"Real market in India is the unorganised sector"

Cellebrite is an established global leader in providing mobile data transfer solutions. While targeting newer markets like India, the company is first educating the consumers about the product and the company, says Dave Golding, General Manager, Cellebrite APAC.

Please share a brief profile of the company. What kind of data solutions do you offer?

Founded in 1999, Cellebrite is an established global leader in mobile data transfer. The company has 2 divisions namely – the Cellular Retail Division and the Forensic Division. In the retail sector, Cellebrite has distributed more than 100,000 in-store units to 150 retail customer sites worldwide, supporting more than 250,000,000 transactions a year. Cellebrite enjoys a 90 percent market share in the US and Europe. In 2007 Cellebrite was bought by Sun Corporation of Japan, a listed Japanese company based in Nagoya, Japan.

Cellebrite develops advanced mobile data solutions for two distinct markets: mobile in-store solutions for the retail sector and mobile data extraction, decoding and analysis solutions for mobile forensics.

What is the range of services that Cellebrite provides to its customers? 

Our main business is TBR – Transfer, Backup and Restore. Cellebrite products enable transfer of data from old to new phone. In addition, the products perform phone diagnostics, apps uploading and content delivery and analytics. Mobile phone users can rely on our solution to transfer all the relevant data in a secure and reliable manner.

What are the services that Cellebrite provides in the Forensic space?

In the forensic department, we are extracting logical data (which is currently in the phone) and critical (deleted) data. We are one of the two companies in the world that can extract deleted data. Our target audience for these solutions are the law enforcement bodies, police and private detective agencies.

What are the different platforms that your software is compatible with?

The core of Cellebrite’s business is the ability to support GSM and CDMA phones, transferring across platforms seamlessly. It supports all major mobile OS’s including: BlackBerry, iOS, Android, Nokia, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm and phones manufactured with Chinese chipsets.

What is the cost to install Cellebrite solutions?

Cost of running the Cellebrite software in the PC can be approximately $500, while purchasing the touch unit can be around $1,700. The expenses primarily depend on the customers’ budget and capex expenditure, among others.

For example, in South America there is a huge importation value. In countries like Brazil, where price remains a deciding factor, selling a PC based solution at half the price becomes an attractive proposition.

Are retailers in India willing to adopt such solutions?

India is a huge potential market. Since India is a price conscious market the desktop solution is a good proposition in this region.

Who is your target audience in the Indian market and overseas?

There is a huge number of mobile shops, dealers, mom-and-pop stores in the country. The major mobile operators like Vodafone and Bharti Airtel have their retail shops and other players are gradually following their suit. Apart from these large mobile operators, there exist mobile retail chains. For example, in the US market Cellebrite sells to all tier-I operators – AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile. Cellebrite also provide its service to major retail chains like Walmart, Best Buy to name a few.

So, you are targeting the mom-and-pop stores too?

Currently, Cellebrite is approaching the organised sector. But the real market in India is the unorganised sector. The independent shops occupy major share of the market. Most of these small shops have in house PCs which can support Cellebrite software. In case a dealer chooses to charge, he will be generating instant profit thus ensuring ROI. If he chooses not to charge, he can differentiate from competitors by giving better customer service.

Which are the highest paying markets for you?

North America and Western Europe are the two biggest markets, where we sell to all tier-I operators like Vodafone, Orange and T Mobile. Also to other big large retail like Car phone Warehouse in the UK, Australia, China, and Thailand.

While in newer markets like India, we tend to educate the consumers not only about the product but also about the company.

What major steps being adopting to create awareness in the Indian market?

Cellebrite has lined up various activities to educate potential customers in the Indian market. The company is looking and evaluating schemes and propositions to approach the privately held shops. Customers from such independent shops can directly contact Cellebrite through the websites and order directly. In Western Europe and Northern America a large part of our orders come via our website.