Posted on 02/14/2008 2:28:36 PM PST by webschooner
India has already built the world's cheapest car – the £1,250 Tata Nano – now the country has unveiled the telecoms equivalent: the £10 "people's phone".
The mobile handset, developed by Spice, the Indian telecoms group that is listed in Bombay and worth £1 billion, is angled at the very lowest end of the market.
This means the phone has jettisoned all "non-essential" features – such as a screen. "It is just a phone," said Bhupendra Kumar Modi, the Spice chairman, who hopes to sell about 10 million in the next year.
Mobile phones priced under about £20 account for only about a fifth of the global market.
The telecoms industry expects the number of people owning a mobile phone to grow from 3 billion to at least 4 billion over the next three years.
With the "people's phone", Spice is joining the race to sell handsets to the up-and-coming new generation of Asian, African and South American consumers dubbed "the next billion".
The company will begin selling its people's phone in Asian markets from next month. Spice has already suggested prices can be stripped down further and that a £5 mobile is not far away.
Cheap products from India are already making waves around the globe, though British shoppers are likely to have to wait to feel the ripples.
Since the Nano, the world's cheapest automobile, was unveiled last month, its manufacturer, Tata, has been inundated with queries from non-Indians asking whether they can buy "the people's car".
The 33bhp two-cylinder vehicle is priced at 1 lakh (or 100,000 rupees, about 1,250 pounds), excluding taxes. The base model will cost about 130,000 rupees on the road - a sum that would buy a stereo system for a BMW.
Tata says it will export the Nano to the UK and other overseas markets eventually – but not for about three years.
Meanwhile, India, the world's fastest-growing market for mobile phones is a prime target for mobile manufacturers.
It is estimated that more than 870 million of India's 1.1 billion population are yet to own a phone. Mobile subscribers in the country are expected to more than double in the next three years, to 500 million.
The remainder of the "next billion" are not being overlooked. Nokia, the world's largest manufacturer, is experimenting with cheap handsets that can be used for mobile banking in Africa. Motorola, its American rival, has showed off a bicycle-powered device, which it suggested could sell well in China.
Tech Ping
Will Jugdish use it?
Is that legal?
What a concept. I want one.
Cool - new drivers with cell phones. Wonder if they will top the list of most-accident-prone-country in 2008.
They’re late to the party.
I bought a pay-as-you-go phone at Walmart last year for $20.00. Soon after I bought mine they dropped the price to $15.00. No camera, no internet, just a phone.
Bought the minute doubler option, minutes cost me 8 cents each. No monthly charge.
Why don’t we buy all our cheap stuff from these guys, instead of the communist Chinese?
I must be missing something. We’ve gotten our last four cell phones free with the service contracts.
What brand was that? I used to have the Net Ten that cost about $20 and was always ten cents per minute.
Motorola made the phone. Tracfone is the phone company.
What and not have the ability to take movies and pictures, send e-mail, cruise the internet, do my banking, fire .25 cal shots, scan my physiology, etc. Why this November I hope to have my phone make the selection of whom to vote for me. :-)
That's kind of like, "Free Widgets, but the box they come in costs $100." "I don't want the box." "Sorry, you have to buy the box to get the widgets."
So you get the phones "free", but you sign up for a two year contract with a minimum monthly charge for 24 months, and a hefty fine if you opt out early. Doesn't sound "free" to me.
Oh, you're paying for them, just as part of the monthly fees instead of up front.
I don’t know. The only restrictions are that you have to buy more minutes every few months. Or they turn off the phone. Of course you can have it turned back on by buying more minutes if that happens.
You choose what area code you want. You can change your area code/phone number 2x a year with no charge.
I used to use one of these Motorola phones while at work (usually around machines- oil, coolant and metal dust).
In India, these cost about 1300 rupees, that is approx. 30 dollars.
Large battery that holds a charge for over a week, doing about 15 calls a day, a good set of keys and plenty of features, to do just about anything a phone should, and more. Besides, these phones are compact.
However, I think Motorola discontinued these recently.
They didn't call them bricks for nothing!!
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