Cell phone technology develops really fast, just like geometrical progression. Watching a Hollywood movie, you will most likely see the actors holding dated cell phones while the film was made maybe only a few months ago.
That's right, Asians live in the most technology savvy nations. Not only do we change our cell phones once every few months, we also make the most out of all of the facilities offered by producers and providers.
There is great dependency on cell phones because they are more than a communication tool, thanks to the many features offered by sophisticated cell phones. Thanks to the music, games, SMS and MMS, and their connectivity to the Internet, most Indonesians make their phone a reflection of their personality.
There are currently two trendsetters in smart phones - the BlackBerry and iPhone. If others do not follow suit and use similar technology, their customers will abandon them.
The BlackBerry was first introduced in 1997 by Research In Motion (RIM), a Canadian company. Its capability to send information through wireless data network through the cell phone company's service is amazing.
The BlackBerry was introduced to Indonesia in December 2004 by an operator, Indosat, and a company, Starhub. Starhub is a manifestation of RIM, which is BlackBerry's main partner. In Indonesia, Starhub deals with any technical services regarding BlackBerry installation through Indosat. The BlackBerry market was later enhanced with the involvement of two other major operators in the country, namely Excelcom and Telkomsel.
Excelcom provides two service options, namely BlackBerry Internet Service and BlackBerry Enterprise Server+ (BES+). BES+ is the joint service of BES and BIS, and is aimed at corporate clients, allowing them to receive and send corporate emails based on Microsoft Exchange, Novel Wise, Lotus Domino and 10 POP3/IMAP-based email accounts through mobile phones.
Telkomsel only has the BlackBerry Enterprise Server as a part of its corporate services.
Initially, the BlackBerry service was available through the BlackBerry smart phone only. As time passed, the three operators provided BlackBerry Connect service, which gives customers access to BlackBerry Internet Solution through other smart phones like Nokia (N-9500, N-9300, N-9300i, E61, E71), Sony Ericsson P910i, M600i, Palm Treo and Dopod.
As for iPhone, it is considered the best gadget of the century. Not only does it have an attractive design, it also has many features, including the whole screen, which astonishes many people. The evolution of the gadget produced by Apple continues, and it is expected that in 2010 Apple will launch the newest generation of iPhone, which might use 4G or Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.
The two gadgets, BlackBerry and iPhone, have inspired many other vendors. The QWERTY keypad of the BlackBerry, for instance, inspired other recently launched cell phones. In 2010, both branded cell phones and those made in China will compete to produce such phones.
Interestingly, QWERTY cell phones no longer carry a high price tag. The prices of these products will significantly drop and competition will be tighter. The term QWERTY comes from a regular keyboard, on which the first line of letters starts with QWERTY.
In the premium segment, it is expected that BlackBerry, Nokia and a number of branded phones will compete tightly. Nokia Indonesia has launched one of its major QWERTY phones, the Nokia E72. Retailing for less than Rp 5 million, it seems the E72 will become a main competitor to the BlackBerry Onyx, which retails for about Rp 6 million.
Nokia Indonesia is optimistic the E72 will repeat the success of its predecessors, the E66 and the E71. On the global market, 15 million of the two cell phones could be sold. In Indonesia, both the E66 and the E71 sell like hot cakes.
Nokia is now actually relying on the hi-end N97, which costs about Rp 9 million. It is like a mobile computer, with features similar to those of a personal computer, including Internet access.
The Nokia N97 features provide ease for various Internet services. For example, the widget, which can show updated information of certain sites like Facebook, Twitter, Friendster and news sites.
What's clear is that QWERTY phones are not solely for the premium group. The lower group also needs similar cell phones, along with the popularity of the global social network like Facebook, Twitter or eBuddy and the mushrooming instant messenger.
"Better access to Facebook and communication using instant messenger increases the need for QWERTY cell phones," said e-Touch Mobile Indonesia vice president Hendra Gouw.
A premium lifestyle, being active in the virtual world's social networking, does not always require a premium gadget. At least it applies to what PT inTouch Innovate Indonesia offers. A member of Skybee, it has introduced mobinity.net (mobile community network), a social network (client) application that allows cell phone users to improve the capacity of their phones to make them equal to the BlackBerry at a much lower price.
So far, the need of the lower class for BlackBerry type products is being met with more low-end products at prices of between Rp 750,000 and Rp 1 million.
At a glance they look like the BlackBerry, and have the ability to access social networks like Facebook and Yahoo Messenger. In fact, what these cell phones offer is no more than a launcher solution to access various services through a browser with limited capability.
In order to meet the need of the middle-lower class who have affordable QWERTY cell phones that work like the BlackBerry, PT inTouch Innovate Indonesia has introduced Mobinity, a social network (client) application with capabilities like the BlackBerry and complete with special APN (access point name) that allows the operator to provide an unlimited data package. Therefore, users can fully enjoy a service similar to that of BlackBerry at affordable weekly or monthly fees.
People who use QWERTY cell phones can get a BB (Bentuk Beken, popular shape) for less than Rp 1 million, and a BB (Bener Berguna, really useful) service without BB (Beben Berat, heavy cost). For just Rp 500/day, they can fully enjoy the service.
Mobinity is an on device portal application that is especially designed to provide various services for the mobile community, covering mobiFriends, like client for Facebook, Twitter; mobiChat, like client for Yahoo!Messenger; mobiNews, like client for access to full news (not RSS) complete with photos from Detik.com, Kompas, Republika, The Jakarta Post, Seleb-TV, etc.
Besides providing sophisticated service, Mobinity also uses special APN to access mobile Internet provided by cellular operators. Therefore, users can have access to an unlimited data package to access certain domains.
The current Mobinity service at the Symbian S60 and Java-MIDP-2 platform targets both existing and new users.
Affordable smartphones: A woman uses a BlackBerry, which can access social network sites like Facebook. Following the success of BlackBerry and iPhone, more cell phone vendors produce other relatively affordable smart phones that have QWERTY keypads.
