December 31, 2025: Mumbai’s entry into the digital age was driven less by product launches and more by how technology was sourced, repaired and circulated. In the early 2000s, computers were not lifestyle products but functional tools assembled from components, upgraded gradually and kept running through neighbourhood technicians. Lamington Road in Grant Road became central to this ecosystem, operating as a dense network of parts dealers, repair shops and informal trust-based exchanges. Its strength lay in proximity and immediacy, allowing buyers to compare, bargain, fix problems and leave with a working system in a single visit.
The same logic guided mobile phone adoption. Devices were chosen for durability, battery life and signal strength, and often used for years. Availability frequently outweighed branding, with imported models entering the city through informal channels. Lamington Road handled accessories and repairs, Heera Panna became known for imported gadgets, and inner-city wholesale markets such as Manish Market supported phone and component distribution when formal retail was still limited.
Connectivity shaped behaviour as much as hardware. Home internet was largely dial-up, making online access time-bound and communal, with cybercafés filling the gap. Early mobile data services and broadband definitions pointed to future potential, but usage remained constrained by network capacity. These limitations influenced how digital habits formed and what businesses emerged.
Mumbai’s role as a distribution hub helped it produce early digital entertainment companies. Indiagames and Nazara Technologies began operating well before smartphones became widespread, building models that later scaled nationally and globally. Competitive gaming also took shape through cybercafés and college events, establishing communities before online platforms matured.
The major shift came when data became affordable. The launch of low-cost, high-speed mobile internet in 2016 made connectivity continuous, video routine and smartphones the primary screen. Gaming, content creation and discovery adapted rapidly, even as platform dependence introduced new vulnerabilities through regulation and policy.
By the mid-2020s, faster networks, formal retail and regulatory frameworks had caught up. Yet older systems persisted alongside newer ones. Over 25 years, Mumbai’s consumer technology landscape evolved from assembly to infrastructure, shaped consistently by access, constraint and everyday use.
Source: Mumbai Mirror
