Motorola set to launch sub-$30 handsets

Telecommunication equipment manufacturer Motorola Inc will manufacture its entire hardware range in India, while targeting the mass market with the sub-$30 mobile phones, a senior company official said.

The American company announced a $100-million investment in a manufacturing facility at Sriperambudur near Chennai by early next year.

Motorola signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tamil Nadu government that it would initially cough up $30 million for the first phase of the project that will come up on a 2,50,000 square feet of land to be developed at the Sriperambudur Hi-tech Special Economic Zone.

"While we will be manufacturing our entire range of hardware in Chennai for the Indian market, there will be a new range of handsets aimed at the mass market that would be priced in the sub-$30 range," said Stuart Reed, executive vice-president, Integrated Supply Chain, Motorola Inc.

Reed hinted that it was possible that some of Motorola's global vendors might also set up shop with the American company to save on costs.

"The real challenge is in proving total cost savings in making the decision to come to India and so from that perspective it makes sense to have our vendors producing with us here rather having to import certain components," Reed said.

Motorola's chief technology officer, Padmasree Warrior said that since over 40 per cent of the software for the company's phones was made in its facilities in India, this would further add to the cost competitiveness.

Currently, Motorola has six research and development centres in India, including Motorola Labs, Core Networks Division, Embedded Communications Computing, and Global Software Group employing over 3,000 engineers.