Youth go in for trendy handsets

New and trendy mobile phones find favour especially among the youth, who keep changing their mobile phones within one year. While mobile companies launch new handsets almost every alternate month, the entry of new companies offering high-end mobile solutions has kept the prices within the reach of the common man.
As Mr Rizwan Sheikh says more and more people are taking to mobiles as they are becoming more and more cheaper. The landline phones, which used to cost Rs 20,000 some five years back, are now available at just Rs 3000. He said that mobile phones are available from just over Rs 1000 to Rs 30,000, hence providing a wide range for the people as per their needs.Saying that the mobile companies are constantly targeting the youth through their latest phones, Mr Sheikh said the youth, including the ladies, prefer multi-media phones with camera, music, e-mail, etc.
Mr Asif Sauji of Cell Touch and Mr Kewal of Alliance Telecom, Margao, informed that the youth prefer the multimedia range, while the middle-aged persons prefer the phones with basic requirements, but stress a lot on phones with long battery life. He said these phones cost between Rs 3000 and Rs 6000 and some of the features include FM Radio, a low-end camera, etc.
He said the new trendy phones prompts the youth to change their handsets as often as every six months. He said the customers get full value for money as they often exchange the mobile phone for the new ones and only pay a small difference. At the same time people who have simple phones upgrade by purchasing these second-hand sets which are relatively new.
He also said that with the launch of new handsets, the previously launched sets become much cheaper. Citing an example, he said Nokia had launched a handset some six months back which used to cost Rs 10,000. It recently launched a higher version of the same handset and priced it at Rs 11,500. It also dropped the prices of the previous set by almost Rs 2,000. He said such marketing tactics are also influencing the market trend and added that besides the working class and college students even schoolchildren are buying mobile phones.
A mobile user, Mr Romeo Quadros informed that in five years he has had three handsets. “My father gifted me my first handset and had paid Rs 3000. Today I have a handset for which I paid Rs 14,000,” Mr Quadros said. He said that he did not feel the pinch as he got good value for money on his new handset.Mr Calvin Correia, another mobile user, said that he bought his handset with web-access, music, etc six months back adding that he was happy with his handset and hence has no immediate plans to changing it.Ms P Martins, who was buying a handset for her 15-year old daughter, said that she was not going in for any specific handset but wanted a handset that is easy to operate.