India | Fone Arena

Motorola to offer Mobile phone under Rs 2000

The phone has a stand by battery time of two weeks, in case you have forgotten to recharge it. And you can buy it at a store near you or from your mobile service company at the low price of under Rs 2,000 a piece, making it one of the cheapest mobile phones ever to hit the Indian market…

Motorola
The phone has a stand by battery time of two weeks, in case you have forgotten to recharge it. And you can buy it at a store near you or from your mobile service company at the low price of under Rs 2,000 a piece, making it one of the cheapest mobile phones ever to hit the Indian market.

The sub-$40 (Rs 1,657, at last week’s exchange rate) phones will be unveiled in emerging markets across the globe in April. Motorola’s big stop will be India. With three entry level models (C 115, 116 and 117), the GSMA expects the US telecom company to hawk 2 million to 3 million sets in India in the first six months of the launch.

Says Percy Batlivala, general manager, east south Asia, at Motorola’s personal communications business: “Over 70 per cent of global system for mobile customers use phones which cost below $65 (Rs 2,732). The low cost phone will help to open a new market.”

The demand for the phone here has been overwhelming — and not enough handsets may be rolled out at Motorola’s plant in China.

Chinese media firm eyes Indian market

The company is interested in expanding into India’s film, publishing and online markets after a foray into the mobile gaming arena.

BOMBAY: China-focused media firm Tom Group Ltd. is interested in expanding into India’s film, publishing and online markets after a foray into mobile gaming, its chief executive said.

Tom, backed by Hong Kong’s richest businessman Li Ka-Shing, hopes to leverage off its Chinese experience to pursue a range of possible businesses in its southern neighbor from Internet portals to publishing magazines.

“Everyone talks about India and China across industries, and firms from both countries have set up operations in each other’s markets, but we haven’t had such ventures in media,” Sing Wang, Tom’s chief executive officer, said in a interview.

He said cultural and language differences, as well as the regulatory framework in both countries may be hurdles, but were not insurmountable.

The firm is eyeing India’s fast-growing online market.

“I think we’re at the tip of a very large potential market,” added Wang, who was in Bombay for an entertainment conference.

“India’s online market is still very small, with only 30 million registered Internet users — China has twice as many users — and I know mobile phones are taking off very quickly in India,” he said.

The firm, which owns 65 magazine titles, will also look at the publishing market in India, he said.

Film was another area with potential, he said, despite China only permitting 20 foreign films to be imported every year.

“I understand kung fu movies are very popular in India, and I believe Indian films can be popular in China, too,” said Wang.

Tom Group recently acquired a stake in a private Chinese film maker, one of a string of investments the firm has made in Chinese firms after the government introduced new rules to open up China’s growing media business.

“While China has some of the best hardware, it lags behind in software, or content, which is not as sophisticated as India’s”, he added.

Tom’s gaming partner Indiagames, founded in 1999, is the market leader in mobile gaming and provides content for all major Indian mobile operators as well as several global brands. It derives more than 80 percent of its revenues from exports.

“It is a small company, but it is profitable and it’s growing, and we’re very happy with our investment,” said Wang.

Tom Online Games, a subsidiary of Tom Online Inc., is due to complete buying an 80.6 percent stake in Bombay-based Indiagames for US$17.7 million by the end of April.

Tom Online Inc. is a unit of the Tom Group.

Tom Group, a former Internet startup and an associate of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., posted a net profit of HK$860 million (US$110 million) last year. It is targeting a doubling of revenue by 2007, largely on the back of China’s fast-growing media market.

� Reuters

R World generates Rs 1 cr revenue in two days

The company estimates revenue of Rs 25 crore per month from the service which went paid on April 1.

r world
MUMBAI: Reliance Infocomm earned Rs one crore within two days of making its R World service paid. According to the company, the first Indo-Pak one-day match at Kochi contributed much of the Rs one crore revenue. The company estimates revenue of Rs 25 crore per month from R World.

According to the company, the popularity of R World remained high even after it was made paid service on April 1. The Java and Brew-based R World suite offers over 150 applications, including railway ticket booking and exam results, and the charges range from Rs two to Rs 25.

Nokia plant in Chennai soon

The company will be investing around $150 million in the production unit which is expected to begin in the first half of 2006 and eventually employ 2000 people.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

BANGALORE: Nokia has announced that it will set up a manufacturing facility for mobile devices at Chennai in India. The manufacturing unit in Chennai will be Nokia’s tenth mobile device production facility globally. Nokia anticipates investing an estimated $100-150 million in the India production plant.

“Establishing a new factory in India is an important step in the continuous development of our global manufacturing network. We selected Chennai to be the location for the factory thanks to the availability of skilled labor, friendly business environment, support from the state government, good logistics connections and overall cost-efficiency,” said Pekka Ala-Pietil�, President, Nokia.

The construction work at the site of the manufacturing unit will start in April and production is expected to begin in the first half of 2006. Nokia foresees ramping up the factory gradually and the work force reaching approximately 2,000 employees when production is full scale.

Mobile penetration in Asia Pacific is expected to be a major contributor to the global mobile subscriber base surpassing the two billion mark by the end of 2005. A statement issued by the company said that India, being at the heart of the region where mobile communications is growing rapidly, was a natural location of choice for the new production facility.

In India, Nokia is the market leader in mobile devices. Nokia maintains sales, marketing, customer care, and research and development sites in the country.