Motorola has announced that is has been selected by the GSM Association (GSMA) to supply the first "low cost" handsets for the association`s Emerging Market Handset (EMH) programme.
GSMA believes that the programme is a critical factor in the social and economic development of markets such as Africa and South Asia.
Stephen Nolan, country manager for Motorola Southern Africa, discussed the impact affordable mobile technology will have on the market, saying: "More than 3 billion people in the world live in areas of wireless coverage but cannot afford wireless services. The creation of a low-cost handset segment will help enable the 1.5 billion people currently priced out of mobile services to be connected.
"In Africa, mobile communication services have expanded rapidly in recent years, but most of the growth has been in urban areas. The rural poor, in many instances, have thus far been excluded. Through cost innovation and the subsequent advent of our low cost C117, we aim to bridge all income groups, connecting the unconnected and making an important contribution to the bridging of Africa`s digital divide."
Globally, Motorola will be offering a family of products built on its new C11x platform, which is optimised for the durability, long talk time and design preferences of emerging markets.
The company has committed to start delivering these products during the second quarter of 2005 at a price point below US$40 (ex-factory) and has a strategic intent to work with GSMA members to develop follow-on products at sub US$30 price points.
The initial global unit volume target for the first six months once shipments begin, is six million handsets. This equates to approximately one per cent of the global handset market. As the programme expands, this new market segment has the potential to add more than a 100 million new connections per year.
The partnership between Motorola and the GSM Association is focused on regions and countries such as southern Africa, India, Philippines, Indonesia and Turkey.
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