Philips to develop a sub Rs. 1000 mobile phone for India

I can remember seeing some very good combo packages in mobile shops offering a mobile phone with a service connection for around Rs 1100. Nevertheless, Philips has announced that they are developing a mobile phone for the Indian market, which would break the Rs 1000 barrier for owning a mobile phone. The company aims to retail this phone for less than Rs 1000 to gain a strong foothold in the Indian mobile market.

Frans van Houten, CEO, Philips Semiconductors was speaking at the inauguration of their new Philips Innovation Centre (PIC) at Hebbal when he said that they are working with local players in India to build USD 20 mobile phone. They expect to be out with this mobile phone sometime next year.

The company would be using their Nexperia range of integrated chips (IC) for mobiles to make this a reality. Philips has achieved success with this technology in the Chinese market and now aim to replicate the model here in India. They are selling handsets at prices around USD 25 in china and now aim to further drop the prices in manufacturing costs.

Philips has seen a 17-20 per cent growth and the revenue out of India this year was Rs 3,000 crore.