Click to play videoNew Delhi: About 10 years back, it would have cost you Rs 20,000 to buy a mobile phone. But now you can get phones with better technology and good looks for just Rs 1,000.
At least that's what Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran would like us to believe.
It is because Texas Instruments (TI), which makes chips for wireless phones, is now introducing a single chip technology, which it calls locosto.
This new technology will bring down chip costs by about 60 per cent.
"Chip costs will fall by about 60 per cent as a result of our locosto platform of technologies. This is mainly for emerging markets like India and China," says Texas Instruments’ Senior VP Gilles Delfassy.
Locosto chips will combine memory, power management and network processes for handset makers.
Five handset manufacturers including Nokia and Motorola have already tied up with TI for these chips.
"Rs 1,000 phone will become a reality soon - $20 phone, and it will happen," said IT & Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran.
Currently only sub $30 phones are available in the market.
Motorola's C114 which is one of the cheapest handset costs less than Rs 1,500.
But TI isn't the only company promising low cost chips, Philips semiconductors has also promised to bring in sub $20 phone.
Incidentally most of these low cost handsets come bundled with connections and very often telecom service providers end up subsidising handset costs to tap customers.
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