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Android bundling a sure bet for Telkomsel
PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel), said the majority of its bundling programs were with Android smartphones owing to the extensive price range of these devices
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T Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel), said the majority of its bundling programs were with Android smartphones owing to the extensive price range of these devices.
The popularity of Android smartphones enabled the operator to acquire subscribers across various segments.
'Around 70 percent of devices we bundle are Android-run,' Telkomsel general manager for device bundling and customization strategy, Arief Pradetya, said.
'The remaining percentage consists of devices that run on other platforms including BlackBerry, iOS and Windows,' he added.
He further said the leading mobile phone operator's experience reflected the condition of the device market at large, which was crowded with a 'high volume of Android smartphones'.
Based on data from the International Data Corporation (IDC), 53 percent of the mobile operating system market in Indonesia in 2013 would belong to Android and 35 percent would be held by BlackBerry. Windows is expected to have a 9 percent share and iOS 3 percent.
Arief further said that the wide price range of smartphones running Android aided the mobile operator to penetrate various market segments. Low-priced local brands made up nearly half of the Android smartphones the mobile operator bundled with.
'Approximately 70 percent of the smartphones we bundle with cost downward of Rp 3 million and this facilitates us to enter the market with our low-cost third generation [3G] connection,' he noted, 'iOS, for example, is only available on pricey iPhones,' Arief said.
'Whereas Nokia is the only major adopter of the Windows mobile platform so volume wise, there are not as many Windows devices to bundle with,' he added.
However, he pointed out that the number of Windows phones on its network had recently outdone the other platforms in terms of growth as Nokia started to launch more affordable versions of the Lumia.
Nokia introduced the Nokia Lumia 520, a Windows phone with a price tag of only around Rp 1.8 million (US$156.60).
'The number of Windows phone on our networks grew 137 percent between January and August. Currently, we have 125,000 subscribers using Windows phone,' he said.
In the same period, the number of Android users on Telkomsel's network grew 111 percent to 4 million subscriptions while the number of iOS users hit 450,000.
He further said that there were roughly 9 million BlackBerry users on its networks and BlackBerry subscriptions were still growing by 'double digits'.
