Colour Upgrade (anniversary Offer)

[city02 63]

Nearly ninety percent of over seven million RIM subscribers across the country today enjoy dataenabled services. At a time when GPRS was being widely acclaimed, Reliance provided data-enabled, javaenabled phone at the entry level itself. It meant that the lowest-end user could taste the joys of superior technology, thereby creating the largest pool of consumers in the world using 3G services on featurerich handsets.

Soon, Reliance Infocomm also went on to introduce two high-end digital color-screen CDMA handsets - LG RD 7130 and SCH-A563 under the Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer Offer (DAPO). These premium phones, loaded with an appealing blend of the newest features and exciting styling, were custom-built for Reliance IndiaMobile and came in the latest international flip-top style and clamshell design and packed a lot of power for their compact sizes. DAPO subscribers were given the option to buy these new generation handsets at a price of only Rs 15,000, as against the Maximum Retail Price of Rs 25,500.

However, most of the early entrants only had to make themselves content with black & white phones. The Anniversary offer now makes it possible for everyone wanting to have a color phone, a cakewalk. “When we launched the service, we only had Black & White phones on offer. Those who wanted to buy color phones and could not do so then, can now purchase these without suffering any loss. In fact, the Anniversary Offer is so attractive that just about anyone can dream of taking home a color phone now,” says S P Shukla, President, Products & Services.

As the quest to introduce cutting-edge technology continues, efforts are also on to make sure that more and more subscribers are able to experience color handsets. It is to meet this end that RIM has just announced the Anniversary Handset Upgrade Offer, for all RIM owners, including employees. The offer commences from Monday, May 24, 2004, even as you may be reading this. “As a goodwill gesture, in this special Anniversary Handset Upgrade Offer, eligible customers will get special credit for upgrading from their B&W to our wide range of color handsets. The old B&W handset of those desirous of buying color phones will be taken back without any depreciation charge levied on the customer. The same number will be retained on the new color handset of the customer. Normal upgrade from B&W to Color will not apply till the time Anniversary Upgrade Offer is on, that is till July 31, 2004,” informs S P Shukla.

How are customers going to be informed about this offer and when?

“Normally in such a case, we directly talk to customers through a brochure as a bill insert, which would inform them about the offer and they can later visit the WebWorld for more information. We are soon going to send an SMS to our customers, which will be more like a headline, without giving too many details.

The SMS will mention a number that the customer can call to get more information on the product,” answers Kaushik Roy, Head, Marketing Communication.

This wonderful offer is only available as a loyalty reward to customers who are regularly paying their bills. Under this offer, all fully-paid Reliance customers in postpaid schemes like PON, POF, 6350, 4850 and 3350 payment options are eligible to exchange their old phones for new color phones. Reliance employees who have subscribed to the Employee Schemes (EON, EOF) are also eligible for the offer the bottom line in each of the cases being that the customers will only be credited to the extent of the amount that they have actually paid up towards their existing handsets. The Anniversary upgrade offer will be reviewed and may even be opened to fully paid up customers under 501-payment option at a later date.

All eligible customers will have the option to upgrade their B&W handsets to any one of the handsets from a range of PDA (Kyocera 7135), Samsung SCH A603 (RCP), LG RD 7230, GTRAN GCP 4020 (both Standard without camera and Premium with camera) and Telson TWC 1150. Except for the Kyocera 7135 offered to customers on Club Membership option, all above-mentioned handsets are offered to customers on outright sale.

How does the upgrade offer work for different payment options?

Fully paid up customers under 6350-payment option will be given the entire credit of Rs 6350. Customers under PON and POF will get the same credit as 6,350 payment option customers, i.e. a credit of Rs 6,350. The table below illustrates the same.

Customers under 3350 and 4850 payment option will be given a credit of Rs 3350 and Rs 4850 respectively. The credit for the Club Privileges charges paid by the customer till the time s/he upgrades to color handset will also be given in the subsequent bill.

[Ganesh 0]

Marketing Gimmick

for making more money flow to reliance for color handsets

[city02 63]

Marketing Gimmick

for making more money flow to reliance for color handsets

   

who cares if its a gimmick if its true!

many people would love to upgrade their used handsets to colour for full credit!

unheard of...

if only the other operators had similar gimmicks!

[Ashokjp 15]

Sorry, but does that mean colour upgradation free for loyal customers ?

[Ganesh 0]

full credit or nil credit, we have available gsm handsets for half price now with same or better features

for the cost of samsung rcp phone, you get now nokia 6600 which has higher features than rim handsets. for the price of gtran we get motorola e365 with higher features and now with offer for a data cable free

[Chirag 5]

I guess thats the least they could offer! And anyways, vingan rightly pointed out that their Color handsets r absolutely overpriced!

When they cud reduce the rates of the B/W handsets, y dont we see the same for these ones?

[Mahidhar 3]

i think its just a way of getting rid of those plain color mob's because the average user would go in for these ... prob they're all outdated and nobody buys these anymore ...

now that they've come wit this offer, v can expect the prices of the color handsets to crash ...

[emmi 3]

Hey even their camera mobiles way too overpriced. Yesterday when i went to webworld to enquire abt this offer he said they have run out of colour mobiles , and only gtran pieces are available or he said go for camera.The camera prices were 20000 and up .

First they made us pay 21000 for b/w pieces quoting 10500 as thier price now they are offerering some cheap outdated stuff for 20000.

this is toooooooo much.

[neo 0]

hi guys i just enquired from a webworld these are the prices for upgradation for ppl who paid 21000 upfront

gtran w/o cam 5651/-

gtran w cam 7651/-

lg camera phone 14550/-

samsung rcp 15550/-

vinay

[Ashokjp 15]

If thats the offer for ppl who paid 21000 upfront..

Then tats totally a unfair price compared to the gsm ones

[Mahidhar 3]

i frankly dont think their strategy is going to work this time !!! ok ... wht is reliance going to do with the b/w mobs ? i dont think they can do anything with it ... dont c the probability of anyone going in for a second hand b/w... so this means they're still making a lumpsome profit by selling the color ones !

[Mahidhar 3]

was just wondering ... when its possible to upgrade to color models, wil we b allowed to change to another b/w model like the 2130 or 2230 ? will someone b able to find out ? this should be a more interesting offer

[AmanJ 1]

was just wondering ... when its possible to upgrade to color models, wil we b allowed to change to another b/w model like the 2130 or 2230 ? will someone b able to find out ? this should be a more interesting offer 

NO it is'nt possible to upgrade from one black phone to another black'n white phone, i'm sure about it.

[Ganesh 0]

you know people are more cautious nowadays even in buying a pen since they are to be money concious since there are LOT OF THINGS TO BUY.

[Ganesh 0]

but there is one fact about reliance that nobody has been able to beat thier schemes so far. value for money schemes. handsets are of cheap quality with the plastic perspective. software is best in RD2030 and worst in RD7130. what i suppose is since LG took bulk order from reliance, the handset qulaity got reduced bcos of down to earth pricing they had to offer to reliance. now the scenario is that if a cdma customer goes back to gsm, he wont dare(atleast me) to buy an LG handset.

[city02 63]

Sorry, but does that mean colour upgradation free for loyal customers ?

nothing is free!

you will have to pay the difference

Hey we even discussed this in our marketing report!

2nd suggestion/prediction to come partly true:

1st was unbundling the prepaid offer officially (OK that was not rocket science and we wanted the Motorola to be included in the single voucher pricing)

we had suggested an upgrade path for users of any handset to be able to upgrade to any other phone (as opposed to only colour like it is now) but with depriciated credit (maybe 2-3%/month).

still something is better than nothing i suppose

we had also suggested certified used handsets to further lower cost of entry for lower middle class consumers just like maruti has done quite successfully

[niket 0]

Guys,

What ever Reliance wants.. but this offer is something I am waiting for some time.. so I am going to upgrade.!!

Pls tell me.. Which one I should choose.. 1) Samsung RCP 2) LG 7230 OR GTRAN Premium.

[anujit 0]

I've already upgraded once from B/W (DAPO - upfront 3k) to colour availing their Colour Hungama scheme - paying a diff of 1401!

Is there any scheme to upgrade from a colour (Samsumg A563) to a Camera model???

[Chirag 5]

we had also suggested certified used handsets to further lower cost of entry for lower middle class consumers just like maruti has done quite successfully

No wonder they are calling back for their B/W handsets!

So soon we can expect Certified Used B/W handsets for sale from RWW as well! Tht shud be dirt cheap compared to Rs.6350/- for a new B/W handset!!

Well having a mobile these days is no big thing. and having a B/w handset is considered "cheap"! Now this is wht Reliance knows! An average indian has got far more spending power. And hence they want them to spend(to fill their own pockets ) No offence meant, but they have the best marketing policies! None can beat them there!

So guys, jump on to the Colour Hungama!

"Spend" is the keyword here!

[Ganesh 0]

ABSOLUTELY CHIRAG Right said you

[city02 63]

Guys,

What ever Reliance wants.. but this offer is something I am waiting for some time.. so I am going to upgrade.!!

Pls tell me.. Which one I should choose.. 1) Samsung RCP 2) LG 7230 OR GTRAN Premium.

i would avoid the GTRAN premium - it looks the ugliest and bulky also

unless you REALLY need the camera

if you can afford it, go for those with integrated cameras with min 100-200 K pixels

when will they get MMS - a photo is not much use unless you can share it with other MMS users ...

[anujit 0]

Well Chirag you're right - SPEND!!!!

What are we earning more for? Working harder for, if not to BUY better things for ourselves. That is the whole purpose. Nobody works for the satisfaction of working - if we did we'd do it for free (quote - Dilbert!). We do it to get better things (material and otherwise)! Better healthcare, better education, better cars, houses etc and better phones too. I don't think you can blaming RIM (or anyone else) for offering you better products? Course you can still blame them for lying like a stinking weasel about it and hiding a million other costs!

[city02 63]

like a stinking weasel ...

Why hold back?

Why don't you tell us what you REALLY think?!

[niket 0]

i would avoid the GTRAN premium - it looks the ugliest and bulky also

unless you REALLY need the camera

if you can afford it, go for those with integrated cameras with min 100-200 K pixels

when will they get MMS - a photo is not much use unless you can share it with other MMS users ...

Current jatayu MMS client is very basic in nature. In other terms we really can't do real MMS because it lacks animations and video( animated GIF ) also.

In RWW they have demonstration( Fake ) piece of RD 7230 and Samsung RCP . So with out holding real phone how one can judge which is better or which he likes.

RD 7230 and Samsung RCP both comes with 300k cam.. I think only advantage of RD 7230 is capability to capture video and more memory. But in Samsung RCP cam is better positioned and has built-in flash also. And Ya.. rotating screen is awesome.

[Chirag 5]

Well Chirag you're right - SPEND!!!!

What are we earning more for? Working harder for, if not to BUY better things for ourselves. That is the whole purpose. Nobody works for the satisfaction of working - if we did we'd do it for free (quote - Dilbert!). We do it to get better things (material and otherwise)! Better healthcare, better education, better cars, houses etc and better phones too.

oops.. I guess i beg to differ at all those places. I dont earn to get a materialistic life!

Anyways, as far as we had a discussion once over Colour handsets, I guess Samsung is quite sturdy and tamper proof (u cant do much abt the ringtones there). Niket, try meeting a few ppl who use these phones, maybe u can get much better info from them!