You need more than FM.
When I worked for Sony Ericsson, I had the task of traveling the world to learn about how people used mobile phones in different places. I went to rural India. The real expert was the Nokia anthropologist Jan Chipchase so much of my work was just reading his research. Bear in mind that this work was done over a decade ago and was for feature phones, but I suspect that much still holds true.
India needs special phones. In poor areas your phone is a status symbol, but it has to have utility. It’s why Chipchase added a torch. Farmers who go out at night to turn on the irrigation want torches. There are a lot of power cuts and batteries are expensive. A radio also adds justification to this major purchase.
India has four religions: Hindu, Muslim, Bollywood and Cricket. It is the secular ones of these which dictate phone requirements. Most cricket is (or was) broadcast on AM, so we added AM to the Sony Ericsson phones. The country is loud. Everywhere is noisy, so we added big speakers, particularly for listening to Bollywood music.
We also learned a lot about resale value, supply chain, dust (lots of it), language support and regionalisation. We debated adding a field in the phone book for caste, but were told that people just know. A bit like gaydar.
It was a long time ago, before apps and before the kitchen sink attitude to features. We had Cybershot phones for photography and Walkman for music fans. There was proper consumer segmentation for devices. MeitY is right in wanting features that suit the nation but it’s a lot more than FM radio.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
