Rating: Free talk and text provider will come pre-installed on Indian handsets
Nimbuzz is bringing it’s mobile social interaction services to the next level with it’s first pre-installation deal. The Nimbuzz service suite, which includes VoIP, geo-presence, IM, file sharing and access to mobile and on-line social networks, will come free on every handset purchased from India-based producer Spice Mobile.
Spice Mobile has a large presence in India (about 25,000 retailers) and in other Asia-Pacific countries. It will be announcing the arrival of Nimbuzz with a massive, cross-media marketing campaign.
From the release:
Nimbuzz CEO Evert-Jaap Lugt commented: “We are growing at a record pace, adding around 20,000 new users per day. Our community appeals to handset manufacturers as they benefit from global and local IM and Social Network community integration and comprehensive feature set – at a substantially accelerated speed to market, and without incurring additional overhead costs. This deal ensures significant market penetration for Nimbuzz across the APAC territories and we will be working closely with Spice Mobiles to encourage future shipment of new handsets.”
Spice Mobiles CEO, Kunal Ahooja, said: “With soaring mobile usage and penetration, the Indian VAS market is witnessing remarkable growth. As the mobile handset is increasingly becoming the device of choice when it comes to accessing multitude of applications and VAS, our innovations and offerings, bundled with our phones, support our mission to provide consumers with a more engaging and fulfilling experience. We turn to leading technology providers such as Nimbuzz to add the best value services, such as instant messaging and social networking, to our devices.”
What we think?
Nimbuzz seems to be powering along very nicely, thank you. After releasing it’s iPhone app at the end of November, it claimed to be growing at a rate of 10,000 users a day. That lofty figure has now increased to 20,000. So, even allowing for some exaggeration, it would seem that opening itself to the iPhone crowd has really worked for Nimbuzz. And now every new owner of a Spice Mobiles product is going to be automatically a part of the Nimbuzz network, which adds up to a lot of handsets in the APAC region. I’m beginning to wonder who the big partner was in this deal, Spice or Nimbuzz?
