TalkMail is mobile service currently in beta stage from Mobilus, a mobile marketing company, founded on the premise that mobile phone technology are hear to stay and is an essential communication tool.

This simple and free service lets user send recorded message from mobile to email recipient any where and anytime without using the mobile internet (GPRS/EDGE). It is available for all mobile operators in Pakistan.

How it works:

1. Call 2121 from your mobile phone
2. Press one (1) when you hear the recording
3. Record your talkMail (message)
4. You will then receive a SMS; reply to it with the recipient email address
5. and Send!

The intended receiver will receive an email with subject “talkMail from <number>”, attached with it will be a voice message as a .wav file.

Demo video:

You may use the service to send your voice to your loved ones abroad or even mail it your favorite RJs, VJs or TV Hosts.

Those who use kindly share your experience in comments.

Nokia has a loyal following in some of the largest mobile phone populations. With the recent pressure from competitors, Nokia has adopted a strategy of providing phones with improved connectivity and seamless applications for web, email, music, photos and maps which help with the daily lives of their users. Here’s a piece we received from Nokia about how its contributing to the big shift in how people connect with each others via phones.

The greatest shift is happening right now. It’s the shift of connecting the unconnected – and the opportunity to bring information, knowledge and services directly to more than six billion people on our planet – that will drive our future. Mobile phones have a profound impact on people’s lives – on the way they live, the way they work and the way they connect. Studies have revealed that on average, 10 mobile phones per 100 people increases GDP by 0.6%.

Socio-economically, the emerging markets in Middle East and Africa represent both the vast growth potential in many of the rural, unconnected areas and the more developed urban cities in many of these countries. Each day, 1.8 million people globally become mobile phone users, with the majority of these people being from countries like Nigeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

In emerging markets, mobile phones are being used in new and innovative ways. Such examples reflect the difference mobile innovation is making in the world. People from Pakistan’s rural areas are also using their mobile phones to earn their livelihood more efficiently. Gul Ghani Shah is currently working in Karachi as Security Guard. He uses his Nokia mobile phone to stay in contact with his family which lives in a small town of NWFP, Kohat. His mobile phone also helps him to urgently contact the Security Services Company in case of any threat or mishap.

Millions of people who are living in small towns especially those from the rural areas are now reshaping their lives by being more connected with one another through mobile devices. The innovation which was earlier considered a luxury and supposedly designed for the urban population is gradually becoming an integral part of people in rural areas.

As the leading mobile phones manufacturing company, Nokia is coming up with a series of innovative services that are designed not only for the urban population but also for people living in rural areas.

At a launch event held in the Egyptian capital Cairo, Nokia has unveiled the latest device in the company’s range focused on mapping and navigation, the Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition. The new arrival is GPS enabled and pre-loaded with Nokia Maps, making it the most affordable GPS device in Nokia’s broad portfolio. Due to the accessible and affordable pricing, the new device is expected to be popular in the developed and developing world alike. Pakistan is one of the fastest emerging markets for Nokia. As the major part of the country consists of rural areas, Nokia is committed to bring innovations in the lives of rural population by introducing meaningful technology at the most affordable prices.

“There is a clear trend to provide navigation, mapping and other location based services to mobile phones, and having mapping and location based services integrated in one single mobile device rather than buying two devices is a great benefit” says Alex Lambeek, Vice President, Mobile Phones, and Nokia. “Of course, when bringing this experience to new people, new prices and new countries, you need to make sure the experience is optimized and locally relevant. With Nokia Maps, Nokia provides the broadest navigation coverage of any competitor and we continue to add new countries all the time.”

At the same event, Nokia also showcased its recently announced range of new affordable and easy-to-use mobile phones: Nokia 1280, Nokia 1616, Nokia 1800, Nokia 2220 slide and Nokia 2690. Considering the most affordable prices of the devices, the new range is ideal for consumers the world over.

Nokia believes in offering a broad portfolio that caters to a wide variety of needs. This full device range will serve a broad spectrum of people, empower entrepreneurs and provide consumers with knowledge, entertainment and the ability to connect with friends and family. Services like Nokia Life Tools (not available in Pakistan) and Ovi Mail offer consumers a whole new range of opportunities, including getting their first digital identity, without the need for a PC. With the longstanding commitment to emerging markets, the new affordable devices will let people in rural areas access information to make informed decisions and will have a positive and lasting impact on their lives.

Nokia is Life Tools gives people in small towns and rural areas the ability to get a range of livelihood and life-improvement services on their mobile phones. They can subscribe to agriculture, education and entertainment information and content.

The agriculture service is available for commodities beginning with crops, livestock, horticulture and fisheries. The education service helps people learn English, general knowledge and with test preparation. And the entertainment service features a range of mobile entertainment content, including news, music, comics, astrology, movie news and reviews.

Nokia Life Tools is currently only commercially available in India and Indonesia but people from other developing countries will also benefit from this service soon.

The incredibly successful offering of Nokia, Ovi Mail is accessible to 75% of the world’s population that doesn’t have an email account. Ovi Mail allows you to sign up using a wide range of Nokia phones without having access to a PC, hence giving people their first digital identity on the web.

Phenomenal results of the service have been observed during the last one year. In less than a year, close to 4 million Ovi Mail accounts have been created. A significant portion of these are from Africa, with Kenya, Mozambique and Uganda being in the top ten markets.

Today, Ovi Mail can be set up on the web, or directly on more than 100 Nokia handsets, and is available in over 20 languages which shows the popularity of the service among the various cultures and nations.

According to a research, there are 4 billion people who do not have bank account. But there are already 4 billion mobile phones in the world. Meeting the needs of those people, Nokia announced Nokia Money, a mobile financial service earlier this year, this will offer basic financial management and payments from a mobile phone.

It will allow you to send money to another person, using just their mobile phone number, pay for goods, services and bills
Or recharge pre-paid SIM cards with great convenience.

Nokia Money will be rolled out in selected markets beginning in early 2010. While Nokia will be keen to cover all markets,
it is the emerging economies where Nokia may have the biggest potential.

Nokia has developed locally relevant solutions that consist of affordable mobile phones and applications, designed and built
from the ground up to meet the specific needs of the customers in emerging markets. These solutions will prove to be the gateway to information, entertainment and will help people connect with their loved ones. The new range of devices introduced by Nokia for the emerging markets is the continuation of materializing Nokia’s vision of providing latest technology at affordable prices. Nokia is capitalizing on mobile phone usage patterns which reflect that next technological innovation is most likely to come from emerging markets. It is in these markets that people are using basic mobile phone functionalities in most unique ways. For this reason, Nokia is bringing more opportunities to these high potential developing countries.

Interesting presentation which talks about why smart phones are so important for marketers, what are the major areas of growth and how to target this group of early adopters.

After a tumultuous year,  the Pakistan telecom industry is back on the road to recovery. Its good to see November 2009 show some healthy growth of about 800K new subscribers. Total cellular subscribers are 96.7 million (with ~285K for SCO and AJK). Here are the month-to-month gains with the most successful operator at the top:

1. Telenor: 304,178
2. Mobilink: 204,419
3. Warid: 134,010
4. Zong: 117,143
5. Ufone: 31,105

Telenor continues its successful streak and tops 22 million subscribers, an impressive performance in a tough year. Mobilink, with 30.5 million is certainly back in action and deserves a pat on the back for fighting back. Warid is doing a decent job with 18.7 million. Zong has picked up more subscribers than earlier months but struggles to go over 7 million. Ufone is seriously behind others – one has to wonder what happened to them.

So the cellular industry is still waiting for its century (Target: 100 million) , now expected in Feb/March 2010. At least we are back on track.

Before I discuss the unexplored potentials in mobile financial services (MFS) as mentioned in my last post on the same topic, let us analyze the services currently offered – mobile bill payments and mobile money transfer (domestic) by easypaisa. In this post we shall take a look at how are they different from similar traditional services, how are they seen in other developing countries and their growth and reach.

Comparison with traditional services

Lets talk about mobile bill payments first. The traditional way we all know goes through the banks and queues. If a person got to do it personally he/she needs to take sometime out for the task and this has to be done in the banking hours during the day. Whereas with the bill payment solution from easypaisa, he/she does not have to be at a bank in a queue and no special taking out time during the day. Pay wherever on the go at any nearest merchant, franchise or service center. Imagine missing out a payment during the bank hours on the last day before the bill deadline. Do it with easypaisa, it works anytime during the day till the merchants and franchises are open, so late hour bill payments are also possible and chances of missing out the deadline are greatly reduced.

The second mobile financial service offered is the money transfer. Traditionally it is being done through bank drafts, money orders and hundi/hawala systems. All having their pros and cons as listed below.

Whereas the mobile money transfer solution from easypaisa gives a secure branchless money transfer experience. One can avail this even without having a mobile phone. All a person needs is valid CNIC and the transaction takes just a second to be done without any form entries and queues at any nearest merchant, franchise or service center.

MFS in other developing countries

Mobile financial services are in its infancy in Pakistan and the concept is somewhat alien to the consumers as new products are being launched. However the social impact can be analyzed by looking at some of the mobile banking models that have been introduced in the developing world. Also, by understanding how these models have been adopted and practiced.

The uptake of m-banking/m-payments systems has been particularly strong in Philippines, where three million customers use systems offered by mobile operators Smart and Globe and also in Kenya, where nearly two million users registered with Safaricom M-Pesa system within a year of its nationwide rollout. In Pakistan, only within a month of easypaisa money transfer launch, the transactions that have been carried out has already exceeded a number of 50,000 and the mobile bill payment amount exceeding Rs.50 million . Customer feedback has been encouraging and merchants report a hefty walk in number on a daily basis.

Considering the kind of acceptance and reception of these services by the consumer so far, the impact is not extraordinary as yet but successful nonetheless.

MFS -  growth and reach

Needless to say, mobile financial services holds immense promise in Pakistan where banking infrastructure only caters to 12% adults, while 62% of the population uses a mobile phone. MFS will give branchless banking opportunity to the unbanked population of the country. The only limit of its reach is the mobile coverage, which is not the limit in Pakistan as we have coverage in every nook and corner of the country. Moreover, it will help to formalize cash flows that will not only bring new clientele but will also enable customization of services to suit client-specific needs.

Bill payments and money transfer is not what MFS is all about. Keep reading this place, I shall soon discuss on other potential big things mobile banking in Pakistan could take up. To stay updated and to get familiar with the concept of on mobile banking you may also join in the easypaisa facebook fanpage.

Here are the key points, taken from Morgan Stanley Mobile Internet report of Dec 15, 2009.

The mobile Internet is ramping faster than desktop Internet did, and we believe more users may connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within 5 years.

Five IP-based products / services are growing / converging and providing the underpinnings for dramatic growth in mobile Internet usage – 3G adoption + social networking + video + VoIP + impressive mobile devices.

Apple + Facebook platforms serving to raise the bar for how users connect / communicate – their respective ramps in user and developer engagement may be unprecedented.

The mobile Internet cycle, the 5th cycle in 50 years, is just starting. Winners in each cycle often create more market capitalization than in the last. New winners emerge, some incumbents survive – or thrive – while many past winners falter.

Decade-plus Internet usage / monetization ramps for mobile Internet in Japan plus desktop Internet in developed markets provide roadmaps for global ramp and monetization.

Massive mobile data growth is driving transitions for carriers and equipment providers.

Emerging markets have material potential for mobile Internet user growth. Low penetration of fixed-line telephone and already vibrant mobile value-added services mean that for many EM users and SMEs, the Internet will be mobile.

Mobile banking has undoubtedly taken the lead with the collaborative mobile banking model, where collaboration takes place between the carriers and the banks who can distribute the roles of the value chain amongst themselves. An example of this is ‘easypaisa‘ from Telenor Pakistan and Tameer Bank.

The fast changing dynamics will soon take the Mobile banking to new levels. Before coming to the topic, lets take a look at this Stakeholder Impact Diagram from the Mobey Forum.

This figure clearly indicate that they principal stakeholder of the mobile financial services (MFS) is the ‘customer’, with MNOs, banks and merchants playing the key role to provide MFS.

In Pakistani market, so far we have seen mobile bill payments and mobile money transfer (domestic) playing in action and attracting the consumers.

Exploring on more customer demands from MFS I came across a study report from Innovar, a financial service consultancy. The report reveals the following observations as obtained from survey involving more than 7000 consumers to aid MFS developments.

1. Consumers are most likely to use mobile financial services for six categories:
   • purchase of perishables
   • bill payments
   • unmanned vending payments
   • purchases on internet
   • pre-paid top up
   • person-to-person payments (money transfer)
2. Consumers see mobile payments is more suitable for remote payments than face-to-face retail payments
3. Consumers prefer to use credit, as a from of payment method for mobile payments
4. Consumers aged 20-40 appear to be most receptive to the mobile payment services
5. Consumers prefer to use existing handsets for mobile payments
6. Registration processes and user interface need to be simplified in order to encourage greater consumer adoption

The observations marked in red are what I see as the potential big things mobile banking in Pakistan could take up. I leave it for comments here.

While browsing the easypaisa facebook fanpage, I got a chance to see watch a TVC, by far the best one I have seen so far. It is a Telenor commercial about an eassy on “The Future” written a by school going girl in early days of telephone.

The futuristic thoughts in her essay are where the phones today are leading, from fixed to mobile and towards making everything mobile e.g. recently banking just got mobile and branch less with easypaisa.

Check this out and leave in comments, what you think about it.

Join the easypaisa fanpage for more information on how banking goes mobile.

Telenor Group’s Indian mobile operation, Uninor, today announced the launch of its mobile services in seven Indian telecom circles, making it the largest single day launch in the telecom history. On the first day of service Uninor will cover a footprint of close to 600 million people. Its interesting to note the organizational mode and the marketing strategy.

Marketing Strategy
Uninor will leverage from Telenor Group’s established marketing and design framework. As in several other markets where the Telenor Group is present, the brand follows Telenor’s brand strategy, combining the global position of the Telenor Group with a distinct local identity. Uninor’s tagline is “Ab mera number hai” or “My time is now”, set to target the young and ambitious individuals.

Organizational Model

Uninor has established an organizational model, utilizing the unique extend of infrastructure sharing and large degree of outsourcing services available in India. With extensive use of outsourcing, Uninor has created a fast, flexible and efficient model for future growth. Jon Fredrik Baksaas said:

The Indian organizational model represents a new and innovative approach to setting up a light and cost-efficient telecom operation. I believe that Uninor’s organizational approach will make them faster and more agile than a traditional mobile operator.

The Uninor launch also represents the largest ever distribution at launch by any operator in India. From the start, Uninor will be retailed at over 210,000 points of sale through close to 1000 exclusive distributors in the seven circles. Uninor services will also be available in 17 exclusive company owned shops and 50 exclusive franchisee shops.

The year 2009 have been very competitive for our cellular operators. New packages/offers, products, ads, counter ads, quizes, social media use etc. have taken competition to a new level. But of all their efforts the most important thing yet to be known is which cellular operator was customer’s favorite – YOUR Favorite?

Take sometime out to vote and leave comments on why you like your operator. The poll will be open till 31 December, 2009.

Vote and make your friends vote and lets find out the Favorite Cellular Operator – 2009.