Latest product keeps it simple to broaden its appeal
After years of developing feature-packed phones, with cameras, music players and even TV programming, Motorola is betting that less will be more as it aims to attract newbie phone users in the developing and developed world who are intimidated or can't afford complex gadgets.
"We're going after the next billion [cell-phone] users," said Steve Lalla, Motorola vice president and general manager for mass market products in Libertyville. "Our research tells us they want something basic. They want a voice-centric phone with a clean design on which they can make a call."
Enter the MOTOFONE, a bare bones, but sleek candy-bar phone, introduced in India last November and 14 other countries since then, including China, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan and Italy. MOTOFONE, the first of Motorola's new-generation SCPL phones, will be coming to the United States this summer.
(John H. White/Sun-Times)
He said the company's research shows that the "next billion" consumers -- from fishermen in India shopping their catch to markets, to American seniors who are int- imidated by phones with cameras, MP3 players and other gadgets -- all want to keep it simple and skip the frills.
Ben Wood, a mobile phone analyst with United Kingdom-based CCS Insight, considers MOTOFONE "a disruptive technology" that has an important place in the developing world.
"I am passionate about this product," he said. "Make no mistake. This iteration is designed for emerging markets. Interest beyond that is a bonus."
He purchased a couple of MOTOFONEs in India for $37.50. The packaging, similar to that used to ship wall posters, is catching on, and consumers are finding new uses for the containers, such as to hold pencils.
"The packaging itself is revolutionary," he said. "Motorola's name is present as an everyday object in households."
Lalla said Motorola aims to build relationships with entry-level consumers and interest them, in the years ahead, in other phones, such as flip phones, phones with FM radios and higher-end phones. "It's all about choice," he said.
Wood thinks the basic MOTOFONE will become a "throw-away phone, like the throw-away cameras" that parents will pick up in vending machines and turn over to the kids when they go camping or go to a concert, so they won't worry if a phone is lost or stolen.
"This way the kids don't have to take the $150 or $200 phone along," Wood said.
Industry observers worried that in going after developing countries with cheap phones that No. 2 Motorola and market-leading Nokia will be lowering profit margins.
Wood said Nokia, which is producing a million phones a day, showed that it is possible to grow margins while dropping average costs, and Motorola needs to learn this lesson, too.
As the once-hot RAZR sunsets, Wood said MOTOFONE, as well as high-end phones, "will help Motorola re-energize its portfolio for all sorts of different categories."