Mobile Phones in Asia

That is the story of the present. No other consumer product has impacted the lives of people as much as mobile phones at least in the past 25 years. I read a statistic that it is the single most successful consumer durable in the world with about 800 million units sold. And to think it barely existed 10 years ago!!

The big two markets are clearly China and India - while China is already the biggest cell phone market worldwide, India is growing at a torrid pace as well - as many as 2 million phones per month are being added!!

Affordability is of course the key and the MO's in these markets have come up with some really attractive plans starting as low as $5 USD per month! The expectation is that this year mobile phones will surpass land line phones in India.

Another interesting aspect - I saw a kiosk in Shanghai airport where you could charge your cell phone for 5 mins at the cost of 1 RMB (approx 12 cents). This kiosk had cables to suit all kinds of phones - certainly very useful. I saw a similar kiosk in Bangalore as well (also at the Airport I think) 

Perhaps the upgradation path in these countries is cell phones to smart phones to PC's and not the other way round as has happened in the US.

Anyway, it is a tremendously exciting part of the world now.