Master of cellphone technology?
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With mobile phone service providers offering Value Added Services, the need for professionals will increase enormously
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A mobile in a hand is as good as the entire globe in your palm.
From providing basic telephony services, the gadget has taken up varied roles as an information tool, entertainment gizmo, interaction device and an instrument to touch anyone and in any part of the globe, sitting in the cool confines of home.
The little gadget not only has opened up the world to the person sitting in a remote part of the country but also a host of employment opportunities through its ever increasing applications.
Value Added Services (VAS) that come with the mobiles is an area that professionals feel is the one to watch in future. As the use of mobile is expanding to send SMSes, play games, click pictures, record movies, watch videos, make day-to-day transactions, send voice and pictures and browse websites, the need for professionals to create these applications will increase enormously.
Healthy future
“India today has 80 million subscribers of which 10 million were added in just one month. By 2010, the number of mobiles is likely to cross 500 million. With that kind of growth and the use of applications growing everyday, the future of VAS industry looks healthy,” says Debasis Chatterji, Director-Operations, Netxcell Ltd., that offers application services to all major mobile companies in the country.
Content development
The increased importance of VAS has also made content developers burn the midnight oil to come up with better and newer concepts and services. The growth of VAS in India has been helped both by macro-level environmental factors and specific market initiatives to develop this category.
Adding to this is the growing Indian market that offers loads of opportunity for mobile technologies because telecom operators in India continue to come up with innovative plans to lure customers.
In another five years, the mobile industry has the potential to touch $10 billion business and it will pave the way for more VAS companies and thus the need for more professionals.
Former USSR countries, Middle East and North Africa are the markets to be tapped in future.
Safe bet
“So, there will always be a dearth of trained VAS professionals,” Mr. Chatterji feels. Advertising on the mobile will increase since the message will reach the specific target and this will be an industry largely unaffected by recession.
The industry is looking for people with an engineering or MCA background for the professionals in the making.
Since Java, .Net and C++ are used extensively in mobile technologies, that background is a must to work on the development side. People with creative skills and combining them with technical skills will be in great demand.
R. RAVIKANTH REDDY
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