Vodafone India Unwraps App Store
By Arnab, Gaea News NetworkSunday, March 14, 2010
NEW DELHI, INDIA (GaeaTimes.com)- With a number of mobile service operators starting their service in the Indian market, old time players like Airtel and Vodafone are trying to retain the existing users by offering various types of add on services with their packages. After much speculation and waiting, leading mobile service operator Vodafone Essar has unveiled its application store service for the subscribers. Hence the subscribers of Vodafone can turn their existing phone into a Smartphone quite easily. They will be able to access a plethora of mobile applications across segments like Finance, sports, entertainment and Social Networking etc.
Before Vodafone India, other operators like Reliance and Airtel unveiled their own App store service to woo the users. The users of data enabled handsets will be able to access this service. To activate the service, a user needs to send a message APP to a toll free number 111. As per the claim of Vodafone, around 15% applications of the App store will be offered for free. Even the services that are not free come with a price tag of INR 5 to INR 30.
Kumar Ramanathan, Vodafone Essar’s Chief Marketing Officer said that it will offer the customers of the company easier access to information and a host of useful services. The way mobile internet usage is growing in India, such apps are becoming the need of the time, according to him. Vodafone India hopes to tap the young user base with the App store who need to use data most of the times.
