In a previous post, I talked about a low-cost $15 phone. The GSM Association promoted development of a mobile phone costing less than $30 with a contest. Motorola won, and is now developing phones for Bangladesh, China, India and Russia. Now GSM is pushing development of phones costing less than $15, which should speed global handset adoption even further.
Not all phones in developing countries will be low-end. Once developing countries have low-cost phones, companies will continue to upsell phones and services. According to an April 2005 IDC study, China will have nearly 100 million 3G subscribers by 2009.
Fifteen dollar cell phones are really pushing it, especially since cell phone batteries cost about $15 or so. I’ve actually considered buying one of those $20 tracefones or whatever they’re called just to get a battery and “charger” for some of my electronic projects.