Motorola to continue focusing on low-end market segment

MANILA, Philippines The local unit of mobile phone maker Motorola will focus on end-users who demand affordable but full-featured handsets, as it tries to increase its market share. "The mass market is getting more sophisticated," Motorola Philippines Director for Marketing Mari Litonjua told reporters Tuesday. He noted that compared with countries in the region like Malaysia and Thailand, majority of Filipinos or about 89% are more inclined to buy less expensive phones. But the mass markets demand more from these phones, Mr. Litonjua said. The company declined to give sales targets for the year, but said the less expensive but still relatively high-tech phones would drive growth for the rest of the year. He said higher sales volume of low-end phones would make up for the smaller margin. "It’s about coming out with the right products for the right market," said Alvin Soh, mobile devices marketing manager for the Philippines and Singapore. Motorola Tuesday unveiled its product lineup of five phones for the third quarter, the cheapest of which is less than P3,000. Mr. Litonjua noted that more than half of the Philippine mobile phone market use phones that cost less than P7,000. He said the low-end segment of the market is one of the company’s major profit contributors. He added that the company would target the more tech-savvy 15- to 24-year-old group by putting high-end technology into low-end handsets. He said Motorola plans to come out with more phones towards the end of the year with features for music and imaging. The company has launched 10 phones in the Philippine market, and will launch newer, competitively priced phones by September. Mr. Litonjua said the company expects to post double-digit growth this year through the low-end units. — Paolo Luis G. Montecillo, BusinessWorld