A MOTORAZR for the masses! Motorola's cheap mobiles will be sold for as low as $30 BY OUR TECHNOLOGY EDITOR 28th September 2005 Sense is finally prevailing upon mobile phone manufacturers and mobile industry associations. Mobile phone major Motorola will be making cheap mobile phones costing $30 to $40 under a scheme to provide affordable communications to emerging markets. Dance With Shadows has already advocated encouragement for affordable barebones mobiles, which will significantly increase the mobile subscriber base in India. India is currently the world's fastest growing mobile market. As mobile technology and subscribers grew, production costs and margins dipped for mobile phone companies like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG and Motorola. Instead of shoring up volumes by making cheaper mobiles, companies have focussed on packing more bang for the same buck, leading to phone purchase costs remaining largely unaffected. The Motorola initiative was announced by the GSM Industry Association. The first Emerging Market Handset program was announced in February 2005, which was won by Motorola. Under that program, Motorola made cheap mobile handsets for as low as $40 (Rs 1720). Under the current EMH program, which was also won by Motorola, the mobile phones can be sold for as low as $30 (Rs 1290). Motorola has signed up with ten mobile phone operators in developing countries including India for mass-selling its cheap mobiles. The two models up for sale are the Motorola C113 and Motorola C113A. "The EMH initiative is a major step toward reducing the start-up price, and will fuel significant economic growth, as well as major social changes, when so many new people can communicate directly from their home or on the move," said Erik Aas, chief executive of GrameenPhone of Bangladesh. High entry costs due to expensive mobile phones have been among the major reasons for the slow growth of mobile subscriptions in many countries which have good mobile services infrastructure. BY OUR TECHNOLOGY EDITOR