Is it wishful thinking or has he laid out a blueprint of the future? At the World Mobile Congress this week, Sunil Mittal, chairman & group CEO, Bharti Enterprises, declared he wants smartphone prices to drop to sub-$50 levels. That translates to under 2,500, nearly half the current price of the cheapest Android-powered phones. But if any product can defy pricing logic, it is mobiles. So, can you pack in an efficient operating system, apps and email at a much lower cost and still turn in a profit? Yes, with lots of help from processor manufacturers like Qualcomm and MediaTek. The processor and LCD display panels make the bulk of a smartphone cost. As Sunil Raina, chief marketing officer at Lava says, get the chipset cost down and everything else follows. It won’t happen overnight, but sooner than most think. According to In-Stat, a global research firm, the integration of GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and sometimes FM radio onto a single chip dramatically cut costs in 2010. More innovation from chipset manufacturers is in the offing. This is why the research firm predicts Android will ship 339 million low-end smartphones (under $150 each ) by 2015. So how low is low enough? And how smart is smart enough? We suggest you don’t place any bets. Check out the history of smartphones and you’ll know why. In India and globally, they’ve savaged every law there is. Mittal seems bang on, if manufacturers want it bad, they can. The Future Trick...
...Lower the cost of the most expensive component Processor Display/LCD Panels Memory Camera Software Phone Case
In-Stat, a global research and analysis firm, says component prices of smartphones dropped dramatically in 2010. This was possible largely due to integration of GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and sometimes FM radio onto a single chip. It predicts that by 2015, Android will ship 339 millio smartphones under $150 Gartner claims that by 2015, 67% of all open OS devices will have an average selling price of $300 or below
How Smartphones Got Cheap
2002
Nokia launches the first Symbian smartphone is India: the 7650 at 36,000 approximately
2004
Research In Motion enters India with BlackBerry 7730 BlackBerry 7230 and BlackBerry 6230. Their price range is
18,000 -32,000
2009
BlackBerry launches Curve 8520 at 14,990. market perception about the brand shifts from a "senior management" only phone
HTC and Bharti Airtel bring the first Android phone to India: HTC Magic, priced at 29,990
Post-paid plans for BlackBerry Internet Services average 1,200 a month. High recurrent costs prevents penetration of handsets in India
2010
Acer beTouch E110 ushers in the era of sub 10,000 Android phones. A huge hit among the urban and rural customers
Micromax launches Andro A 60 for 6,900. Indian manufacturers enter the high-end market by buying off-the-shelf designs from Chinese manufacturers
2011
Idea launches 3G smartphone, the cheapest Androidpowered phone for 5,850. Bundles with 3G services, claims the effective price is 2,609
BlackBerry slashes price of Curve to 9,990. Students buy smartphones to “BBM” friends
2012
Spice Mobility slashes price of Android Froyo-based Mi-270 smartphone to 3,399 setting a new benchmark for cheap smartphones in India
BlackBerry Go BBM plan now available for 129 a month. Pre-paid users can access the plan for just 5 a day
A Short History of How The Phone Got Smart
1993
IBM Simon
Full name reads IBM Simon Personal Communicator, the world’s first smart phone. (No, it wasn’t a BlackBerry after all) Simon is a mobile phone, pager, fax machine and PDA rolled into one. Wondering about apps? Check out the features list: calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, and games
1996
Nokia Communicator
And the full QWERTY keyboard comes to the phone. It flips open like a wide pencil box (called clamshell design), runs on GEOS V3.0 operating system and allows text-based web browsing. Follow ups: Nokia 9110 and Nokia 9110i
1997
GS88
Much like the Communicator series, the Ericsson device finds a place in history mostly because of the brochure writers: the first time a company calls such stuff “smartphones”
1999
Kyocera VP-210
The world’s first phone with a built-in camera comes from Japan, a company called Kyrocera. It is meant for face-to-face communication so the lens is on the front of the camera. You can’t see the click button if you focus it on anything but yourself
2000
Symbian
The hardware of the device — Ericsson’s R380 — isn’t much to talk about. But it is the first phone loaded with Symbian, the operating system that rules the smartphone world for years to come. Another key innovation: compact and small design
Ericsson T36
It puts in an in-built Bluetooth and every smartphone worth its money has to have one
2001
Kyocera 6035
The first smart phone to be used widely in the US. The 6035 combines a PDA and a wireless phone services and runs on the Verizon Wireless network
2002
BlackBerry 5810
Research in Motion finally gets it right. Two-way pagers give way to a convergent device with the all important push email: one click and all your office communication is at your finger tips. Big hit with senior management world wide
2007
iPhone
First multi-touch smartphone that changes the category altogether. Sleek design with a single home button, users type into the screen. The mysteriously-captioned OS X is a huge hit
Android
A Linux-based operating system Google bought in 2005 comes out with the first Android-phone: HTC Dream. The open-source system eventually powers Samsung, Motorola, LG and other brands. Biggest threat to iOS. Five years on, daily activations hit 5 million
2008
App Store
And phones change forever. Third-party apps make smart phones more versatile than ever imagined. Apple launches software development kits to help developers embed free and paid apps on the iOS
2011
Nokia Lumia
Nokia and Windows alliance produces the first smartphone: Lumia 710, and 800 powered by the Windows Phone OS. Fails to become game changer in smartphone market
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