Cellphones for All: The $20 Mobile Phone
June 30th, 2005 | by amarfresh |EETimes reports that Philips may soon have a phone which retails for under 20 bucks.
The Nexperia cellular system platform — including integrated hardware and software constituting the electronics needed in a mobile phone — should drive GSM handset costs below $20, according to Thierry Laurent, Philips Semiconductors’ executive vice president of business development. The long-term goal, said Laurent, is to drive down total handset cost to below $15 by 2008.
The company said “ultra low-cost” handsets will fuel fast-growing demand in regions like China, India, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe.
Apparently they are targeting populous regions, with large numbers in the lower class who can’t necessarily afford the latest technology. On one side I see this as technology for the masses; but there are obvious concerns. Mobile content providers will have a whole new market for their premium services. Let’s hope the carriers and content providers where these phones are to appear excercise responsibility when attempting to monetize the bright-eyed users of this “new” (to them) technology. We don’t need Crazy Frog complaints in these new markets.
Link (via [The Lockergnome](http://channels.lockergnome.com/mobile/archives/20050629_philips_readies_platform_for_sub20_mobile_handsets.phtml))