AIRLINK 62.48 Increased By ▲ 2.05 (3.39%)
BOP 5.36 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.19%)
CNERGY 4.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.43%)
DFML 15.50 Increased By ▲ 0.66 (4.45%)
DGKC 66.40 Increased By ▲ 1.60 (2.47%)
FCCL 17.59 Increased By ▲ 0.73 (4.33%)
FFBL 27.70 Increased By ▲ 2.95 (11.92%)
FFL 9.27 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (2.32%)
GGL 10.06 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (1%)
HBL 105.70 Increased By ▲ 1.49 (1.43%)
HUBC 122.30 Increased By ▲ 4.78 (4.07%)
HUMNL 6.60 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.92%)
KEL 4.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-1.1%)
KOSM 4.48 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-1.97%)
MLCF 36.20 Increased By ▲ 0.79 (2.23%)
OGDC 122.92 Increased By ▲ 0.53 (0.43%)
PAEL 23.00 Increased By ▲ 1.09 (4.97%)
PIAA 29.34 Increased By ▲ 2.05 (7.51%)
PIBTL 5.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-2.36%)
PPL 107.50 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.12%)
PRL 27.25 Increased By ▲ 0.74 (2.79%)
PTC 18.07 Increased By ▲ 1.97 (12.24%)
SEARL 53.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.63 (-1.17%)
SNGP 63.21 Increased By ▲ 2.01 (3.28%)
SSGC 10.80 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.47%)
TELE 9.20 Increased By ▲ 0.71 (8.36%)
TPLP 11.44 Increased By ▲ 0.86 (8.13%)
TRG 70.86 Increased By ▲ 0.95 (1.36%)
UNITY 23.62 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (0.47%)
WTL 1.28 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 6,944 Increased By 65.8 (0.96%)
BR30 22,827 Increased By 258.6 (1.15%)
KSE100 67,142 Increased By 594.3 (0.89%)
KSE30 22,090 Increased By 175.1 (0.8%)

Those who had thought smartphones-of the branded, top-vendor kind--would remain perennially pricey for a rude awakening. Within one month, we now have two of the most prominent tech names, Google and Mozilla, announcing their plans for amazingly low-cost smartphones.
To use Tom Friedmans phrase, technology is a tremendous flattener, thanks to its declining price curve. What Google and Mozilla have announced is a reflection of the cost-effectiveness technology helps bring. Many in the developing countries are set to benefit from the cheap smart handsets helping their lives, livelihoods and businesses in various ways.
In the latest instance, last week, Google Inc. announced its "Android One" smartphone project. The Silicon Valley giant is partnering with a few mobile assemblers to bring smartphones priced below $100 to the Indian market. These phones will run on the recent Googles Android Operating System (OS), and will have functionalities such as micro SD (storage), dual SIM, radio, and a smartphone-sized display.
Second week of June saw Mozilla Corporation--the US-based internet applications developer famous for its Firefox browser-reportedly announce its plans for a $25 smartphone--yes, $25! Mozilla wants to market its Firefox mobile OS against the likes of Googles Android and Apples iOS. It is targeting India and Indonesia's telecom-dense markets where it can potentially significantly grow its mobile OS and attract application developers from rival platforms.
Mozilla has reportedly sold smartphones in various European markets in the $60-100 price range in partnership with a few Chinese manufacturers. So, one can say that a more cost-effective chipset can help it realise the $25 proposition.
There is tremendous upside for low-cost smartphones. Most of Indias 900 million+ and Indonesias 250 million+ cellular users are using basic, feature phones, even though 3G-enabled mobile broadband is now widely available in these two markets. One hopes, Pakistans nearly 138 million subscriptions can also benefit from these ventures through cheaper imports, if not through direct manufacturing here.
These two announcements echo the resolve of visionary technologists like Robert Noyce, "The man behind the microchip" who later co-founded Intel. Noyce had stunned the tech world in 1965 when he announced that his firm Fairchild Semiconductor would sell the integrated circuit chip--his co-invention--at less than dollar a piece, well below cost. But that decision boosted commercial demand, lowered production cost, and became the foundation of modern consumer tech applications and appliances.
Google has also been pushing the frontiers lately. It made it clear last week that it wants to capture "the next billion" smartphones. Technology research firm Gartner estimates 968 million smartphones were sold in 2013, of which 78 percent were running on Android. But thats not enough for Google. It has been striving to get a slice of mobile hardware business. Their Motorola Mobility acquisition, and now this Android One project, indicates that the company will not give up easily.
The global smartphone market is already heating up. eMarketer, a US-based digital market research, recently estimated that a quarter of global population will own a smartphone by 2014 end--or 1.76 billion smartphone users in total. That number is projected to grow by 55 percent to reach 2.73 billion smartphone users by 2018.
But those growth forecasts may be disrupted if top-notch tech firms start marketing smartphones in the price range of feature phones. Albeit these low-cost smartphones will have limited features, but they may sell like hot cakes when they are available at less than a hundred dollars to so many first-time users compared to conventional, top-shelf smartphones being sold in the $400-500 band.
The smartphone devices growth is understandably becoming slow in developed markets. Therefore, the emerging and low-income markets are the focus, where unmet volumes are huge. And that is why there is a singular focus on price by Google and Mozilla. That strategy entails losses on the hardware front. But for the tech warriors, price is a secondary issue. Androids success shows that the real stakes are on the OS front - that is where they make money. Hardware is just a way to get there.

Comments

Comments are closed.