Vodafone and Airtel Apps: Ready to take on Jio app services?!
RJIL has been completely ready to take on Airtel and other incumbent operators. Jio’s 4g network work at amazing speed and quality , and seeing these amazing services from Jio, other carriers are reattempting to Establish themselves in telecom market.Therefore they have also started providing premium applications services to their customers .Here is the comparison...
Vodafone Play
Vodafone India yesterday launched its all new app called Vodafone Play in a bid to take on Jio’s free apps in the app industry. While apps are a great way to provide exclusive content you loyal customers and ensure they stay on your site and network and consume data, this latest attempt by Vodafone looks like a hurriedly assembled hack job.
Firstly, as an exclusive launch offer, 4G subscribers will get 3 months free subscription to Vodafone Play & all its partners apps. 3G subscribers too can this offer, but only for a month.
Jio on the other hand, still gives their customers access to 11+ apps and it’s exclusive content for free till December 2017.
The main reason the Vodafone Play app is unimpressive is because it resembles a mirror site with no content to call it’s own, just an app that redirects you to Ditto TV, Hungama Play, Sony Liv, Hooq etc, most of which have to be downloaded separately.
The two Jio apps i.e. JioPlay and JioTV in comparison, have their own streaming service with access to Hotstar Premium account and a huge database of bollywood and hollywood movies.
Coming to the pricing, while Jio apps are free for another year and three months, Vodafone Play is free till the end of the year 2016. The sites which have a tie-up with the Vodafone app for example Hungama PLAY charges Rs. 199/month and Hooq subscription charges Rs. 249/month post the free trial offer, and data charges separately. Only the subscription will cost you upto 450/ per month (non-premium access) where you could otherwise be accessing all this content for free with Jio apps.
Another interesting point is that the user needs to give consent for recurring payment of
Rs 199/month post free trial period is over and can only deactivate recurring payment by sending SMS STOP to 155223. Seems like a lot of work for and vodafone has done nothing to make the experience any easier for the user.
Upon activation of Vodafone Play, you will be also receiving sms with a secret password to access Hungama Play but you have to install the app first, which you could directly from the marketplace also without going through the Vodafone app. Similarly, you have to download the Hooq app as well.
Both these apps can be downloaded and accessed for free by new users to the app only and will not work for existing customers.
Another surprising and hilarious bit of news is that this “Vodafone Play Offer” went live on the 15th of April and Vodafone did not go public till 3rd of October 2016!! The terms and conditions page also states that Vodafone India reserves the right to extend or shorten the Offer Period, as it deems fit.
Airtel
Airtel has its own set of apps; Wynk Music and Wynk Movies that are meant for entertainment.
Here’s a brief analysis of their functions.
Wynk Movies.
Wynk movies is again functions as nothing more than a redirecting app and accesses content from various other entertainment apps such as Eros Now and Sony LIV, DailyMotion etc. It is also linked to the Hooq app which redirects you there for all the movies related content. With Eros Now and Hooq the subscription runs upto Rs.310/month
As an app, Wynk Movies is extremely buggy, it has no unsubscribe feature and cancellation in between a subscription is prohibited. The reviews online for this app online are terrible with many people complaining that it crashes while playing video. Also Airtel initially offered its users free data in exchange for downloading the app.
Wynk Music
Wynk Music is a famous Airtel app that boasts of a large 2.5 million song database from every stream, The base app is free for all users and the premium pack rates are cheaper for Airtel customers and a little more expensive for Non Airtel customers ie it otherwise comes at a rate of Rs.120/ month. First month subscription is free as a trial offer for everyone. While Wynk is a pretty well functioning app, you can only access it properly after subscription but again this app too is extremely buggy like Wynk Movies. In conclusion, the Wynk music has a long way to go if it wants to be spoken in the same breath as iTunes or Spotify.
It seems like incumbents are scrambling to get on top of the entire Jio fiasco that has almost ended their monopoly over the telecom market. They are now resorting to blatantly ripping off Jio plans and services in a bid to retain customers, but are failing to do so as their products neither have the quality nor the understanding of the indian consumer market.
Meanwhile the people can rest easy as they already have free access to Jio apps and services for free till the end of 2017.
