate a call center in Amritsar that provides support to
our UK, German and Australian customers. We will provide toll-free support for
our Indian customers through the same call center. Local support will be
provided through device-swaps at the retail level.

What is the storage scheme in rupees over and above the free 50GB online
storage available on the Ubisurfer? When will you launch the Pocketsurfer3 in
India?

Currently Rupee-based plans have not been launched for online storage above
50GB, but these should be in place later this summer. The PocketSurfer3 will be
launched in India within the next 90 days.

What is your go-to-market strategy with the Ubisurfer and Pocketsurfer
series in India?

We will use infomercials to generate leads and direct sales agents to
capitalize on these leads. Additionally, we will also have an aggressive
e-commerce strategy, and partner with the organized retail channels to create
broad penetration.

John Jacob

johnj@cybermedia.co.in