TTPCom have announced the blueprint for a $20 handset. Initially, it doesn’t seem like Microsoft and Symbian have much to worry about. It’s $20 for a very basic handset which would be technically inferior. However, if you look into the TTPCom strategy it becomes clear that their architectures include advanced features such as WiFi and mobile TV that you might only find on advanced smartphones…. but not for $20 of course.

In allowing Symbian OS to run on single processor hardware and providing for lower unit pricing, Symbian is trying to get into the lower price device market segments. The worrying thing is that when they get there, they may find things have moved on and the average bill of materials for their competitors has dropped. They may be chasing a moving target.

However, as David Wood points out, Symbian is often told…

“Don’t you realise that <competitor X> or <competitor Y> is going to steamroll you guys out of existence, with their latest killer release”.  (Interestingly, every year, it’s a different so-called killer release that we are supposed to worry about.)

It’s all in the implementation. Symbian is good at finishing things even if it takes a long time. As they say, "It ain’t over until the fat lady sings".

This entry was posted on Friday, February 10th, 2006 at 6:46 pm and is filed under Symbian, Mobile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.