FIRSTOUCH: India's first Regional Smartphone

FIRSTOUCH is a revolution in the mobile industry. Clearly devoted towards first time Internet and Smartphone users, the Regional Smartphone OS is all set to stun the market place.

With a vision to build an end-to-end ecosystem, FIRSTOUCH introduces India’s first-of-its-kind regional Smartphone Operating System. On the same, Retailer Media caught up with Rakesh Deshmukh, CEO, FIRSTOUCH.

To start with, from where did the idea of a “desi” operating system came from?

Our journey started in 2011-2012, when we were doing some work in android customisation for the Burmese market. We got a customer in Myanmar, who wanted to customise the android to support Burmese language. After this work was done, we started exploring opportunities for the same in India, where a mass chunk of population was not comfortable with English language. So we thought that something has to be done for Indian market, as there are very few companies working in this area to bridge this digital gap.

And after an in-depth study of the Indian market, what we learnt was, android needs to be customised for the Indian market as well. And the focus was on tier II and tier III cities where people are not that tech savvy.

In this Samsung vs Apple era, what is the future of this business 5-10 years from now?

One of the bigger opportunities in India today lies in the 85% of the population who still does not use smart-phones. In the coming years, this 85% of population will shift to smartphones. These are the belt that is going to use Internet and smartphones for the first time, so there is a lot to achieve from this market in the coming years.

If you look at the big giants like Samsung & Apple, all their initiatives for Indian market are very limited. Even if you see their language integration programme, it was a big fail. What they did was over the top implementation of Hindi language which was, indeed, very tough and confusing for users.

FIRSTOUCH’s value proposition to this market is very different as our target customers will be the first time smartphone users and so we have a very user friendly interface which is easy to understand and fun to use.

Tell us more about your alliance with Google and ILIA (Indian Language Internet Alliance)?

Regional Mobile Eco-System is a vast and continuous task where all the stakeholders come together to provide solution for consumer needs.

Now, when a consumer is using a Smartphone for the first time, regional operating system (OS) becomes a critical part in regional eco-system development.

Google has understood the value of our offering and invited us to be the founding member of Indian Language Internet Alliance (ILIA) to work together to eliminate various hurdles to accessing Indian language content on the Web, primarily focusing on creating standards for Indian languages to improve discoverability.

Please put some light of the investment front of FIRSTOUCH?

When we started building this platform, the first language which was incorporated was Gujarati, and during this phase, only we got hooked up with an angel investment.

Now we are at a stage where we are hooked up with multiple brands in India and to give more values to our customers, we are seeking for more funds. Currently, we are in talks with some angel investors and very soon we will have one.

What are your expansion plans (if any)? Are you planning to come up with some other product/ services apart from this?

As I mentioned earlier, FIRSTOUCH is for those who will be using smartphone for the first time. And being a first time user, there are plethora for services and features which people won’t be aware of. We might get in alliance with the eCommerce space to provide discount solutions, ease the payment mechanism etc. We could also expand in news update, alert messages etc., but this is just a thought as of now.

For your regional app store App Bazaar, what sort of payment gateway you prefer other than electronic cards?

In India, only 8 million people own a credit card out of the total 900 million mobile phone users. So, there is a clear demand in the market to identify other payment procedures.

FIRSTOUCH is the first provider where you can purchase content through carrier billing.

To make it convenient for regional users, most of whom don’t have credit cards, FIRSTOUCH has linked app download and usage to carrier billing. Users will pay their telecom operator for the paid content. Moreover, since their customers are just shifting from feature phones, they may not have email accounts. So their phone’s IMEI number (unique to every handset) becomes their user ID instead. The company has integrated operator billing gateway so that App Bazaar users are not depended on credit card purchase.

Which is the most preferable mode of sale (online/ offline) for such a unique business model? And how do you plan on acquiring pan-India vernacular market?

FIRSTOUCH is not a handset but an OS that we are giving to the brands to sell it in the market. Now, as per consumer buying is concerned, probably, the price range should be less than Rs. 8,000 phone. Majority of the devices will be bought through offline channels, but what I also see is Tier I cities will play a vital role in the widespread of this OS online.

What Geo-metrics do you use to understand the requirement and need for this smart-phone in a particular area? Or you just hit and try?

We have done a lot of ground research in various areas of the country. We understand the requirement of a particular area. Say for example, in Gujarat, people are business minded and they need voice recording service in their phone. Same ways in some areas, people prefer reading horoscopes first thing in the morning. We always want to understand the need and challenges of the consumers and work in accordance to that only.

Being a ‘desi’ phone, how good is the eCommerce sector for you? And how do you prefer promoting your phone, as online promotion won’t be that effective in tier III cities?

Online indeed is a very critical medium for the sale of a product, but when it comes to tier III cities it becomes redundant. We are largely relying on traditional promotions such as banners, hoardings etc. We are also trying to figure out the pros and cons of online/ offline promotion. Let’s see where it goes.

Do you have any market rivals? Or you just want to run a parallel but a small market with current monsters like Samsung and Apple?

FIRSTOUCH is an operating system and it has to go along with the device. So, ideally speaking, we are not competing with anyone but partnering with various brands in India. We do not believe in being the competitors, but want to add values to the ecosystem. Using FIRSTOUCH does not take away your android accessibility. Consumer can switch to either one anytime they want. But idea is to let people enjoy their first time smartphone experience using simple interface.