There was a time when Music was art and Art was holy. The artist was worshiped for his magnificent work. Today things haven’t changed drastically but there have been minute modifications in the system. There used to concerts and public exhibitions, now’s the age of auctions. An artist waits for his work to be watched and the wait simply keeps getting longer.
SaffronArt.com is one of those online portals that displays such art work giving contemporary Indian art a chance to be viewed and purchased globally. Earlier at WATBlog we saw artists pricing their works for as high as Rs.1.75 million. With online auction, even more potential buyers, from all over the world have a chance to go through the works and bid for it. But with more and more competitors there has to be something unique which will help them stand out in a crowd. Hence they have launched their mobile application that anyone can download on their mobile. It can be further used as a comprehensive application using which a user can place his bid via mobile.
The application functions on most Java enabled mobile phones. They claim the app to be fully equipped with all the features of website bidding, and would have uninterrupted access to SaffronArt’s auctions. Dinesh Vazirani, CEO and Co-founder of SaffronArt said, “By providing clients with this cutting-edge and comprehensive application, we hope to accelerate the pace of innovation in the global auction space.”
The Prerequisites -
- A Java-enabled mobile device – which includes devices from common brands such as BlackBerry and Nokia. You can view compatible devices here.
- A functioning data connection (often referred to as a GPRS or EDGE connection). If you do not have one, please contact your mobile operator.
- A valid SaffronArt Login ID and password. If you are not registered with SaffronArt, please click here to register. You can use your Login ID and password to monitor auctions including estimates, current bids, bid histories, view images, winning bids, etc.
- If you wish to bid via your mobile, you also need to be pre-registered for the relevant auction, and have been approved to bid by Saffronart. Please click here to pre-register for the Autumn Online Art Auction on September 9-10, 2009.
There are other players besides SaffronArt who have gone mobile to accelerate innovation in the the global auction space. Getting the mobile subscribers to download an application which can help them do the same things they would do by going online, may not be easy as adoption for mobile downloadable apps is low. But it nevertheless expands their reach and is quite appropriate from global and for Indian markets as well where mobile phone penetration is much higher than online.
