Cheaper color mobile handsets coming up

The Indian mobile customer can hope to get a sub Rs.2000 color mobile handset by next year. This is not it. We might even see sub Rs. 1000 mobile handsets in the market as more and more mobile companies setup their manufacturing units in India.

The mobile service market might finally see the 3G rollout we users have been waiting since so many years. Companies based in Taiwan, China and Korea have already bagged deals to produce low-cost handsets for India.

The Indian government is also hoping to receive fresh investments worth $2 billion in telecom manufacturing next year.

LG GSM division head HS Bhatia spoke about their plans for the Indian market: “I believe that the sub-Rs 2,000 color handset would be possible by mid-2007. Companies are already working on cracking that barrier.”

State owned telecom company BSNL is also talking with Taiwan’s Compal and China’s TCL Communication Technology to launch dirt cheap mobile phones in the country.

Indian Cellular Association chairman Pankaj Mohindroo further claimed: “The sub-Rs 1,000 monochrome handset is possible next year but I see Rs 1,200 emerge as the price point most handset companies would have products available at.”

Motorola has already impressed the market by recently launching their Motofone, priced at Rs 1,600. Nokia also has many decent quality phones started at around Rs. 2000.