Hutch, Kodak and Nokia launches `Click & Print'' MMS service
By Our Corporate Bureau | 15 Mar 2004
New
Delhi: Hutch Max Telecom Pvt Ltd has launched the
`Click & Print' Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
and to provide the service across the country the company
has entered into alliances with Kodak and Nokia.
According
to Harit Nagpal vice-president (corporate marketing) Hutch
Max Telecom, "The service allows users to click pictures
on their camera phones, convert them into photo prints
and have them delivered anywhere in the country."
A
user has to send the clicked photos in MMS mode with the
address for delivery to a service provider, who would
take prints and deliver them within five working days.
For
this service Hutch will levy Rs 12 per print (for five
prints), to be billed to the user's account.
Ravi
Karamcheti, vice-president (marketing) Kodak India Ltd,
said the photos could be sent using Kodak application,
which can be downloaded free-of-cost by sending an SMS
to Hutch.
The
alliance uses Kodak applications and photo paper and Nokia
multimedia handsets and applications, while the service
would be provided by Hutch.
Nagpal
said the use of MMS has grown rapidly in India with the
increase in usage of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)
handsets and services.
At
present, there are over 1.5 lakh Hutch GPRS users, against
10,000 customers calculated in February 2003, while MMS
usage has increased to 60,000 MMSs per day from an average
of 3,000 MMSs in February last year.
Hutchinson
Max Telecom Pvt Ltd is planning an increased focus on
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and other value-added
service applications.
MMS
would be a driver of non-voice based service over the
next 12 months in Asia and world over MMS revenues would
be more than six times by 2007, compared with all other
messaging services, Nagpal said.
Nagpal,
quoting an International Data Corporation (IDC) study,
said MMS would post a 50 per cent growth in Asia-Pacific
region in 2004 and would replicate the present success
of MMS.
Live
video clips, gaming, cartoons and wall papers are the
present MMS-based services of the company.
The
company is also providing video clips of select moments
of the ongoing India-Pakistan series over GPRS handsets,
apart from scores and commentaries of the game through
dial-in services, he said.
Hutch
would be levying applicable air-time charges for the dial-in
services, he said.
Voice mail, caller line identification, SMS-based information and services are the value-added services of the company.
The
company had being providing MMS-based services, since
its launch of GPRS-based operations in February 2003,
he added.
