Studio Press

MALAYSIAN cellular phone maker M Dot Mobile Sdn Bhd (M.Mobile) is allocating up to RM60 million to develop third generation (3G) mobile phones, scheduled for launch next year.

Chief executive officer Zainudin Mohd Salleh said M.Mobile has started talks of partnership with several 3G solution providers to develop the 3G mobile phones. "We need to dedicate a minimum of 70 engineers to develop the 3G phones," he told Business Times in an interview. M.Mobile is 70 per cent owned by Mobile Knight Sdn Bhd while the rest is held by Kosmo Technology Industrial Bhd. Zainudin said the company aims to sell 350,000 mobile phones in the domestic market over the next 12 months, representing a 6 per cent market share. To date, it sold some 10,000 units of its M10 models since its launch in late February this year. The M10 mobile phones comprise three models, namely the M10 basic unit, the M10i with Islamic features, and the M10m, a special Mawi edition. Zainudin said M.Mobile also plans to launch an ultra lower cost (ULC) model next month. The ULC model, to be priced at below RM200 per unit, will also be exported. The company has so far received an order for some 50,000 units of the ULC model. A study conducted by the company revealed that there is an estimated three billion market potential under the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network alone for the ULC. Zainudin said the company is also in talks with a subsidiary of Lembaga Tabung Haji to develop mobile phones with Islamic features for the latter to cater for those who want to perform the Haj and Umrah. It is estimated that every year about three million Muslims worldwide perform Haj and about 240,000 Malaysians perform Umrah. Apart from that, M.Mobile plans to enter the Indonesian market by the middle of this year. It is currently in talks with the Indonesian Islamic Organisation to develop high- technology Islamic-feature mobile phones. Meanwhile, it will start delivering part of the five million units of its mobile phones to Saudi Arabia next month under a five-year deal it signed with Saudi Television Manufacturing Co Ltd this year. He said the company also received an initial order for about 50,000 units of its mobile phones from Africa, Lebanon and Syria. Zainudin said M.Mobile is now looking to penetrate other markets such as Jordan, Turkey, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kenya and Kazakhstan. The company also received a request from an Italian company to look into the development of mobile phones with Catholic features. It had also been approached by a well-known company in the music industry to develop mobile phones with specialised features. M.Mobile had set aside some RM40 million for research and development this year. Where does this company heading? Top 10 mobile phone maker in 5 years? How can it beat Sony Ericsson, Nokia or Motorola and other brands like Benq-Siemens,Panasonic,LG,Alcatel,Sagem, SAMSUNG which has already stand years in the market?! Plus, first they say that they want to expand their staff(engineers) to at least 140 people, and olso to consentrate on research & development. Now, they say that they are going towards 3G and olso to produce Ultra Lower cost phones.. What i am trying to know is where are they trying to head? Pls Comment...