Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Dec 23, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Dec 23, 2005 |
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Telecommunications Marketing - New Products & Services `Made in India' mobile launched — Maran asks Motorola to make sub-Rs 1000 handset for masses Our Bureau
The Minister for Communications & IT, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, presenting the newly launched Motorola `C 115' mobile phone to a paanwala in the Capital on Thursday, while Mr Firdose Vandrevala, Head of Motorola India and Corporate Vice-President, Motorola, looks on. - - Ramesh Sharma
New Delhi , Dec. 22 THE world's second largest maker of mobile phones, Motorola, on Thursday launched its `Made in India' handset — the C 115 — billed as a common man's mobile at a price tag of Rs 1,700. "I am delighted to see it happening. As much as 98 per cent of the demand in India is voice, and only two per cent is data and value-added services. I am really happy that by December we will be touching the 125-million subscriber mark, a 25-per cent growth in the last nine months. And I am confident that we will achieve the target of 250 million subscribers by 2007," the Communications and IT Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, said here. Lauding Motorola's initiative to price the phone at Rs 1,700, Mr Maran said the company should now look at introducing a phone priced at less than Rs 1,000. "That will be the right phone for the mass market in India," he said. Motorola said the company would continue to make efforts to further reduce the cost of mobile handsets while ensuring that there was no compromise on the quality. The Motorola C 115 has a blue screen with Hindi messaging capability. "C 115 is a mass market phone with high battery life and messaging facility even in Hindi. So it is not short on features," Mr Firdose Vandrevala, Head Motorola (India) and Corporate Vice-President, Motorola Inc, said at a conference here. Phone for all: The launch function also saw Mr Maran presenting first five `Made in India' C 115 phones to a cross-section of audience including an auto-rickshaw driver, a paan shopowner, a wrestler, a nurse and a primary school teacher. Mr Vandrevala said the company had bagged a bulk deal from Hutch for the C 115 and was in talks with other service providers. Commenting on the `Made-in-India' tag, he said, "The designing and software is done in India, and some components have been imported. An integrated manufacturing should happen shortly." The C 115 model is currently being assembled by a multinational company that has operations in India. With an average of over 2.5-million mobile phone subscribers added every month, India is currently one of the fastest-growing telecom markets in the world.
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