Google brings Business Photos to India

Summary: The program allows customers to walk through, explore, and take a closer look at a business premise, giving Indian businesses the ability to provide virtual tours inside the offices through interactive 360-degree imagery.

Google has officially launched its Business Photos initiative in India, allowing consumers to see inside a company's premise without actually stepping inside the location. The program allows local businesses to provide Google users a virtual tour inside the business through interactive 360-degree imagery. This imagery can be viewed on Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+ Local Pages.

The program is currently available in more than eight countries globally including United States, Australia, New Zealand, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Google Business Photos allows customers to walk through, explore, and take a closer look at a business premise. Also, businesses can embed these photos on their Web sites and social media channels using an embedded code from Google Maps.

Commenting on the value for business owners, Shailesh Nalawadi, Google's product manager of Geo, said: "For the businesses, this provides an opportunity to visually present their product and services. For example, before visiting a store to purchase an electronic device, consumers can use business photos to evaluate and view the selections offered by various retailers."

Hard Rock Cafe in an upscale pub in Pune, India's seventh largest metropolis, has its imagery on Google Maps as part of the pilot program. A customer can check out the décor, seating, and ambience before planning an evening out at the pub.

Hard Rock Cafe in Pune, India, on Google Maps

To get Google Business Photos, business owners can hire one of Google's certified Trusted Agency Photographers including Indiacom, Jindal RH Interactive, Carbon Tree, and Vox360, to capture the interiors of their premises and displays on the storefront, like business hours, rating details, credit cards accepted, and posted menus. Trusted Agency photographers are independent contractors who have been trained and certified by Google to produce high quality panoramic images. 

As a business owner, though, one can also upload own photographs to Google+ Local. 

Busienss Photos can help customers get a better sense of what a business has to offer and what sets it apart from others.

Topics: Emerging Tech, Google, India

Abhishek Baxi is an independent digital consultant and a freelance technology columnist based in India. He writes on consumer technology and trends for several leading print and online publications.

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Photography spurs online business growth in India

Summary: Rise of digital photography and opportunities around such content have led to an increase in associated online services in India. The cost and efficiency advantage beats traditional photo studios and labs hands down.

Interest in photography drives associated online business in India. (Credit: Abhishek Baxi)

The rise of digital photography and opportunities around related content has led to an increase in both amateur and professional photographers in India.

While there are several online businesses in the country catering to amateur photographers, the largely unorganized service segment of professional photography is now changing the way they do business--online.

Today, professional photographers run their own Web site, market themselves on social media, provide both electronic and printed products to clients, as well as spend a lot of time doing post-production work on images. While the opportunities have widened, so has the scope of ancillary work.

One example is Canvera. Founded in 2007, the online photography company provides mass customized printed products and recently launched (in beta) Vivyo, an e-commerce offering for professional photographers. I met Peeyush Rai, the co-founder and CTO of Canvera, at the Consumer Electronic Imaging Fair 2013 in New Delhi and he explained how a photographer can set up his Web site in as little as 15 minutes, without having to worry about the technical aspects of Web site designing, managing images, and ensuring privacy and security of client photos. Essentially, Vivyo acts as a platform to showcase and market a photographer's portfolio, and offer photos and printed products on sale.

For consumers like Harpreet Singh, a technology journalist at ToolsJournal.com and photography enthusiast, ordering prints online is painless, quick, and saves a whole lot of energy. "Going to an offline store involves driving to one, waiting for your turn, and the results can never be consistent," Harpreet said. "Another thing I absolutely love is customization. You get to choose the paper, quality, size and everything [else]. You could do this with offline stores as well but the process is really painful, trust me."

Several services like iTasveer, ZoomIn, and Snapfish not only offer photo prints but also custom-printed products like shirts and coffee mugs. The cost and efficiency advantage beats the traditional photo studios and labs hands down.

Topics: E-Commerce, India, Tech Industry

Abhishek Baxi is an independent digital consultant and a freelance technology columnist based in India. He writes on consumer technology and trends for several leading print and online publications.

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E-commerce comes of age in India

For India's e-commerce industry, the times they are a-changin'. While the e-commerce penetration is low compared to the United States and several European markets, it is growing at a much faster rate with a large number of new entrants.

Most industry analysts agree that the growth is at an inflection point. India's e-commerce market was worth about US$2.5 billion in 2009, US$6.3 billion in 2011, and $14 billion in 2012. The country has close to 10 million online shoppers and this number is growing at an estimated 30 percent.

"With approximately 8 million Indians shopping online in 2012, the online shopping industry in India is growing rapidly and will continue to see exponential growth," said Rajan Anandan, vice president and managing director of Google India. "By looking at the trends in 2012, we expect 2013 to be a strong growth year for players who're focused on growing categories like apparels and accessories, and niche product categories like baby products, home furnishings, and health nutrition. We expect the growth to come from outside of the top eight metros."

While there have been some obvious deterrents of shopping online like the inability to touch and try the goods before purchasing, concerns over receiving faulty products, and security concerns in posting personal and financial details online, there are unique aspects of online shopping in India.

For example, cash-on-delivery is the most preferred payment method. India has a vibrant cash economy and as a result, 80 percent of e-commerce transactions in the country are cash-on-delivery. Also, direct imports constitute a large component of online sales. There is huge demand for international consumer products that either are not available in India or are expensive on retail shelves.

On the other hand, online shoppers have also been positive toward global trends. Online classified sites like eBay and local players--OLX and Quikr--see more consumers buying and selling second-hand goods. Also, major e-commerce players like Infibeam and Tradus, and Flipkart soon, are also adopting the online marketplace model.

"Looking at the online shopping experience holistically, streamlining the entire process is what led to the rise of e-commerce in India," explained Amod Malviya, senior vice president and head of engineering at Flipkart. "For example, factors like cash-on-delivery, and increased automation of supply chain and logistics have gone a long way in addressing concerns like lack of credit card penetration and bottlenecks in last-mile deliveries."

"Increased application of technology in both backend and frontend processes have improved the browsing experience, and provided consumers with greater transparency when it came to the order process and so on," Amod added.

He breaks down a visitor's journey in three phases. "One, find and discover the product of need. Two, decide. And three, transact. Of these three, in our case, the transaction step has the least dropoffs, primarily limited to the payment gateway's success rates. Cash-on-delivery is a great help here.

"Factors that impact the customer during the decision phase are many, and also vary from category to category. Availability and pricing usually play a significant role. Images of the product have a significant role for some categories. Lastly, richness of the information about the product as well as product reviews have a noticeable role to play."

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Microsoft: Office 365 sees growing adoption in India

Summary: Indian firms considering a move to the cloud are choosing the Microsoft service over rival Google Apps. Adoption is not only strong among enterprise customers, a majority are also small and midsize businesses.

According to Microsoft, Office 365 is on track to become one of the fastest growing offers in the vendor's history. The software suite offers Exchange, SharePoint and Lync, coupled with Office applications as a cloud service. The enterprise-grade service is gaining good ground four times faster as compared to its predecessor Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) in India. 

Ramkumar Pichai, general manager of Microsoft India's Office division,  informed me that there is strong appetite in the market, even among the smallest businesses, to access powerful productivity and collaboration tools. "Adoption is not only strong among enterprise customers with companies like Toyota, Tata Elxsi, Infiniti Retail, Unilog and Dabur, a majority of customers are small to midsize businesses (SMBs) with fewer than 1,000 employees," Pichai said.

The per-user-per-month subscription model provides great value for SMBs, many of which do not have an IT infrastructure in place. Office 365 offers a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee with a financially backed SLA (service level agreement). The service offerings range from US$2 to $24 per user per month, depending on the options the customer wants. Microsoft recently announced SMBs can avail a 90-day free trial offer with up to 10 users through the month of February. In addition, SMBs that purchase and activate a copy of Microsoft Office Home & Business 2010 or Professional 2010, will receive a 90-day trial of Office 365 Small Business Premium for up to five users.

Small businesses considering a move to the cloud are increasingly choosing the Microsoft service over rival Google Apps. For businesses that are more used to mail messaging, Web conferencing, and collaboration, Office 365 is probably the more comprehensive choice. Several organizations like GAVS Technologies, SIRO Clinpharm, and FICCI have chosen Office 365 after evaluating Office 365 and Google Apps.

FICCI, for example, evaluated hosted solutions from Google, IBM and Microsoft through an in-depth market survey and feasibility study, and found the best fit in Microsoft Office 365. The apex business organization completely migrated to the cloud across its domestic as well as international offices. Rajiv Mishra, FICCI's additional director and head of IT, elaborated on the decision: "We looked for ways to deliver cloud on our terms along with enterprise-class security, thereby, reducing capex. Office 365 emerged a better fit with our overall IT strategy as it is much more integrated and advanced than Google Apps, and offers more of the functionality our employees need. Combined with the extended functionality in Lync Online, Office 365 offers much more enterprise value than Google."

For Microsoft, there have been customer wins like Visaka Industries and Strateology which have moved from Google Apps to Office 365. Strateology, for one, has been using Office 365 since May 2010 as a beta and observing a significant benefit and boost in team productivity and project efficiency. It subscribed to the production version when it was launched.

Krishna Moorthi, president of IT at Visaka Industries, said: "The move to Office 365 has been remarkable so far as it brings cloud versions of Microsoft's familiar Office productivity solutions, enabling our employees to start using the services immediately. We were also able to switch our employees from Google Apps to Office 365 services in a short span of time, with no downtime. Microsoft Office 365 clearly outshines Google Apps not only in ease of use but also in terms of reliability and manageability."

Recently, India's leading telecom player Bharti Airtel, tied up with Microsoft to deliver Office 365 business productivity solutions to SMBs by provisioning the service through its cloud platform. Airtel will provide SMBs with access to Microsoft Office 365 along with their DSL and Internet leased line services.

Topics: Software, Cloud, Microsoft, India, SMBs

Abhishek Baxi is an independent digital consultant and a freelance technology columnist based in India. He writes on consumer technology and trends for several leading print and online publications.

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India fastest growing SMB market for Google AdWords

Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) in India are using the Internet as a medium to generate more qualified leads and sales, and Google AdWords claims to deliver that value to businesses with their search engine advertising platform.

Google AdWords delivers relevant advertisements when someone is looking for a product or service on Google Search--making the ad more useful and relevant. The business only pays when someone clicks on the ad.

"Facebook on the other hand is a display advertising solution and serves a different kind of marketing need," asserted Sandeep Menon, head of marketing at Google India.

According to Menon, Google has been witnessing triple digit growth in terms of advertising revenues from SMBs in India. In the last two years, Google India has raced ahead to become the fastest growing SMB market for Google globally.

"With an estimated 47 million SMEs (small and midsize enterprises) in the country--India is a strategic market for Google. We have made significant investments in localizing our market outreach to tap the various clusters of SMEs. In the last year alone, we have significantly ramped up the efforts to maximize our reach and educate the Indian SME on the benefits of online advertising."

Google India has been ramping up its efforts to educate SMEs about the power of digital advertising and evangelize the Google AdWords platform.

It has now 10 Premier SME Partners in India and is aiming to have a sales workforce of over 10,000 people through this program in next year. The Google Engage program now has over 3,000 partners spread across 165 cities in India. Also, Google India has set up dedicated call centers who provide local language support in six Indian languages to SMEs who want to get online and start their campaigns.

Advertisement for Google AdWords.

The advertising potential of Indian SMBs has interested Google for quite a while.

In the past, Google has taken steps to help SMBs in India to gain from the digital economy by helping them establish online presence for free through their "India Get Your Business Online" campaign. In the last year and a half, they've developed and published free websites for over 175,000 SMBs from over 8,000 Indian cities.

Obviously, this wasn't a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) exercise but an organized program to bring physical or offline businesses to Web adding them to the pool of potential digital advertisers.

Kathana Jewelers, a hybrid store making jewelry buying a visually appealing and hassle free experience for their consumers, started using AdWords with a modest budget of INR 20,000 (US$370) per month in 2010 and now have raised it to over INR 100,000. The revenue scaled phenomenally and today, AdWords accounts for 100 percent of their advertising budget.

"AdWords worked great for our jewelry store and it was the best strategy that we invested in," said Aditya Gupta, director of marketing at Kathana Jewelers.

While Google AdWords face stiff competition from Facebook Marketing solutions for the digital budgets in Indian SMBs, the huge market would keep the two companies, and other players, satiated. For businesses, digital advertising is helping them to effectively gain customer base and impact the top line with enhanced revenues in the long run.

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AmEx launches virtual wallet for online buyers in India

According to Google India, around 8 million Indians shopped online in 2012 and the U.S. Internet giant in December partnered several Indian shopping sites for "Cyber Monday".

In the year 2011 to 2012, consumer interest in online shopping in India grew 128 percent compared to only 40 percent the previous year. According to Forrester, the e-commerce market here is set to grow the fastest within the Asia-Pacific region between 2012 and 16.

While the growth of e-commerce in the country is an encouraging story, it is not without hiccups. Indian consumers prefer cash-on-delivery due to security concerns about using credit cards online. Another awkward roadblock is the high number of transactions that get dropped off due to users not physically having their cards on-hand. Several merchants store credit card details to ease future payments, but the use is restricted to individual merchants.

And this is a hole American Express (AmEx) India's new product is aiming to plug. ezeClick provides AmEx card members an easy and fast method to complete their online purchase, by allowing them to prefill customer data such as card number, expiry date, four-digit card identification number, and postal code which will be stored in the ezeClick virtual wallet for future use.

Offered free to all AmEx card members, the service allows customers not to have to refer to their plastic card for future online transactions. The transaction process is fast, safe and secure. Certified by Verisign, the service uses SSL to encrypt personal information. eZeClick also sends a one-time password (OTP) for every transaction to the registered mobile or e-mail ID in accordance with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations. Not just the customers, the service also addresses fears merchants have about any potential fraud as card data is not entered and stored on their servers.

When I spoke to Sanjay Rishi, president of AmEx India, he explained the benefits for partner merchants: "The average online transaction size of AmEx card members is more than three times the size of other online transactions. The power of their superior spend, coupled with faster checkouts and higher engagement, means more business for merchants."

The next-generation virtual wallet simplifies the checkout process and claims to drive more online shopping. Since no card details need to be entered at the time of transaction, the eZeClick service helps merchants reduce the number of transaction declines, prevents accidental dropoffs, and reduces the chances of cart abandonment. Interestingly, it also enables frequent and higher value transactions on impulse.

According to Vibha Bajaj, head of public affairs and communications at AmEx India, the ezeClick offering is already live across some 40 leading online merchants in India, covering travel, retail, utilities, apparels, and entertainment like eBay, MakeMytrip, BookMyShow, Infibeam, Vodafone, Idea, Tata Sky, and Spicejet, among others. "More, including Flipkart, are coming very soon," Vibha assured.  

Disclosure: Abhishek Baxi had been a digital consultant to American Express India in some of the company's previous online campaigns.

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Adobe Creative Cloud for SMBs launches in India

Adobe Systems has launched its Adobe Creative Cloud for India's small and midsized businesses (SMBs), with the enterprise edition to follow in the next few months.

Released last Friday, the Adobe Creative Cloud is a membership-based service that provides users with unlimited access to all Creative Suite desktop applications, plus other applications including Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe Muse, Adobe Edge, Adobe Acrobat.

The service is, of course, a radical new way in which Adobe would offer its industry-leading tools and services. It is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) shift that another software vendor, Microsoft, went through recently with its Office 365 product.

Adobe Creative Cloud was launched in six markets in May last year and had successfully garnered over a million users as of end-2012.

Subscribers will get access to Adobe's latest products, services, features and workflows as soon as they are available. This model enables members to automatically receive updates without having to wait months for the next product release cycle. With Adobe Creative Cloud membership, users also have access to publishing services to deliver apps and Web sites, cloud storage, and the ability to sync to any device.

Adobe Creative Cloud and its subscription model should entice more SMBs to purchase the official software, instead of relying on pirated ones.

Speaking at the India launch, Umang Bedi, managing director for South Asia at Adobe, said that since its release in the U.S. in April 2012, the creative sector has responded enthusiastically.

"Our goal is to now make Creative Cloud the ultimate hub for creative professionals in India, where they can access the world's best tools and store and collaborate across their workplace and, ultimately, showcase their creations. We are excited by the immense potential this holds for a country like India."

"With the easy availability of our products through the Creative Cloud and the attractive price points, we do see a significant impact on the piracy rate of our products," Umang noted when quizzed in a separate interview before the launch.

I also spoke to the CEO of a Delhi-based Web development studio, who on condition of anonymity, confessed using pirated Adobe tools in his company.

"Adobe Creative Cloud would definitely get my money. I can now pay off monthly subscription instead of the humongous cost upfront for multiple licenses," he shared.

I reckon Adobe's focus on SMBs with this launch and attractive pricing would definitely help it to convert many such customers.

At the moment, Adobe has launched Creative Cloud for Teams (CCT), where each user gets 100 gigabyte (GB) of cloud storage. While the service is available via Adobe resellers currently, it would also be available through the Adobe Store in the next few weeks.

Adobe Creative Cloud for Teams is tailored for SMBs as it offers all the features in Creative Cloud, plus administrative tools, increased storage capacity, and expert services. It includes tools for easy management of virtual workgroups, expert support services, centralized administration and billing, and efficient license management. The service allows access to both Mac OS and Windows versions of the desktop applications, and the ability to install them on your primary computer and one backup computer. It also integrates with Adobe's tablet applications like Photoshop Touch.

The offering is available at approximately INR 48,480 (US$894.35) per user for a one-year plan through Adobe's network of resellers. However, customers can subscribe at the special introductory price of INR 34,620 (US$638.66) per user for a one-year plan till April 30, 2013.

Sanchit Vir Gogia, principal analyst at IDC India, said: "Adobe's Creative Cloud brings with it great promises for the Indian market, where the product has traditionally been positioned as a premium offering. With its subscription-based pricing model, Creative Cloud brings down the total cost of ownership for creative professionals and organizations substantially.

"It also takes away the headache from organizations who want to stay updated to current versions of creative tools and leverage product innovation as and when they are introduced. Both these factors will likely change the dynamics in favor of Adobe India in time to come, as it positions the offering for mass adoption."

Creative Cloud for Individuals with 20GB storage would also be available via the online store in the same timeframe, while the Creative Cloud for Enterprise would be available in the second half of the year globally, including India.

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Vodafone, ICICI Bank India launch M-Pesa mobile wallet

Vodafone India and ICICI Bank India have rolled out M-Pesa, bringing the mobile money transfer and payment service to the local market.

Initially announced in November with Vodafone India's subsidiary, Mobile Commerce Solutions Limited (MCSL) and ICICI Bank, the service allows users to transfer money to any mobile phone in India and also remit money to any bank account in India. Within India, the service is initially rolled out in Bihar, Kolkata, and West Bengal, with over 8,300 authorized agents and will soon be rolled out nationwide in phases. 

Vodafone offers M-Pesa globally in different regions via partnerships with mobile carriers and leading banks.

The service is available only to Vodafone customers, who can sign up for the service by visiting an M-Pesa agent outlet to fill in a form and providing address verification and photo identification. A minimum deposit is required to open the M-Pesa account.

Upon registration, Vodafone India will activate the MCSL mobile wallet for the customer, so it can be used as a closed wallet for transactions such as cash deposits, money transfers to any bank account, and to another M-Pesa customer. The service can also be used to top up credit on mobile phones and make payments, along with making payments for DTH (direct-to-home) services and utility bills. 

According to the ICICI Bank's M-Pesa Web site, customers are required to make an initial minimum deposit of 200 rupees (US$3.71), of which 100 rupees (US$1.85) is deducted as a one-time account activation fee and the remaining balance is credited to the account balance. The maximum daily limit for funds transfer is 5,000 rupees (US$92.6) a day and the maximum daily limit for prepaid mobile credit topup is 2,500 rupees (US$46.3).

M-Pesa mobile wallets can have a maximum account balance of 10,000 rupees (US$185.3), while Mobile Wallet and Mobile Money accounts can have a maximum account balance of 50,000 rupees (US$926.6).

M-Pesa is a great service to finally introduce and implement in India as many users in rural India don't have easy access to banks. They have to go to great lengths and distances for these services and to make these transactions. Furthermore, having the ability to top up your phone credit on-the-go, and for someone else, is also another great feature as not all vendors have top-up facilities for all mobile phone operators in India. 

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iYogi launches in India for SMBs, consumers

iYogi, the global provider of tech support, has launched its service for both SMBs (small and midsize businesses) and consumers in India, touting it as a cost-effective alternative to incident based services.

iYogi provides subscription-based remote and onsite support for a variety of computing devices and software.

According to Access Markets International Partners (AMI Partners), the SMB market in India is estimated at INR 100 billion (US$1.83 billion) across more than 4 million businesses in India.

"We've witnessed rapid growth since our inception and plan to maintain this by focusing on three areas--geographic expansion, focus on SMB, and service innovation to capitalize on the growth in mobility," said Uday Challu, CEO and co-founder of iYogi, at the launch.

"The tech support opportunity in India is exploding based on the rapid adoption of technology among consumers and businesses, their growing technology dependency, and the increasing complexity created by a heterogeneous device environment," he added.

iYogi's Business NonStop service is aimed at the SMB market and comprises the Pro, Pro Plus, and Pro Premium subscription plans. Under these plans, organizations will get technical support starting from INR 249 (US$4.56) per month. Business NonStop Pro Plus is targeted for organizations with 5 to 25 PCs, while Pro Premium is for organizations with more than 25 PCs.

The company has also introduced service plans for consumers and wants to be a one-stop service provider for all support needs of a digital home. "The rapid proliferation of devices including computers, smartphones and tablets, and the emerging digital lifestyle of urban users is a growing opportunity in India," said Vishal Dhar, co-founder and president of marketing for iYogi. "The consumer tech support market is underserved, and the opportunity is large and glaring."

The global on-demand services vendor provides tech support for consumers and businesses in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and GCC states. It currently deploys over 5,000 "Tech Experts" serving more than 2 million users across 10 countries. Since its launch, the company has managed more than 10 million service requests, according to iYogi.

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Mobile messaging in India evolves beyond WhatsApp

Summary: While WhatsApp may be the dominant cross-platform mobile messaging service, several similar services like Hike and eBuddy-XMS are looking to find a foothold in the crowded market space.

While WhatsApp may be the dominant cross-platform mobile messaging service around the world, several similar services like Hike and XMS are looking to find a foothold in the crowded market space. And in India, they might have a good case.

26-year-old Kavin Bharti Mittal, who heads strategy and new product development at Bharti SoftBank, insists it makes good sense. Hike is a BSB product. Kavin believes there is a huge scope for products like Hike to gain users in emerging markets like India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Africa. "The idea is to think big, start small," he said.

India has over 300 million SMS users. While SMS prices have hit rock bottom, the channel is not without issues. The low prices have made telemarketers abuse the channel and bring along the annoyance of spam. Also, SMSs lack the richness of instant messaging, both in content and exchange.

However, Kavin's banking on a key differentiator in mobile messaging. Unlike most instant messaging apps, Hike is not closed to only those who have the app or people with smartphones and data plans. You could IM a friend, regardless of whether the friend is on Hike or not.

XMS, another product in this category, has a long legacy though. Starting as e-Messenger in 2003, it was the world's first, independent, Web browser-based IM service. In 2011, as eBuddy-XMS, the service made the transition from Web to mobile-only. Again, XMS also extends the service with a unique proposition--Web XMS. The ancillary service allows users to manage their mobile messages from any computer using the browser.

André Sommer, head of marketing and advertising at XMS, told me in a Skype chat that the Dutch company is looking to build a strong base among youth in India and Southeast Asia. Distribution is a key factor in adoption and these companies will look to partner with operators and OEMs. "Pre-bundling can make or break an app," Kavin said.

Topics: Apps, Mobility, India

Abhishek Baxi is an independent digital consultant and a freelance technology columnist based in India. He writes on consumer technology and trends for several leading print and online publications.

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The three biggest problems facing IT administrators today are long response times of the application/database, application quality shortfalls and application downtime. Download this whitepaper and read more about it.

Gain tremendous advantages from Oracle's integrated hardware and software stack. Find out how Oracle's optimized storage enables business transformation while saving up to 40% on storage costs and lowering risk for deployments.

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India rising as mobile app superpower

Summary: Mobile apps are forming an important element of consumer mobile behavior. World over, apps are driving the mobile ecosystem and India is leading this app-ification change.

According to an infographic from Vserv.mobi, "The Rise of India as an App Superpower", India is one of the biggest consumer and publisher of mobile apps across mobile platforms.

(credit: Vserv.mobi)

 Several factors have led to the growth of the ecosystem and India's high ranking across app stores:

Growing mobile internet penetration (Average mobile data plan India has also seen a rise in app developer culture, a shift from the traditional services-based market, and that has been the key underlying driver for the rapid growth as a major app destination. For example, the second biggest Android User Group in the world is from India. Last year, Microsoft created a Guinness World Record for the largest app development marathon with over 2,500 developers at the Windows 8 AppFest in Bangalore, popularly referred to as the Silicon Valley of India.

Several independent developers and app development studios in the country have been developing mobile apps not just for clients (online services and content portals) and brands (marketing content and companion apps), but also as independent products. While most Indian apps are free, the developers aim to earn from in-app advertising and paid upgrades. Also, these apps serve as a showcase of their portfolio to acquire clients.

(credit: Vserv.mobi)

From adding new distribution channels to redefining product experience, mobile apps are forming an important element of consumer mobile behavior. World over, apps are driving the mobile ecosystem and India is leading this app-ification change.

Topics: Apps, Mobility, India

Abhishek Baxi is an independent digital consultant and a freelance technology columnist based in India. He writes on consumer technology and trends for several leading print and online publications.

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