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ROSEMONT, Ill.—Motorola Inc. launched its thinnest handset yet, the Motofone, which the company said is aimed at users in emerging markets.
The handset is 9 millimeters thick and features a flat keypad and high-contrast display. The phone offers a number of features the company believes will make it attractive to first-time phone buyers in emerging markets.
The Motofone uses an icon- and voice-based interface rather than a text interface, which the company said is designed to make the phone easier to use and understand. The interface doesn’t require literacy, which reflects the depth of reach into emerging markets Motorola plans to gain.
The handset relies on two internal antennas to improve coverage in emerging markets where coverage may be spotty. The phone also offers, according to Motorola, 400 hours of standby time, for users who may live off of the electric grid and don’t have ready access to outlets for recharging.
According to Ron Garriques, president of Motorola’s mobile devices business, the phone will ship in 90 days and is expected to be available at retail later this year in both CDMA and GSM models. He said Motorola had already received a purchase order for 500,000 of the handsets from an undisclosed buyer, presumably a network operator in an emerging market.
The company did not give a price for the phone, but Garriques told analysts at Motorola’s annual meeting in Rosemont that it would be roughly equivalent to the cost of its other entry-level, C series handsets, possibly in the sub-$40 range. The company did not disclose the markets where the new handset would be available.
Motorola has made significant strides into the low-cost, emerging market area during the past few years, primarily through its supply and distribution agreement with the GSM Association. But the handset vendor lags behind arch-rival Nokia Corp. both in India and China and clearly has redoubled its efforts to meet Nokia head-to-head in the bid for first-time buyers.
