RELIANCE LAUNCHES CHEAPEST COLOUR PHONE AT A PRICE OF RS 999

In a bid to break entry barrier for coloured-display phones, Reliance Communication today launched 'Classic 732' at a price of Rs 999, the lowest in Indian market.

Classic is India's largest operator-driven handset brand introduced by Reliance at a very low entry level pricing, a top company official said.

"We have crossed the one crore sales mark in Classic handsets. Now, the Classic 732 will become the entry level handset for new mobile users in the country," Reliance Communications President, Personal Business S P Shukla told reporters here.

Earlier in May, the company had launched the Classic monochrome phones at a price of Rs 777.

"With about 200 million mobile users in India, the penetration still is at a low of 20 per cent. Apart from affordability for new customers, we have to enhance the experience of existing customers," Shukla said.

He declined to comment on the handset manufacturing cost or the cost at which the company was purchasing it.

"The pricing is through a comparison of acquisition cost of a new customer and the customer life cycle value," he said.

Reliance Communication has a total customer base of over 38 million including 1.2 million individual overseas retail customers. Its average revenues per users (ARPUs) was Rs 375.

NOKIA CONTROVERSY: 'DUPLICATE' BATTERY SALES TAKE A HIT

The Nokia BL-5C battery

With reports of some cellphones not functioning properly while getting charged or during thunderstorms and unsafe batteries being recalled by one of the largest cellphone manufacturer, Nokia, the grey market of duplicate batteries has taken a hit.

"Earlier, we had brisk sales of duplicate cellphone batteries which used to cost much cheaper than the original ones but now because of the Nokia controversy, the sales have dipped," says Pintu, a shop owner in Gaffar Market, New Delhi, one of the biggest grey markets for cellphones in the capital.

While Nokia may have issued a warning about a batch of defective cellphone batteries offering free replacements, even grey market buyers have now become smarter. "We usually have different range of cellphone batteries catering to all kinds of people. Since the controversy, the demand for lower end batteries has dropped considerably," says Tarloch Singh, another cellphone shop owner in the capital.

He adds that even though duplicate battery still sells, it is the better ones with a higher price than local batteries are in demand.

According to Indian Cellular Association (ICA), of the 45 million replacement batteries in the Indian mobile market, about 80 per cent are counterfeit and unsafe.(ICA), of the 45 million replacement batteries in the Indian mobile market, about 80 per cent are counterfeit and unsafe.

Cellphone headaches are all in the mind!!

Exposure to the radiofrequency fields generated by mobile phones does not cause head pain or increase blood pressure, according to a Norwegian study. Instead, people who experience such symptoms do so because they expect that they will occur, the findings suggest.
Dr Gunnhild Oftedal and associates at the Norway University of Science and Technology in Trondheim recruited 17 subjects who "regularly experienced pain or discomfort in the head during or shortly after mobile phone calls lasting between 15 and 30 minutes."
The participants were tested during mobile phone radiofrequency exposure and sham exposure, without knowing which session was which. Each session lasted 30 minutes, and 65 pairs of trials were conducted.
As reported in the medical journal Cephalalgia, the subjects said they felt an increase in pain or discomfort during 68 percent of all trials.
The degree of symptoms was not associated with the order of trials.
The researchers observed no statistically significant correlations between actual exposures and the subjects' reports of symptom severity, and no effects of exposure on changes in heart rate or blood pressure.
Oftedal's team concludes that the most likely explanation for the headaches and discomfort reported by the subjects "is that the symptoms are due to negative expectations."

(Courtesy: DNA)