Western Union launches Network Challenge

DUBAI – Are you the world’s most globally networked individual? Western Union (NYSE: WU), one of the world’s most globally connected companies with 455,000 locations in 200 countries and territories, is celebrating its 160th anniversary by launching a hunt for the most networked person in the world, says a press release. To carry out this challenge Western Union® has created an innovative and interactive Facebook application called “Your World”.

The world’s leading money transfer company is calling on every Facebook user in the UAE and across the Middle East to step forward and take the Western Union® Network Challenge at www.westernunionworld.com/yourworld. The application visualises Facebook fans’ global connections and users receive a score that shows how globally connected they are.
They can compare their ranking against their Facebook Friends; against others in their country and against others in the world.

Facebook, Skype merger to compete with new Google+

 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, left, walks with Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, on July 7 at the Sun Valley Inn during the 2011 Allen and Co. Sun Valley Conference.

Two of the biggest names in social media launched a merger recently that will bring social media to a new level.
Facebook and Skype are now integrating their services to allow users to video call any of their friends from their Facebook page.
Executives say the goal of the integration is simplicity. Users will be able to click on a new video icon next to their friends' Facebook chat boxes to be instantly connected via video.
"This is by far the easiest way to get connected by video," Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, said July 6 during the launch. "If it was any easier, it would be like reading your mind."
Not all of Skype's features, such as multiple screen or HD calls, will be included on Facebook when the application is first launched, but executives say the goal is to be able to reach others first and then to develop further.
The integration of a smartphone app is in the making as well.
Analysts say that the merge is Microsoft's attempt to compete with growing tech powerhouse, Google.
In 2007 Microsoft purchased 1.6 percent of Facebook's shares, and in May the company announced plans to buy Skype.
In the meantime, Google is starting to innovate, as well, launching their first social networking site, Google+, on June 28.
The new website was the first to incorporate video chat with Google+ Hangouts, an app that allows users to chat with several friends and share screens from the Google+ page.
The site also features an app called "Circles," which enables users to organize groups of contacts with similar interests and "Huddle," an app to chat within the group.
What users search in the traditional Google search engine "Sparks," or topics of interest, can now be recorded and shared with friends on the Google+ site.
Search results now have the "Plus One" option next to them. Clicking the icon is essentially the same as "liking" a post on Facebook.
Google+ also offers the "Stream" feature, which allows users to share information within their groups, much like the Facebook News Feed.

EBay 2Q profit falls on acquisition charges

GSI eBay 2Q profit falls on charges of seeking, helps in the developmentresults beat analysts estimates

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- EBay Inc.'s second-quarter results beat analyst expectations Tuesday with growth in its PayPal online payment service and marketplace business -- although profit fell 31 percent on charges from its recent purchase of e-commerce retail site operator GSI Commerce.
For the quarter ended June 30, eBay earned $283.4 million, or 22 cents per share, compared with $412 million, or 31 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.
The company finished its acquisition of GSI in June in a deal valued at $2.4 billion. As a result, its operating expenses for the quarter rose 32 percent to $1.5 billion.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned 48 cents per share -- 2 cents more than what analysts polled by FactSet expected.
Revenue climbed 25 percent to $2.76 billion from $2.22 billion a year earlier, as the number of people using PayPal and eBay.com rose. Analysts forecast $2.60 billion.
EBay, based in San Jose, Calif., said revenue from its marketplaces business, which is its largest unit and includes the eBay.com website, climbed 19 percent to $1.66 billion, while revenue from PayPal shot up 31 percent to $1.07 billion. The company's results also included $23.8 million in revenue from GSI.
The value of all goods sold on eBay, excluding vehicles, climbed 17 percent to $14.68 billion. Though eBay's roots are in the online auction business, more than half of the transactions on the site these days are fixed-price sales.
The amount of money processed through PayPal climbed 34 percent to $28.74 billion. PayPal also hit an active-user milestone during the quarter, rising above the 100-million active accounts mark.
For the current quarter, eBay expects net income of 37 or 38 cents per share, or 46 or 47 cents per share excluding items. Analysts are looking for 47 cents per share. The company did not give a revenue forecast.
For all of 2011, eBay predicted net income of $2.41 to $2.44 per share -- $1.97 to $2 per share excluding items -- on $11.3 billion to $11.6 billion in revenue. Analysts expect an adjusted profit of $1.97 per share on $10.8 billion in revenue.
EBay shares dipped 72 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $32.45 in extended trading. The stock finished regular trading down 59 cents at $33.17.

Can Google+ Compete With Facebook?

 

*image via androidauthority.com

There’s a new contestant in the ring, Google +. Who is this new contender and could Google Plus replace Facebook as the top social networking outlet?

Facebook’s Status

Let me make one thing clear, Facebook is continuing to grow. A $100 billion valuation is expected for Facebook’s initial public offering and the site as 600 million users. Growth, however, is seen primarily outside the United States. U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Russia have been losing friends.
It seems as soon as Facebook becomes too popular, registration in a given country stops. According to Inside Facebook 6 million users in the U.S. left in May. This was the first domestic decrease in a year. Canada saw a loss of 1.52 million. Facebook has been able to make up losses with gains in countries like Mexico, Brazil, India, and Indonesia.

What do Networkers Want?

One thought is that social networkers are going to look for anonymity again or will seek niche networks over those with mass appeal. Once your mom (sorry mom, I love you and it’s totally cool with me that you’re on Facebook) and everyone you know is on Facebook, the site begins
to lose its mystery.

What is Google Plus?

In a lot of ways Google + looks and feels very much like Facebook. Profile pics are in the top left corner. With photos and personal stats just to the right. Post pictures, videos, and what you’re up to on the status bar. The stream with news from your friends allows you to put in your two cents on their life.
Google Plus is marketing itself as “Real-life sharing, rethought for the web.” The project is supposed to allow connections that mirror real life.  Plus will satisfy the desire to communicate with niche groups.
The Circle feature allows users to share different things with each circle. Your circles could be coworkers, family, and close friends. This way your coworkers or 13-year-old niece won’t need to hear about your overindulging in alcohol. And your golf buddies won’t read about your
passion for crochet. This feature seems much more user-friendly and better integrated than Facebook’s groups.
I heard Sparks are compared to newspaper clippings. This is how you get your news socially. Spark looks for videos and articles based on what you like. You choose when to watch, read, and share. Hangouts are the place to chat on Plus. One huge difference between Plus and Facebook is that on Google’s social network you have a video chat option in Hangouts.
With Plus you’re able to do instant mobile upload of photos. All your phone pics go to a private album on Google + automatically. Then all you have to do is decide who gets to see them. Huddle allows group conversations (as an alternative to texting multiple people at once.)

How do I Sign Up?

The Google + tool is still in test mode. Because it is in field trial and full to capacity, the network is not currently accepting new members. You are able to sign up for notices by entering your email address at plus.google.com
Although it seems that most new tools are just added to the arsenal (not fully replacing older ones), as with any tech advancement, a network can only stay on top for so long. With a recent decline in US Facebook accounts, are users getting bored? Will Google + give them what they want?  Only time will tell.

List of google adsense Best revenue sharing sites

There are many article sites that offer adsense revenue sharing option. However, you need to research to find sites that offer adsense revenue sharing option in your niche. I have a few sites that consider articles written on almost any topic except pornography, hate speech, etc.
There are just a few sites that accept articles and offer 40% to 50% adsense revenue sharing opportunity:
TRCB.COM (PR- 4)
Probably one of the best article directories that offer 50% revenue sharing option and has laser targeted traffic. Trcb.com has all the major categories listed on their front page. Almost every topic is covered. So check the categories before submitting an article.
You are required to submit 3 adsense ad blocks using an easy to navigate writers’ area. The instructions are clear and you can contact customer support to help you out with adsense ad blocks.
In my experience a well-written article can bring in $3 to $4 per day. Submit 10 to 20 articles a month and you will see a dramatic increase in google adsense revenue. You will also get a valid Page Rank 4 backlink. You can create three back links to your site.
Hubpages.com (PR- 6)
Hubpages is probably the most useful site in terms of making money with google adsense revenue sharing program. It shares 100% revenue with you. All you need to do is sign up and create one hub on each article you write. Put a few google ads on the top of the content and one 300×250 rectangle ad at the bottom of the content. You can also use ebay and amazon affiliate programs to earn extra money.
Not only do you get revenue from the site, you get Pagerank juice. If you put three links in your article that point back to your site, you will get a valid PR 6 back link.
Trendhunter.com (PR- 6)
Trendhunter is a very exciting site. It publishes current trends in various categories. You create an account and publish your article along with a few images. Use your own google adsense code and earn 100% revenue. trendhunter will publish your post and drive traffic to it. You will earn money when some one clicks ads placed on your article page.
Go to trendhunter faqs to know more about their revenue sharing program.
KernelTrap.org (PR- 3)
Kerneltrap.org is a community site devoted to sharing latest news on kernel development. They share 80% of the google adsense revenue. You can create your own blog on the site and publish articles. Your ads will be displayed on the page that hosts your article.
Along with blogs, they also share revenue on forum postings. If you post something useful on their forum, you will earn from the ads displayed in the forum threads.
Beepthegeek.com (PR- 4)
Beepthegeek.com is a technology blog that covers Windows tutorials, adsense articles, blogging and photoshop. As a guest blogger, you will post an original article on beepthegeek.com and use your google adsense account to put adsense ads in the article. Beepthegeek.com shares 100% revenue with you as guest blogger. It is a unique resource that shares all the adsense revenue with you. Since it is a PR-4, you will get serious link juice and some serious adsense revenue as long as beepthegeek.com is online.
For additional information, click the link and visit the guest blogger info page.
I am not finished yet. Read Part – 2 of this article where I’ll share some more google adsense revenue sharing sites. Write a unique article and spin it creating at least 20 variations. Use one unique article for each site and you will be earning more than $50/day which means you can earn around $1000/month easily. So start using google adsense revenue sharing trick right now.

http://revenuesharingwebsite.blogspot.com/

Microsoft ‘Leaks’ Social Networking Website

Looks like Microsoft “accidentally” leaked a potential social networking website. Oops. A splash page was published to Socl.com, a domain registered by Microsoft all the way back in 1998, that looks sneakingly like a new social network. Kind of.
The splash page gave the option of signing in with Facebook or Twitter, and announced that “With Tulalip you can Find what you need and Share what you know easier than ever.” Note that share is capitalized, and that the domain name is shorthand for “social” so kudos to Microsoft for bagging the domain so many years ago. Microsoft quickly yanked the page from Socl.com and hasn’t been willing to reveal any details beyond what’s up on the actual website. Microsoft left a message on the site that, “Socl.com is an internal design project from a team in Microsoft Research which was mistakenly published to the web. We didn’t mean to, honest.” Real sly, Microsoft.
It’s not clear exactly what they were thinking, but it seems they don’t intend to have another social network competing with the giants. It looks like it will allow you to search through social media in a more organized way, and perhaps it will even be integrated with Bing. The splash page also contains two rows of images that look an awful lot like the “Live Tiles” found on the start screen on Microsoft’s Window’s Phone 7. The customizable Live Tiles can show a person and their contact information, and that may be how Tulalip organizes friends or the people you follow on Twitter.
While this is clearly not an accident and Microsoft is obviously trying to create buzz for their product, I’m not sure if this is the right way of doing it. Will anyone be willing to wait for the actual Tulalip site to be revealed with all of this Google+ excitement in the air? One can only hope that Tulalip is a code name and not the actual name of the website, as Google+ is a lot catchier.

Leaked Website Hints at Microsoft Social Networking Site

A landing page for what appears to be a Microsoft social-networking site was discovered Thursday night, sparking rumors that the software giant is building a social network to rival Google+. But not Facebook.
Before it was replaced with a tight-lipped message from Microsoft, Socl.com displayed a welcome note for a service called "Tulalip" (the name of an Indian tribe in Washington).
"With Tulalip you can find what you need and share what you know easier than ever," it read. On the side of the screen (see below) the page showed dummy buttons for signing in through Facebook and Twitter.
When you click into the site now, you'll find it replaced with a message from Microsoft. "Thanks for stopping by. Socl.com is an internal design project from a team in Microsoft Research which was mistakenly published to the web. We didn't mean to, honest," it reads
Facebook and Google may share a respect/hate relationship (remember when Facebook hired a PR firm to smear Google? Or when they blocked each others' contacts importing function?), but Facebook and Microsoft's Bing have enjoyed a long, mutually beneficial relationship. Most recently, in May Microsoft expanded its use of Facebook within its Bing search engine by adding Facebook "Like" buttons. Facebook also appears all over Microsoft's upcoming mobile OS build, known as "Mango." In his review of Windows Phone 7 "Mango," PCMag mobile analyst Sascha Segan said "Mango is the most Facebook-oriented OS available in the U.S."
Socl.com was discovered when the editor of domain news blog Fusible was investigating the owner of Social.com.
Even if it is nothing more than an intern messing around with Photoshop, the prospect of Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter collaborating to launch a formidable rival to Google+ is exciting, especially when you throw in new Nokia handsets, Windows Phone 7 Mango, and Skype integration. PCMag columnist John Dvorak, however, thinks otherwise: "Why Social Media-Centric Search Won't Work." 

Microsoft Developers Leak Probably Social Networking Site, Tulalip

In another case of “follow the leader,” following the release of Google’s own social network, Google+, it seems Microsoft may have “accidentally” leaked its own beta version, Tulalip, but some industry analysts observe the move as deliberate.
Apparently the details of Microsoft’s potentially forthcoming social networking site were inadvertently published on the website Socl.com. But shortly after the preview appeared, developers pulled the application down. An apology was issued by Microsoft, which says, “Thanks for stopping by. Socl.com is an internal design project from a team in Microsoft Research which was mistakenly published to the web. We didn’t mean to, honest.”
As Gizmodo points out “internal design project” was likely code for “new social-networking site.” With the recent media swarm over Google+, it’s more than possible Microsoft is looking for some of that attention.
Several media outlets reported that Microsoft accidentally exposed the splash page for a project internally named Tulalip late Thursday.
According to a screen capture of the splash page, the site appears to invite users to share via Facebook and Twitter, saying “With Tulalip, you can Find what you need and Share what you know easier than ever.”
The application allowed users to log-in through Facebook and Twitter accounts “and by design of the site, allow users to share content in some way,” the International Business Times reported.
Pointing to the extreme success of Facebook and Twitter, the IBT report points out that Microsoft is again “late to the party,” even if it’s able to offer something different.
“But even if it has some cool new features, which is unknown right now, Microsoft is late to the party once again,” the July 15 report said.
Google is now saying that Google+ has in excess of 10 million members and climbing, though the network is still in beta testing, TechZone reported.

Erin Harrison is Executive Editor, Strategic Initiatives, for TMC, where she oversees the company's strategic editorial initiatives, including the launch of several new print and online initiatives. She plays an active role in the print publications and TechZone360, covering IP communications, information technology and other related topics. To read more of Erin's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Updated: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Is On Google Plus

Update: As a few hardy GeekOlogists (and other media) have pointed out, Google Plus doesn't yet verify accounts so this may not in fact be the real Mark Zuckerberg. But of the three big Z profiles that sprouted recently, this is reportedly the last one standing and it still shows no activity. And isn't that the way the real Facebook CEO would behave? Create a profile to snoop around with but refuse to make any contributions to avoid an implicit endorsement. Me thinks so.
Most likely The Zuck is scoping out the competition as Google Plus is widely seen as Google's reply to Facebook's increasingly expansive social network. Regardless of the reason, it seems Facebook's CEO has found his way onto Google's most ambitious new product to date, even if it's not yet ready for primetime.
Google Plus Locks Down Against 'Insane' Demand
The Google Plus Project Promises to Make the Web More Social
News Corp. Sells Myspace... to Justin Timberlake?
As Forbes blogger Kashmir Hill notes, Zuckerberg has foregone his usual cheerful profile pic with a sad panda version. Maybe he's showing his disapproval of the intuitive and easy-to-use grouping system that reportedly blows Facebook's mechanism out of the water? (I have a sad panda face of my own because I haven't yet received an invitation).

You can see Zuckerberg's Google Plus profile for yourself, but I must warn you that his mournful eyes have stared into my soul and found it wanting. Just FYI.

DOUBLE YOUR ADSENSE EARNINGS SHOWING FEWER ADS

Before you read on, we strongly recommend that you carefully read our article about the adsense pricing model since the strategy we will be discussing is mainly based on taking advantage of the adsense pricing model.
As you probably know, there are three main ways to increase adsense income on a website: 
•  more traffic 
•  higher CTR 
•  higher CPC 
The strategy we are to reveal aims at getting a consistently higher CPC. 
Double adsense earnings showing fewer ads: A case studyLet's consider the following case: you run a website with some traffic and three ad units (Top banner, Right Hand Skyscraper and a half banner at the bottom) and you make $ 130 a month. 
Let's see how you could double your income by showing fewer ad units. Here are some details about your website: 
•  Traffic: 9.000 visits and 25.000 pages viewed in average every month. 
•  AdSense Stats:Ad unitCTRCPC ($)Revenue ($)Top banner1,00%0.2357,5Skyscraper1,20%0.1133Half banner4,00%0.0440Unless you have understood the adsense pricing model, you may be wondering why CPC is so different from one ad unit to another. Anyway, this is normal since the ad that gets the higher paying ads is the one that first appears on the HTML code (the Top banner) and is followed by the second one (Skyscraper) then comes the third (Half banner).
Let's now cut down the number of our ad units keeping only the Bottom Half banner. This means the half banner shows first on the HTML and so gets the two best paying ads. Since it is the first ad unit, it should have the same CPC the top banner used to have. Moreover, a banner shows 4 ads where a half banner shows only 2. This will result in a considerably higher average CPC for the half banner (due to more competition). CTR will at least stay at 4% since we kept the same placement, same colours. but could also increase to something like 5% because your advertising will be less intrusive. 
Let's now see how much money you will be making with no change in your traffic stats:
ScenarioCTRCPCRevenue14,00%0.2323024,00%0.3030034,50%0.2325944,50%0.30338As you can read on the chart you could easily make $ 230 in the most pessimistic scenario while an optimistic scenario could yield more than $ 300!!! with no change to your traffic and a better reader experience.
Can I use it on my website?Yes most adsense publishers can use it. However, there are some preliminary conditions to getting the most out of it:
•  If you are in a low paying market (like arcad and games related websites) where CPC is around 5 cents no matter how high your ad is in the HTML code, don't use this strategy as it won't do much for you. On the opposite, if you are in a high paying niche this strategy could work great for you. 
•  You also need an ad unit with high CTR, compared to the other units on the same page, while having a lower CPC. The bigger the differences are, the more you could increase your revenue. 
If you can fulfil the two above conditions, then hurry up and remove those ads that keep you from making real money. 
Want more money?OK! Now that you have reduced the advertising pressure on your visitors, you can choose to sit down and watch increased loyalty from your readers, more links... (long term results) or choose to get even more money now (short term) by adding ads to the space you have saved.
As you know, link units and referral products are perfect for that since they do not compete with ad units (so you can add them with no risk to the above strategy). 
Of course you can use other advertising programs instead of adsense but we won't discuss that as this is a "make money with adsense" website!! 
 How do I create advanced reports ?The first thing you are asked to set to your needs is the product data you want to analyse. Below the "choose product" heading, you will find a drop down menu covering all three AdSense products:adsense for contentadsense for searchrefferalsOnce you have choosen the product, you will need to define a date range. You can either use the drop down menu to define a period of time like today, yesterday, las 7 days... or define your own customised date range like from Sept 5 2006 to Oct 31 2006 to see how the Septembre update affected your performances. 
Next you will need to tackle the "Show data by" section. I understand this is quite confusion so I advise you to choose the default criterion which is "Page". However, advanced adsense users must be able to use any additional data provided by google so let's take a look at how the adsense team explains it. I have modified the text to make it a bit clearer. 
Advanced reports provide the option to view your performance by page, ad unit, or individual ad. We've highlighted the differences between each report below. 
Page reports will show an impression every time a user views a page displaying Google ads. We'll only report one page impression no matter how many Google ads are displayed on a page.Ad unit reports will show an impression every time a user views a Google ad unit on your page. For example, if a page with one half banner and one vertical banner is viewed once, we'll display two ad unit impressions.Individual ad reports will show an impression for each individual ad that's shown in any ad unit (remembre that a single ad unit can contain more than one idividual ad). For example, if a page with one half banner and one vertical banner is viewed once, it will generate three ad impressions.The last decision you need to make is choosing between displaying "aggregate data" and "channel data". 
Unless you want a summary of your overall performance on a daily basis or that you have not defined any channels, I think you should opt for "channel data" option that will give you valuable data on the performance of every channel you set up earlier. 
Once you choose "channel data", more options are displayed. This is a little confusing at first but if you are familiar with SQL queries and databases you shouldn't have any difficulty using these options. For others I have tried to list some guidelines: 
select at least one channel you want to analyseset grouping to "date" or "channel", avoid using bothtry many combinations till you get what you wanttry to understand the data and you will see what other data you needOptimize your advertising strategy - Part 1
In its AdSense program, google offers an array of products : 
Adsense for contentAdsense for searchRefferalsThe first critical task (after understanding each product), is to come up with the best possible combination of these products.
Of course, each website is unique and so requires a unique " Advertising strategy " combining AdSense and other advertising techniques. To help define the best AdSense strategy for your website we suggest you try and answer these simple questions : 
Do you have many returning visitors ?This is tipycally the case for a blog or a portal with constantly updated content (news, forums...). If this applies to you, we think you should not rely on refferals to yield much income as they only pay for "a first time install". Once the majority of your readers will have installed the reffered product (firefox, picasa, adwords, adsense subscription...) you won't be getting any more money from these ads. 
On the contrary, if you have mostly first time visitors, then refferals can be a good choice. 
Where do your visitors come from ?Again, if you are considering refferals, you should keep in mind that these can be restricted to some regions of the globe. For example, the google pack installation won't pay you any cent unless the person installing it is from the USA. Thus, if the majority of your visitors comes from England it is useless to put this product on your website. 
Is your design flexibleIn some cases, and particularly with some blogging services, you do not have total control over the lay out of your website. Then you may have only one place to put your ads which is less than 20 pixels high. In this case for example, you cannot put any ad unit since there is no suitable format offered. 
In some other situations, you may be using a CMS (Content Management System) to build your site and be confronted to the hard fact that the only region you can personalise is the menu (or sidebar). In that case we strongly recommend you use link units because they can be harmonously integrated into any menu.

Online censorship: What Pakistan's low ranking on Google's list means

The Pakistani government made less than 10 requests to Google to remove content for the period July – December 2010.
This was revealed in the most recent Transparency Report published by American multinational public corporation, Google Inc.
The preamble of the report states that government agencies and courts from various countries often send requests to the internet company to remove content from Google. They also request that Google hand over user data.
In a statement included in the report, Google states the nature of various countries’ reservations:
“Some content removals are requested due to allegations of defamation, while others are due to allegations that the content violates local laws prohibiting hate speech or pornography.”
Commenting on Pakistan’s place on the list, Aleem Bawany, General Manager of Online Strategy and Development, Express Media Group says that the low ranking is not necessarily indicative of less censorship.
“Pakistan, as we have seen in the past, has taking some drastic censorship measures. That’s because PIE (Pakistan Internet Exchange) has control over blocking entire domains locally,” says Bawany.
He added that while PIE is a global filter, other countries with a better legal setup don’t need a global filter.
“They can send a court order to all known Internet providers and ask them to block an offending domain.”
Others on the list
The United Kingdom tops the chart with 93,518 items requested to be removed, out of which 158 items were not removed. Other countries in the top five were South Korea, Brazil, Germany and the United States. All countries in the top five had a high percentage of request compliance.
India ranked number six on the table with 282 item removal requests. Google only fulfilled 22% of these requests.
Google also received 1,699 requests for information on users of Google accounts or services, 79% of these requests were fulfilled. A majority of the Indian removal requests came via law enforcement agencies, including one requesting the removal of a blog and YouTube videos critical of senior government officials of Indian States.
The highest number of removal requests cited defamation as the reason, followed by privacy and security, impersonation and government criticism.
The top 10 countries on the list are:

1. United Kingdom
2. South Korea
3. Brazil
4. Germany
5. United States
6. India
7. Libya
8. Italy
9. France
10. Argentina

Smartphones: Not so popular in Pakistan

Smartphone usage worldwide has jumped 79% in the past year. Around 450 million smartphones are expected to ship worldwide this year.
Despite this worldwide popularity, smartphones in Pakistan haven’t picked up any steam. Currently, there are 105 million SIMs in operation in Pakistan and phone density is 63% (according to PTA, other estimates from different institutes provide a lower figure), but smartphone usage is limited.
Estimates suggest that the smartphone share in Pakistan is 5% of the total mobile phone market. E-Series from Nokia and Blackberries are counted in this.
The low penetration of smartphones in Pakistan is due to high prices. In the UK and other countries, the model adopted by network providers which is popular is contract based. So an iPhone 4 might cost around $199 dollars which translates to Rs17, 000 on contract. But the same iPhone here costs around Rs55,000.
Those networks, like in the UK, offer the phones for lower prices because they can recover their money and make profits from the data plans offered in contracts.
The phones only run on the network with which you have a contract and these networks have huge user bases so even if they break even in the seventeenth month of a two year contract, they will still make substantial profits.
This model is not suitable for an environment like Pakistan, so telecom companies here have done what they can.
Ufone and Zong have taken good initiatives to increase the popularity of the Android platform, which in many regions is already the number one platform for smartphones, by releasing an affordable series of handsets running the OS.
The cheapest of them, Ideos, is available from both operators for a price of approximately Rs10,500. Ufone further offers two more Android handsets, the Image and Verve.
Mobilink has also periodically released smartphones into the market.
The Android is only going to grow in popularity in Pakistan with the help of affordable offerings from these operators, but these offerings also raise a few questions. Why aren’t other providers like Warid and Telenor stepping into this market?
The competition in the Pakistani market is tough right now, and naturally providers would be looking for any way to increase their market share and gain an advantage over their competitors.
That is the reason we have seen the recent surge in handset offers from these providers. Due to the popularity of Android abroad, Ufone and Zong had the right idea to offer a phone running on Android for a low price and tap into a potentially big demographic.
Though all operators have released quite a few BlackBerry phones and have given them a reputation for brands that cater to the business community, changing trends suggest that the Android is replacing BlackBerries.
Telenor also jumped in, providing the BlackBerry 9800 Torch and Nokia E7.
But these are relatively high end phones which not a lot of people can afford to buy.
The better deals for smartphones are only being offered by Ufone and Zong, and these are also limited. They need to expand their inventory by introducing more handsets like the Ideos and if possible, at lower prices.
Others also need to take note and cater to the younger mobile phone generation. Smartphones are big business, and it’s only a matter of time before Pakistan is caught up in their fever too. Only time will tell which provider will come out on top when it happens.