Microsoft want to drive phone prices down

Microsoft have a plan which targets China. The plan is to overtake Apple, by offering a wide range of handsets at lower prices. Passing Apple will be the first step in a longer term goal of market dominance.

Simon Leung, Microsoft's Chairman and chief executive officer for the Greater China region told reporters in Beijing that they want to lead the market.

China is a primary target for all the major players, as it is set to become the world's biggest smartphone market in 2012. Analysts reckon that shipments of mobile devices will increase by a staggering 52 percent, to 137 million units in China this year, meaning it will easily overtake the US market as the world's biggest.

Leung said “We will continue to drive the price down, Our goal is number one. Having a goal to be number two is not really a goal.” Fighting talk indeed.

Microsoft's partners will be releasing a wide range of luxury phones, but they will also be releasing bargain priced models to target an audience that are currently not serviced by Apple. Leung said that some of the manufacturers will have phone models in the $158 price range. This translates to around 1,000 yuan in local currency and when compared to the 16gb iPhone 4S, which costs 4,988 yuan we can see the audience that might be interested.

Bloomberg add “Microsoft plans to bring its Windows Phone software to 23 more countries for a total of 63 and put the operating system on less expensive smartphones, it said last month. The company aims to move quickly in developing economies, where Google and Apple are less dominant, before cheaper Android phones can strengthen Google’s position.”

Kitguru says: budget Windows phone. Interested?

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