Having just returned from a two month stay in Indonesia, I think the Spice phone has a hard sell for this large population. Short and simple, the expense is in the service not in the phone. The people who cannot afford much service use SMS primarily. The people who can afford, well they will buy the newest greatest gadget over and over.

Thanks
James

* IHT says they’ve got enquiries for the very young and very old from Europe so that’s valid, yes

and like the eeep it could simply take off in an unintended market as a spare phone, say one you buy to keep in the car for emergencies or whathaveyou

but when it comes to the bop market, it could very well be that the indian market is very different to the african, particularly the rural areas. but I don’t have the first hand knowledge there.

i do have first hand knowledge of what the bop is looking for in a phone in africa, so from that informed perspective, I stand by my assertion.

the mobile is the first piece of high tech experienced by the majority and at the same time a status symbol (not in the same way as we understand it because the core values differ between socioeconomic strata and culture) - that of having arrived in the twenty first century. choosing this phone in a mobile culture that is obsessed with airtime (how will you check it? how will you do all the beeps and missed calls and sms to save on airtime? etc)means you’re cut off from the rest of your community.

india’s calling plans are cheap, africa’s have a long way to go.

so yes, there could be a market. there’s no denying that, but will it blaze through the numbers they’re targetting? 10 million in the first year? I don’t think so. because those numbers won’t happen without support from the bop OR not outside of india.

people aspire to the best that they can afford. new = better is again based on a very different value system than that that arises from conditions of adversity, imho only.