$20 mobile phones by 2007

Bhaskar Hazarika

NEW DELHI: The long cherished dream of IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran to have $20 mobile phones for India is likely to come true in the first half of 2007.

This would be possible because Infineon Technologies AG is coming up with the second generation ultra low cost single chip for mobile phones at $16.

Infineon offers semiconductor and system solutions for automotive, industrial and multimarket sectors, for applications in communication and memory products.

Tan Weng Kuan, vice-president and general manager (Entry Phone Business Unit), Infineon, said that the second-generation single chip platform would prove to be highly lucrative for the mobile handset manufactures in India.

“With the government looking at rural connectivity, this will help mobile operators to manufacture mobile phones at a cheaper cost to tap the rural market. This is the first single chip platform for manufacturing low cost phones,” Kuan said.

Phones built on this single chip would have voice and message along with polyphonic ringtones facility. However, according to Kuan, a manufacturer can also add various other features like the camera, radio, MP3 and loudspeaker facility, for which they will have to add chips for each application.

“A manufacturer can go for both black and white display as well as colour display without making any addition changes in the chip. This will be entirely decided by the manufacturer if he is looking at a low-end phone,” Kuan.

“India is an attractive market for us with much initiative from the government on the rural front. We are currently in talks with mobile manufacturers for offering this new chip. However, we will start shipping this ultra low cost chips from early part of 2007,” he added.

© CyberMedia News