Tata Docomo has unveiled a plan that charges on a pay-per-character basis. The cost of each character would be only one-paise-per character. There is 100 paise per rupee and an Indian rupee is the equivalent of 2 U.S. cents. The plan is called Diet-SMS. “The cost of any Diet-SMS will be only one paise per character used, thereby providing complete value to customers,” stated Tata Docomo in a press release. The spaces in between words will not be charged.
Japanese telecommunications company NTT DoCoMo holds 26% market share in Tata Teleservices based in India. Tata and DoCoMo have decided to merge their brands together to create a brand in India. The new brand is called Tata DoCoMo and it will be a GSM service. Tata DoCoMo will be launching in South India first and then gradually spread across the nation. What this means is that we will most likely see a lot more high tech mobile phones leaving Japan and entering the Indian subcontinent. Tata executives must be singing “Jai Ho” right now.
Tata will start taking orders shortly for the world’s cheapest car, the Nano. The car retails for just over $2,000 and will be accessible to people living in India. The cars will actually begin shipping in July. Why is the car so cheap? There is no air conditioning, the steering is manual, the car doesn’t have any airbags, the body of the car is made of sheet-metal and plastic, and the engine is a 624cc two-cylinder. The car maxes out at about 43MPH.
Tata is hoping that people would rather buy this car than motorcycles. Tata is believed not to make a profit from these until about 6 years from now.
“I think we are at the gates of offering a new form of transport to the people of India and later, I hope, other markets elsewhere in the world,” stated Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group. “I hope it will provide safe, affordable four-wheel transportation to families who till now have not been able to own a car.”
A bigger European version of the car is expected to hit the markets in 2011. It would be called the Nano Europa and would cost roughly £4,000.
While being able to sell a car at such a low cost is quite a milestone for the Indian conglomerate company, it won’t do much for the overall revenue of the company. If Tata is somehow able to sell 250,000 Nanos per year, it would add only about 3% of the company’s overall revenues.
