The Hindu Business Line : ‘Spice’ing up the global phone market

Interested delegate: Spice Telecoms Global Chairman, Dr B. K. Modi, in Barcelona to launch the companys People Phone, finds an interested delegate: the leader of the American hip hop band Black Eyed Peas. –

Barcelona, Feb. 14 Indians are not just potential users of budget mobile phones, they make them as well. This was the audacious message that desi service provider Spice Telecomm, delivered on Day Two of the world’s biggest gathering of the GSM mobile industry.

Launching into handsets for a world market, the Spice ‘People’s Phone’ is a starkly simple $20 device, ultra light, and forsaking a screen. “This is for the millions who just want to make voice calls and send SMS messages,” Global Chairman of Spice, Dr B.K. Modi, told Business Line in a privileged briefing. “I am looking at a big market, from Iraq to Indonesia.”

Completely designed in India, the phone has an interesting variant, that comes with a braille key pad for the visually challenged.

Movie phone

With a canny eye on the young and restless ( and entertainment-crazy) generation, Spice also unveiled what is touted as a world-first Movie Phone designed for DVD quality viewing for up to 3.5 hours of movies on a sharp 2.8-inch TFT screen.

The launch came only a day after Nokia launched its own entry-level camera and colour phones for India, bringing these features for the first time at price points of Rs 3,499 and Rs 1,800 respectively.

Since these phones too have Indian DNA in their development, it would seem that creating compellingly priced phones for the world is emerging as an Indian niche.

More Stories on : Telecommunications | New Products & Services

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page