Vodafone introduces ultra low cost handsets
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: To enable millions of people in the developing world to experience the connectivity a mobile phone can offer, two new ultra low cost handsets has been launched by Vodafone.
Vodafone 150 and the Vodafone 250 offer voice and SMS services, polyphonic ringtones, 2 integrated games, a vibrating alert, memory for up to 100 phonebook entries, a 500mAh battery (up to 400 hours standby and up to 5 hours talk time) and it will operate on GSM 900/1800.
The handsets will be launched in India, Turkey, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Qatar, South Africa and Tanzania at a price of US$15 and US$20 respectively.
According to Patrick Chomet, Vodafone’s Group Director of Terminals, the cost of mobile handsets can be one of the most significant barriers for people in accessing and benefiting from the growing number of socially valuable mobile services.
Amoi leveraging Agere chipset for low-cost handset
SHANGHAI, China — Mobile handset maker Amoi is among the first Chinese companies to leverage silicon for ultra low cost phones, saying it will use a recently introduced chipset from Agere Systems that includes MP3 playback to bring its bill of materials cost down to around $30.
The notion of adding an extra feature onto stripped down ultra low cost handsets (ULCH) is sometimes referred to as ULCH+1—the feature may be MP3 playback or FM radio. It reflects a belief that even cost-conscious buyers in developing markets will still want a little frill with their handsets.
Agere introduced its low-cost MP3 chip platform Sept. 25, and is targeting markets such as India and China. The X125 platform supports stereo audio playback at decode rates up to about 300 kbits/second, enough for even the most muscular music-compression algorithms. It is designed for EDGE networks, where 180- to 230-kbit/s download rates are suitable for music streaming. A GPRS version is expected in about a month.
Although the chip with a $30 bill of materials can support a VGA camera, Amoi will opt only for MP3 playback, said Daling Zhou, manager of Amoi’s R&D department. The company did not say when the phone would hit the domestic market or what the retail price would be.
The market for ultralow-cost handsets is expected to grow quickly over the next three to four years, as more than two-thirds of new subscribers come from developing countries. Market watcher iSuppli Corp. estimates that ultralow-cost handsets, lumped in with entry-level devices, will account for 35 percent of the market in 2006, or about 308 million units.
Source- http://www.eetimes.com
