The Middlemen

Mobile Magic

One of the oldest players in the arena, Mobile Magic, has more than sixty operational outlets in ten states-Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal, UP, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. The company focuses only on tier-2 and tier-3
cities. The chain of retail mobile stores, which operates on both self-owned and franchisee model, offers mobile handsets and accessories, cellular plans bundled with value added services, mobile repairs and software.

Magic has tied up with gaming companies to offer access to cheaper and better mobile games. The company also provides multi-brand services and has a Mobile Magic Institute of Technology (MMIT), an in-house training center which trains engineers who can offer service and a complete testing facility for manufacturers/operators to test their products before launch. The company is considering giving a six-month warranty from its end on all products bought at its retail stores, in addition to the warranty offered by the manufacturing company.

Mobile Magic has plans of opening 300 showrooms by 2007 end and will soon start their outlets in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan.

MobileNxt Teleservices

MobileNXT is the country's first and largest pan-India chain of retail stores offering mobile phones, connections, operator services, value added services, accessories, exchange and after sales service. It is headquartered at Bangalore and currently runs forty stores spread over Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Hubli, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Manipal, Mysore, and Salem covering all the regions of India. The products and service offerings include GSM handsets from the top manufacturers, CDMA bundles from Reliance and Tata, GSM and CDMA services, value added services, accessories, exchange and after sales service. It also has struck strategic sales tie-ups with Shoppers Stop and Tata's Star India Bazaar. MobileNXT has also opened a virtual store for corporates. These stores are present only in Motorola offices across the country specifically to promote the brand. The virtual store would provide both online and offline services to its customers.

Subhiksha, a big name in the retail business, has around 500 outlets in the country, and has also taken the bait of the mobile opportunity. It started with the mobile business in Delhi, and is now expanding to other cities. As per its managing director R Subramanian, Subhiksha is planning to open shop-in-shops in all of its existing stores across the nation. This retail company is all set to invest Rs 300 crore in its mobile retail business in the near future.

A New Idea
As more and more people become tech savvy, the idea of a mobile store selling its products online is not a bad idea. Though portals like Indiatimes, Rediff or NDTV shopping sell mobile phones along with other items online, Chennai-based UniverCell has gone one step ahead by selling mobile phones and all other accessories online. It is focused only on the mobile business, unlike other portals. UniverCell is selling mobile phones through its website, UniverCell.In. All you need is a credit card to buy your favorite phone next time. The cool feature about UniverCell is that it lets you compare phones side-by-side just like in the showroom, and helps you to arrive at a decision. It stocks almost all the models introduced in India by Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, LG, Samsung, and others at both higher and lower end of the price band.