Predictions 2008: How to capitalize on the $10 mobile phone

written by Fabio Cipriani on March 12, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Tags: predictions 2008

When the first analog mobile phones reached the market in the mid-1980s, they were costing more than $5000 apiece. Since then, prices have fallen sharply and a growing number of mobile phone models are now priced under $50. There are manufacturers intending to develop and release phones for $25 or less during 2008 and plans to release phones with a wholesale price of $10 in 2009.

Is unarguable the importance of the $10 device for developing countries. Lower priced handsets are likely to increase overall mobile penetration rates. But as global mobile ownership goes further, the growth rate is expected to slow. Decreasing prices for mobile devices even more, planning to achieve a larger penetration rate, will mean shrunken or nullified returns.

The lower the price of a mobile handset, the broader the embraced market. This is true. But this price reduction is good also to open way to use those devices differently. The mayor opportunity for the $10 mobile phone may be, in that case, other than only for human beings.

Vote this prediction down Vote this prediction up (+2 rating, 4 votes)

Loading …

Why not to sell it to machines?

Nowadays in the world we have a countless number of potential devices that could carry a mobile subscription to promote some kind of automation or just improve the communication process between servers and, for example, ATMs or vending machines. There are more than one billion PCs worldwide, more than 600 million road vehicles, more than 18 million freight containers, 5 million kilometers of oil pipeline, and over 1 million industrial robots.

Manufacturers should work closely together to develop a global standard for protocols and mobile modules that can be easily attached to all sorts of machines. This is a real opportunity for both manufacturers (selling more) and mobile operators (increasing data traffic).

By overcoming decision challenges like “which features this new kind of integration could have?” and “how to promote easiness of integration?”, the machines will finally start to talk to the world in a standardized and consolidated way.

What is your car’s phone number?

Popularity: 34% [?]