[3GScottishUser]

LG Electronics has won a contest organized by the GSM Association to produce a low-cost handset for third generation mobile phone networks, a source close to the contest told Reuters on Tuesday.

The winner of the contest, which is expected to receive orders for several millions of these handsets by as much as a dozen mobile carriers, will officially be announced next week at the 3GSM mobile communications trade show in Barcelona.

The handset will cost around $100, breaking through an important price barrier which is expected to boost sales of 3G phones. Most 3G phones are currently much more expensive and slow sales of the devices has held back usage of 3G network services, such as mobile Internet, email and video.

Operators which participated in the selection of the winning handset include Cingular, Globe Telecom, Hutchison 3G, KTF, MTN, Orange, Smart, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telenor, T-Mobile and Vodafone. These operators together have 620 million subscribers, the GSM Association said in a statement in October.


The handset will be available to all members of the GSMA, which is most of the carriers around the world.

LG, the world's No. 5 mobile phone maker trailing Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile , Research), Motorola Inc. (MOT.N: Quote, Profile , Research), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS: Quote, Profile , Research) and Sony Ericsson (6758.T: Quote, NEWS , Research)(ERICb.ST: Quote, Profile , Research), has been trying to regain its share in the global market after a sluggish year in 2006.

But it has so far focused on premium models and been careful with low-cost phones.

A spokeswoman for LG Electronics in Seoul declined to comment. A spokesman for GSMA in London, which groups the world's GSM mobile carriers, also declined to comment.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2007-02-06T100441Z_01_L06758341_RTRIDST_0_TECH-LGELECTRONICS-3G-DC.XML&WTmodLoc=NewsLanding-C7-Tech-2

[Hands0n]

.......... declined to comment ????? WTF ???? Who do they think they are? Tony Blair's cabinet?

When, oh when will the mobile manufacturers wake up and smell the aroma? PC manufacturers have commoditised the product - a PC today at £399 is a formidable beast. Contrast less than ten years ago when the entry price for such things were over £1,000 - not a price that attracts one-per-desk or even one in each home! I still recall the time of a £4,500 Compaq i286-based system! Wouldn't use it as a doorwedge now! Mobiles have been out as long but have not responded to market forces by anything like that of the PC.

Given that the masses still consider a mobile handset something to make calls and send texts on the manufacturers and networks are on a significant uphill battle to convince us to use their devices and [3G] services for "..... Internet, email and video". Tariffs have hardly helped.

Yet they still don't get it? Typified by their inside-out thinking (whats in it for us? and stuff the cash-cow customer) they struggle to come up with the ideas to sell the systems and services.

Here is a simple and straightforward idea - very significantly slash your prices and create wholesale liquidity in the market. I'm not talking 5%, 15% or even 20% - get real, how badly do you want our money, and get those prices for the hardware down by 60% or more, create tariffs to actually encourage and not penalise customers to use the services. You are not in a Premium market - mobile telephony is a commodity and the sooner it is priced and marketed as such the better it will be for the networks and manufacturers.

T-Mobile are on the right track, but not doing enough by a long chalk, yet! But I think they're beginning to wake up to the reality of the UK saturated market.