Indian Mobile Services Will Reach Rupees 1.2 Trillion in 2013: Research Firm Gartner

The mobile services market in India would grow 8 percent to 1.2 trillion Rupees in 2013, according to the revelations of research firm Gartner. However, this would account for just 2 percent of the mobile services revenue of the world because the operators are struggling for increasing the profit margins.

The revenues from the mobile services were 1.1 trillion Rupees in 2012. Gartner revealed that the mobile connections in India would grow to 770 million in 2013, an increase of 11 percent from, 712 million connections in the year 2012.

However, the mobile market would keep facing the challenges in case the average revenue per unit (ARPU) does not grow.

Gartner Principal Research Analyst Shalini Verma explained that in case the present conditions in Indian telecom market did not change, the country would account for 12 percent of overall mobile connections, but merely 2 percent of overall mobile services revenue.

There are two main challenges which Indian telecom operators face and these are- growth of the profit margin as well as successful competition with service providers such as WatsApp and Facebook.

It is important to note that India has an increased demand for local mobile apps as well as mobile broadband. However, the rural expansion of these mobile services will add to the loss to the mobile service providers. The key, in such a case, for the operators is to insert themselves in value chain of video and social apps.