In several previous posts, I’ve commented about very low-cost mobile phones for the world.
If you weren’t at the Consumer Electronics Show that ended Thursday in Las Vegas, you probably didn’t see Motorola CEO Ed Zander ride onto the stage for his keynote speech on a bike armed with a mobile phone battery recharger. Motorola’s answer to developing nations’ power problems: a recharger people can use while riding a bike to the market or to work.
Zander also announced plans for a new online music initiative, a mobile e-mail service that syncs with Microsoft Outlook, and plans to put Yahoo Go for Mobile 2.0 software on Motorola handsets.
While other mobile companies are focusing on more and more expensive handsets with cameras and music players, Motorola is targeting emerging markets with cheap handsets with fewer frills. Motorola won the first contest from the Global System for Mobile Communications to supply a low-cost handset under $30 to emerging markets. But they have a HUGE market. India adds 6 million new mobile users a month, and China adds 5 million a month.
“We’re now 2 billion subscribers out of a world population of 7 billion,” Zander said. “It took us 20 years to reach the first billion. It took us three years to get the second billion, and it’s only going to take us two years to get the third billion.”
The reason it took so long to reach the first one billion is because Steve Jobs was not involved in simplifing the industry. It was still run by greed mongers who were only interested in making it more complicated than it needed to be. Now that Steven has arrived, it will be a very different industry in two years.
Yes, he will be concentrating on the top end with the iPhone but it will force the other cell phone companies to play catch-up and all those features that Motorola and Nokia tout as “advanced” will become cookie cutter standard.
Whatever market he enters has seen the old time abusers lose out in the end. Their greed and incompatability do them in.
I missed CES, but during CES, I was attending MacWorld Expo. I saw the iPhone up Close Wow!! I need that Phone. It’s amazing.
It comes out in June, I cant wait for June! I think that Zandar should be pretty scared about Job security. Apple really has the answer here. Soon they’ll have simple phones on the market and things are going to get more difficult for companies such as Motorolla & Nokia.
In Emerging Markets the iPhone could be looked at as an alternative for a computer. This phone is worth a look.
The iPhone may be great for developed countries, but can Apple make them for under $30 for developing areas? But the bigger problem is reliability. I’ve bought iPods, iTrips, and all kinds of other i handheld gadgets for my teenagers and nothing has lasted longer than 6 months!