Call phone firms target women<\/p>\n
By Christiani S.A. Tumelap<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Mobile phone producers are coming up with more
\nfun, attractive and dazzling handsets to suit the tastes of
\naffluent young men and women who are becoming one of their most
\nimportant market segments.<\/p>\n
General manager of Nokia Mobile Phones Indonesia Alexander
\nLambeek said Nokia had seen a broadening of its market segments,
\nfrom the traditional business segment to young people and women.<\/p>\n
\"The market is becoming more segmented ... Youth and women
\nplay a very important role now,\" he told The Jakarta Post over
\nthe weekend.<\/p>\n
Susanto Sosilo, director of Ericsson Indonesia, predicted that
\n56 percent of mobile phone subscribers nationwide were young
\npeople below the age of 30 who were fashion-driven customers.<\/p>\n
\"Hence there is a trend to 'wear' mobile phones as
\naccessories. This is the trend we are riding on to penetrate the
\nmarket,\" he said at the launch of the strikingly-colored Ericsson
\nT10s in August.<\/p>\n
He said Ericsson had seen a dramatic change in people's views
\non mobile phones; from an expensive device for business
\nexecutives into an affordable communications device for everyone.<\/p>\n
\"This change has lead us to having a much wider range of
\nconsumers, from students and housewives to business executives.\"
\nhe told the Post.<\/p>\n
The shift in the market has been perfectly anticipated by
\nNokia and Ericsson which have introduced new models to suit young
\npeople's taste in design and style.<\/p>\n
Lambeek said Nokia found no difficulty in meeting the changes
\nin customers' demands as the company have always 'provided
\ndifferent phones for different people'.<\/p>\n
Nokia's pitching to the young generation was clearly seen in
\nits promotional collaboration with MTV-ANteve and Hard Rock FM, a
\ntelevision and a radio channel closely associated with the youth
\nmarket, in a cover design contest for the latest Nokia 3210.<\/p>\n
The Nokia 3210 offers the freedom to replace both the front
\nand back covers of the handset in seconds, with six optional
\ncolored covers to match the users' mood or clothes.<\/p>\n
Yet, it is still a high-end product with a convenient built-in
\nantenna and dictionary and picture massaging.<\/p>\n
Nokia's earlier model, the 5110, remains the hottest item in
\nthe Jakarta market after being launched mid-last year, mainly due
\nto its 'funky' design and changeable front cover.<\/p>\n
The Sweden-based Ericsson started its promoting to women when
\nit launched the elegant T18 during a fashion show at Plaza
\nIndonesia in May. No less than 30,000 units of the T18s were sold
\nwithin two months of the stylish launch event.<\/p>\n
Ericsson is eying the youth market with its strikingly
\ncolorful T10s. It has launched a series of promotions at colleges
\nhere with the campaign slogan \"I like freshmen\", to bring a
\ncloser association between the college generation and the
\nhandset.<\/p>\n
Coming in five bright colors, and with numerous additional
\nfeatures such as a vibrator alert, the dual band T10 is aimed at
\nthe fashion-conscious.<\/p>\n
Nokia's Lambeek said Indonesia was a lucrative and promising
\nmarket for mobile phone sales despite the prolonged economic
\ncrisis.<\/p>\n
\"We are very optimistic about the future of our operation here
\ngiven the fact that the level of mobile phone penetration in
\nIndonesia is still very low, only 0.7 percent for a country with
\ntotal population of 201 million,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Nokia plans to launch three more of its colorful and stylish
\nmodels, the 8850, 7110 and 8210, in the Indonesian market at the
\nend of the year. It launched the Nokia 9110 Communicator in
\nApril, a high-tech and computer compatible handset designed for
\nbusiness executives, and the youth-aimed Nokia 3210 in August.<\/p>\n
The Nokia 8210 was already launched in Hong Kong, Shanghai,
\nSingapore and Taiwan early in October through specially
\nchoreographed fashion shows.<\/p>\n
Ericsson's Susanto said Ericsson has had better market
\npenetration in 1999 than in 1998 in terms of value. This growth
\nwas attributed partly to the fact that mobile phone buyers had
\nkept on buying the newest models in the market despite the
\nfinancial pressures of the economic crisis.<\/p>\n
1999 has been one of the busiest for Ericsson in Indonesia as
\nit has launched six models so far and plans to launch one more
\nbefore the end of the year, he said.<\/p>\n
Ericsson launched the GF768 in January, the I888 in April, the
\nT18 and the A1018 in July, the T10 in August and the T28 in
\nSeptember. Of these handsets, the I888 is the only handset which
\nis designed for business people with a simple design and
\ntechnology-driven features.<\/p>\n
Ericsson will launch the R250, a rugged hand phone designed
\nfor field use, before the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Susanto said the company's cellular phone sales this year
\ncould exceed last year's 100,000 units, a forecast which was
\nbased on the government's prediction that mobile phone users
\nwould increase to 1.5 million in 1999, from 984,000 last year.<\/p>",
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