Cell Phone On A Chip

sebFlyte writes "Texas Instruments have developed a new chip for mobiles that, according to some, should make is possible to make a cell phone for less than $25, bringing it into the realm of possibilities for low-level corporate giveaways, or a reasonable loss leader for getting people started on pay-as-you go mobile offerings."

But...

[th1ckasabr1ck]

"It could be like the watch market of twenty of thirty years ago, when companies could give away a watch with their corporate branding,"

But you don't need to sign up for a service plan to wear a watch...

Start with just making PHONES

[Trolling4Columbine]

I don't want to take pictures with my phone.
I don't want to play MP3s with my phone.
I don't want to check my e-mail with my phone.
I don't want to browse the web with my phone.
I don't want to play games with my phone.

I just want to make phone calls with my phone. Want to lower the average price of a cell-phone? Start with taking all of that crap out of it.

$25?

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's say hypotehtically that the chip was completely free. Could you even make the case, keypad, display, arial, and battery for $25? Sounds unlikely to me.

Bringing phone prices dows is a good thing, and cutting down on components is too. But I think the disposable cell phone sounds like it's further than 2-3 years away...

A solution looking for a problem

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem isn't the cost of the phone. It's the cost of the service that keeps me out of the market.

yeah...

[Spytap]

Yeah, the cell phone providers will let that happen. The whole reason they can have you by the balls (service contract) is that you're getting a discount on the phone, tske that away and their left with actually having to provide decent service and features instead of pushing to sign new customers into a 2 year agreement.

How about a cheap, non-disposable phone?

[Japong]

I think there's a growing population who just wants a plain cell phone now.

You know, for talking on - instead of having bluetooth, a built in camera, FM-Tuner, an internet service that costs $10/1 megabyte, pager and orchestrated ringtones.

If I could buy a new (possibly smaller, lighter, more battery-efficent) cell phone I would - but stores don't carry anything that basic. You have to spend at least $100 (CDN) for anything wihout a plan, and I'm sure the lion's share of that is going towards a colour screen and features I don't want.

Almost makes me yearn for an Apple iPhone. Does what it should, elgantly and without any extra "fluff".

Re:Pointless policy at work?

[WhiplashII]

Yeah, I think the real advantage here will be low power and high reliability, not in disposable phones. I mean, I can see how you would want to be able to destroy your phone every once in a while - but where is the market crying out for a disposable phone? Who's life does it improve? I think people will continue to keep their phones for about a year.

Incidently, by integrating everything on a chip they should have greatly reduced the amount of dangerous stuff - even the battery for this will probably be smaller.

invisible cells

[Doc Ruby]

Putting a "cellphone" on a chip for $10 is not just good news for cheap "cellphones". It's great news for putting everything on the Internet, along with the simple human interface that is the 12-key pad and voice. Back through the early 20th Century, motors were big, complex, inefficient and expensive enough that motors were a separate industry. Factories used to have a single motor, like a mill or animal-driven cogwheel, its power distributed through the enterprise over pulleys, ropes and chains. Once motors became cheap commodities, simple to integrate, motors became commonplace enough to become invisible, and the motor industry was subsumed into the larger electronics and transportation industries they enable. Now that cellphones are becoming similarly mundane components, we can start to forget about them, and the era when immediate communication among people and devices required a second thought.

Re:Start with just making PHONES

[toxf]

I don't want to carry around my camera.
I don't want a bulky portable music player.
I don't want to have to stay in my office to stay in touch.
I don't want to have to call a recording service to check movie times.
I don't want to have to buy cargo pants and add pockets.

I want my life to be simpler, smaller, and richer. Being chained to my desk, or carrying around 5 devices and a backpack-full of cables is not appealing to me.

Everyone's got their goals.

imagine a ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Baewulf cluster of these things ;)

seriously, though -- what about adding this (and an antenna) to a MoBo chipset (like the integrated modems, &c.)? no more hardline required for network connectivity...

Bundled deals – AAAAGH!

[shic]

I'm not sure how it is in the rest of the world, but here in the UK I've long suspected that the whole mobile telecoms industry is "bent as a nine-bob note" (to use a local colloquialism!)

For example, looking at the phone I'd like to buy - it costs around £300 without a contract, but can be had for free on a 12 month contract costing approximately £20 to £25 per month plus calls. This suggests that a substantial portion of the contract price is subsidy for the phone. One would assume, therefore, that if I were to buy the phone outright that the airtime contract would be significantly cheaper? Well - it doesn't work like that. I'd still end up paying about the same for airtime and calls. What I feel we need far more than a cheap chip is an honest pricing policy. The whole business of subsidised handsets, IMHO stinks.

I know where I'll be putting my money

[PetoskeyGuy]

The landfill industry

Re:Pointless policy at work?

[tomcio.s]

The question I have is, why adopt whack-a-mole policies that are likely to replace current problems with other problems?

Reasonable response: We shouldn't, even more so, in ideal world we wouldn't.

Real world response: Because a whack study has to be done (read $$ change hands), that study debunked (read $$ change hands), then a commision set up to come up with recomendations (read $$ change hands), furthermore a set of regulations have to be proposed (read $$ changes hands), reviewed (read $$ changes hands) and ractified (read $$, $$, $$ change hands, some $$ under the table), after which, an overseeing body has to be set up (read $$ changes hands), proper disposal techniques researched (read $$ changes hands), and so forth at-nauseum.

In short, problems are best solved by other problems which in turn are solved by another set of problems. All at great $$ expense.

Re:invisible cells

[Doc Ruby]

After telecom ubiquity changes our lives (again), we'll think more of it as "always connected". Like an "always-on" Internet connection. Old people like me might never need it, but kids will be unable to think of the world as disconnected, or where distance matters for keeping in touch. Communications paradigms are rarely driven by "need" in the mass market, but rather by convenience, and universality.

They already PAY you to take cell phones!

[Anonymous Coward]

How does this $25 chip help consumers when cell companies already pay them huge amounts of cash to take the things off their hands? Amazon sometimes offers a T-Mobil camera phone with bluetooth and other bells and whistles for -$275, all said and done. Yes, even after the cost of the phone, you're up by $275. The contract is only one year, rather than the typical two. With the rebates, the contract is already half paid for.

Bad for the Environment??? I think not!

[dj_tsd]

Hasn't anyone else gathered that by integrating everything into a single chip architecture, the amount of waste on the front end should be far less.

Re:Start with just making PHONES

[dAzED1]

there are plenty of those, too.

Like, here. [verizonwireless.com] Enter in your zip code, and boom - a list. In my list, there are 3 phones under $20 that only do phone and text messages.

Its so much more fun to complain though. I mean, after all, you have to pay $9 for a phone, whereas everyone else is paying $200 or whatever. Sucks to be you! That's terrible! How do you sleep at night suffering under such injustices? You should demand to pay just as much for your phone as everyone else. And when a salesman tries to pitch a high-priced phone to you, you should refuse to look in the display case and notice that what you want is right there.

Re:Start with just making PHONES

[GeorgeH]

I don't want to edit pictures with my gaming computer.
I don't want to play MP3s with picture editing computer.
I don't want to check my e-mail with my MP3 computer.
I don't want to browse the web with my e-mail computer.
I don't want to play games with my web browsing computer.

I just want to type documents in Word with my computer. Want to lower the average price of a computer? Start with taking all of that crap out of it.

where's the tinfoil hat crowd today?

[willCode4Beer.com]

I can't believe I haven't seen the response:

This could mean cheaper more ubiquitous locating devices for everyone and everything.....

Track everyone cheaper.

Where are the paranoids?

Re:I folded and got a phone

[Yartrebo]

People on cell phones usually yell much louder than normal people talking, probably because the reception is lousy and there is a lot of background noise.