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2013: The year of innovation

The past year saw some highs and more than a few low points within Pakistan’s telecom sector, as the cellular industry in particular faced various restrictions in the name of national security. Nonetheless, 2013 promises to be an interesting year – and not just because of the impending 3G auction. To date, the telecom industry’s emphasis has been on basic voice and data services.

However, increased market saturation, continuous innovation and transformation in technology are going to be the key to future growth. Innovative mobile network operators, while still offering attractive voice and messaging packages, will now look for a slight shift towards service centric value addition.

With constant competition, the Pakistani cellular industry today is turning its focus towards playing a greater role in providing access to innovative entertainment and financial services. Out-of-the-box products and services will be the key to generating sales, especially with the current restrictions on SIM sales. Those cellular operators that haven’t done so yet will also look to expand their reach by introducing mobile banking services. The question here is: will our cellular industry be able to sustain the current pricing models or not? The answer lies in offering a greater portfolio of services to both businesses and everyday consumers at a slight premium, in turn providing them with ease of use and guaranteed Quality of Service.

This boom in service centricity should be duly credited to handset vendors. The increased sales of smart phones have not only helped develop a market for mobile applications, they have also brought about a new wave of service delivery, as well as magnetised the in-life use of handsets. Mobile network operators in Pakistan, like others across the globe, understand this to be a major addition to the value chain. Against a backdrop of growing mass consumerism within Pakistan’s middle classes, brands have become eager to court consumers. Mobile broadband is carving its path and a smartphone explosion is now overdue. With the advent of low cost smartphones in the local market, consumers are getting increasingly acquainted with the kind of services provided by 3rd party apps, eg chat, mobile games etc. Driven by this interest in apps, smartphones and high-end feature phones will generate higher revenues per user within the cellular ecosystem. Moreover, low-end feature phones need not be excluded from this ecosystem, as Cloud technology can be effectively utilised to bring computing power to every Pakistani mobile subscriber.

If innovation is the path to becoming a market leader, then mobile apps are where the true potential lies. The significance of mobile apps is relevant not only for Pakistani consumers, but is becoming apparent the world over. Most experts agree that apps will soon become almost as important for both small and large businesses as websites are today. Increasingly, brands are also becoming aware that mobile apps provide an excellent touch-point with their consumers. We’re already seeing this in developed markets with high smartphone penetration, but I also expect to see this happening in developing markets like Pakistan within the year.

Presently, most app developers are focused on developing apps from a consumer perspective; however, it is likely that the greatest growth for mobile apps will come from the enterprise sector. These will be apps offering efficiency/productivity/revenue support of businesses, ranging from sole practitioners who can access/deliver their services anytime, anywhere, to the largest enterprises with the most data to be mined and used. Developed correctly, such an app-based mobile ecosystem could drive brand differentiation, alternative revenue streams and a clear way out of the incessant price wars that cellular operators have been engaged in for the better part of the last three years.

Mobile applications offer a huge opportunity for mobile operators to drive up data usage and revenues. The challenge for the operator is to create an application ecosystem that offers incentives for developers while keeping the delivery process simple and providing the broadest possible reach across heterogeneous device portfolios. The convergence of mobile devices with online applications through continuous innovation is a step towards developing a services based mobile ecosystem. 2013: the future for mobile communications in Pakistan looks very exciting.

Sadaf Zarrar, "2013: The year of innovation," Business recorder. 2013-01-28.
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