News
Issue #2002 - 39 (October 2002)
(Updated Oct. 15, 2002)

DEVICES

Motorola Follows Nokia's 3G Handset Announcement with A830

MOTOROLA has predicted it could make hundreds of thousands of third-generation mobile phones by the end of the year.

Although the promised volumes are relatively small in relation to the total market - estimated at about 400 million units, they reveal a growing belief that next-generation technology is nearly ready. 
Bob Shukai, Motorola 3G products director in Europe, said: "We are very confident we will launch our first product in the fourth quarter. 

"Our manufacturing is not capacity-constrained. If there is market demand we can produce six-figure volumes this year." 

The success of 3G phones is crucial to the whole mobile sector. European operators, such as Vodafone, have staked about $US100 billion ($181 billion) buying 3G licences from governments. 

With growth in voice revenues stalling, the operators hope that they can win a slice of the lucrative data market, currently dominated by fixed-line carriers such as BT. 

Motorola's launch product is the A830, a bulky colour-screen handset that comes with a clip-on video camera. It can download images fast enough to play television pictures of, say, football highlights. 

Prototype 3G phones have been dogged by technical problems, including difficulties in allowing subscribers to move from one cell to another. 

Mr Shukai said the teething problems had largely been resolved and "reasonably soon after commercial launch 3G phones will match the reliability of today's GSM standard". 

In the UK, the manufacturer's initial partner will be 3, a new operator controlled by Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa, which plans to launch in October with Motorola handsets plus another model supplied by Japan's NEC. 

Motorola has promised to supply a million handsets across Hutchison's nine international operations in a deal worth at least $US700 million. That implies a cost price of $US700 per handset, although that includes research and development expenses. 

It is not clear what the launch price of the phone will be. Pricing will be determined by the operators and the level of subsidy they are prepared to provide. 

So far, 3 has given no indication of its plans beyond saying it is reluctant to compete aggressively with Britain's four incumbent operators on price. 

A830 will be manufactured in Germany and is expected to be priced around . Motorola says the factory price of the device without the camera will be around in $1,172 to $1499 range with or without the camera. 

Motorola says the phone had just 100 minutes of talk time, reducing to about 90 minutes if the phone's video capabilities were used heavily. Standby time was estimated at about 120 hours. 

The manufacturer is also in talks with other mobile operators about carrying the A830, but few operators other than 3 have been in a hurry to launch a 3G service and interest has been minimal. 

Rival manufacturers are preparing to show off 3G phones in the coming weeks, kicking off what is likely to be the most exciting period in the industry's history. 

Later this month Nokia, the world's number one, will unveil its first working 3G handset at an event in Finland's capital, Helsinki. 

Source: Austrailian IT magazine

For more information: www.motorola.com

MobileInfo Comments and Advisory:  3G puzzle is getting gradually filled up. But a new generation of complex wireless network technology does not take a year or two to get deployed across the entire landscape. It takes half a decade. With handsets, the biggest challenge is to convince the subscribers to buy yet another handset. It will be a gradual growth of 3G subscribers.

Note: This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should take appropriate caution in developing plans utilizing these products, services and technology architectures.  All trademarks used in this summary are the property of their respective owners.