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November 01, 2005
Motorola targets developing countries with lower cost phones
Motorola is planning to sell two million handsets in Africa for less than US$30 each in its bid to take market share away from Finland's Nokia. In emerging markets of Asia and the Middle East Motorola is expecting to sell a further four million handsets.
World cellular industry body GSM Association (GSMA) recently awarded Motorola a tender to “connect the unconnected” as part of the emerging markets handset programme.
The phones can handle voice and text messages, but are devoid of fancy features such as cameras, e-mail and internet access.
Motorola's new phones which will mainly target rural communities that do not have access to electricity, will have batteries to last up to three weeks.
In a bid to reduce mobile phone call charges Motorola and Intel have announced a joint effort to push development of the WiMAX wireless standard based on the proposed IEEE 802.16e standard, for both fixed and wireless broadband applications.
Intel and Motorola, both being members of the WiMAX Forum, aim to jointly ensure network and device interoperability issues are addressed adequately.
WiMAX networks are likely to be available mainly in urban areas, with the advantage not only of a broadly available network for Internet access, but also for making cheap voice calls and a range of other potential services.
About 75 per cent of the world’s population live in areas covered by cellular networks yet only 25 per cent own and use handsets, largely due to the cost. There are two billion cellular subscribers worldwide today.
Posted by admin at November 1, 2005 05:07 AM