Cheap until you chirp
Though Nokia still rules with a staggering 64,5% of the market, second-placed Motorola is making headway, pushing up its share from 10,3% in 2003 to 17% this year, according to a survey conducted by the SA Advertising Research Foundation.
While Motorola’s stylish Razr range has won the company many fans, its prize-winning C113 and C118 phones have been quietly gaining ground, in SA and other emerging markets. Last September, Motorola won a GSM Association competition to provide handsets that sold for less than US$30.
Global sales of Motorola’s C113 and C113A (now the C118) exceeded the cellphone maker’s target of 12m phones in the first six months after the competition.
In SA, the Motorola C113 sells for as little as R49. Some Vodacom dealers require you to buy a R199 starter pack with the phone, pushing the price up to about R250, but that’s still close to $30 at R7,50/US$. Cell C prices the phone at R269 excluding the R25 starter pack.
Not to be outdone, Nokia has produced its own range. Its 1100 phone sells for about R160 excluding a starter pack.
These phones don’t take pictures or send multimedia messages. They do, however, come with a few extras, like monochrome (black and green) graphics and a stopwatch.
Industry players say the cost of a handset, however, is no longer the obstacle to accessing telecommunications services. Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx, a technology research group, says tariffs are the real issue when it comes to cellphones.
A recent survey conducted by World Wide Worx found that the lower-end users, who make up 45% of the total market, spend an average of only R109/month on calls. This equates to about R3,30/day or, at current rates, less than a minute a day. Prepaid subscribers are also discriminated against because they pay a higher rate than their contract counterparts.
Financial Mail
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