The Hindu : National : Goodies for your mobile phones

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Sunday, Jul 22, 2007
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Goodies for your mobile phones

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: Most mobile phone owners in India, whose handsets cost them Rs.10,000 or more, are probably Net-enabled – that is, they have the ability to wirelessly access the Internet.

This usually entails a small monthly charge – and the majority of such ‘smart phone’ owners don’t care to use their “netability” — because they think there is little out there on the Web, except the ability to read e-mail and scan a few web pages.

A Cupertino (California, U.S.) based start-up, fuelled by Indian brains based in Delhi, hopes to change all that. Co-founded in 2005 by Ramneek Bhasin and Sanjeev Sardana, IIT Kanpur and Delhi alumnus, with an American partner, Mobio, the new product has been making waves in the cellular value addition business, ever since they launched their Mobile ‘lifestyle portal,’ GetMobio ( www.getmobio.com) earlier this year. They call their creation a ‘mashup’ of compelling Web-based services for the mobile user – all free… what we would call an ‘avial’ or ‘khichdi’ of tools that make it worthwhile to have that extra Net-enabled edge on your phone.

The offerings at the U.S. portal — local guides, ways to find the nearest eatery or place to stay — and most recently, the ability to use one’s mobile phone to join instant message-based social networks such as Twitter — have seen Mobio hailed as one of 2007’s Hottest Startups by Business 2.0 magazine.

And as one of the top 10 emerging wireless entertainment players this year by analysts IDC.

India-specific

Mobio has created a localised India-specific portal that can be downloaded by all phones that are Internet-enabled: One has to send an SMS with the text LIVE to 8888.

Like its popular U.S. avatar, Mobio is the product of Indian brains.Speaking to The Hindu on Saturday, R.Vidyanand, Mobio’s India head said, the company had already contacted leading mobile providers to add parts of the offer ing to their own slate of services.

“In a few weeks we will announce a host of new India-specific content,”he promised.

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