Synchronica signs Mobile Gateway reseller deal in India

Orders for Synchronica (AIM: SYNC) are coming in hard and fast: today the group announced a reseller agreement for its Mobile Gateway email product, covering 25,000 licenses, with an Indian device manufacturer. Under the terms of the deal, the new Indian partner will bundle Synchronica's Mobile Gateway with devices under its established brand, to be sold in turn to mobile operators across India.

"Clearly the rapidly expanding Indian telecoms market is a key emerging market for Synchronica”, chief executive Carsten Brinkschulte commented. “Our new partner in India, with more than 300 channel partners across the country and access to more than 20,000 retail outlets, is in an excellent position to help accelerate sales of Mobile Gateway licenses in India".

Through the reseller agreement the partner is committed to an initial purchase order for 25,000 licenses of Mobile Gateway and Synchronica noted that, to date, the manufacturer has sold several million handsets in India.

India is the second largest mobile market in the world with over 525 million mobile phone users. The Indian telecoms industry is one of the fastest growing in the world and according to Synchronica there were 19 million new users in December 2009 alone. The company also noted estimates, by India's largest mobile phone group, that India will have more than a billion mobile users by 2015.

According to Informa, a research and information provider, India's mobile operators’ biggest challenge is the competitive market, where the environment is dominated by price wars, falling ARPU (Average Revenue Per User), high congestion levels and churn.

Consequently, it is increasingly important for operators to differentiate their offering, as such the researcher believes that value added software (VAS) could play an important role. “Informa views the potential of VAS as the key to mobile operator models in India”, Informa analyst Nick Jotischky was cited as saying. “Indeed, our forecasts estimate that the value of the cellular non-voice market in India will exceed US$13.8 billion by 2014 with messaging services contributing approximately 30% of this total".

Mobile Gateway is based on industry standards and requires no additional software to be downloaded to the handset and enables push email for the broadest range of handsets, from high-end Smartphones to low-cost, entry-level devices. The product was recently expanded with the Mobile Gateway 5 update, to now include instant messaging, news feeds and access to popular social networking sites.

“Our products are ideally suited for device manufacturers and operators who want to offer attractive mass-market data services to all users, not just those with high-end devices but also customers with entry-level devices”, Brinkschulte added.

Synchronica is gathering momentum and has started 2010 with a string of new deals, both for the flagship Mobile Gateway product and for its latest addition to its product range: the MessagePhone low-cost device which was officially launchedin February.

The product marks a significant milestone for the company, as it is the first time its software is being bundled and pre-installed with mass-market mobile devices. The MessagePhones utilise the infrastructure provided by Mobile Gateway, building an end-to-end entry-level push email product.

Whilst at the Mobile World Congress in February, Synchronica said it added more than 30 new operator prospects to its already strong sales pipeline for 2010.  It has established global reseller agreements with ‘tier-1’ players including Nokia Siemens, Brightstar and an un-named Asian headquartered international network equipment provider.

The pipeline for potential new customers includes mobile operators in Africa, Latin America and CIS and currently 20 mobile operators are testing the MessagePhone.

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/14762/synchronica-signs-mobile-gateway-reseller-deal-in-india-14762.html