Motorola urges newcomers to be responsible
By Kirstin Ridley
LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - U.S. technology giant Motorola Inc, one of the world's top three mobile phone manufacturers, on Friday urged newcomers to be responsible when muscling into the booming mobile phone market.
Amid some concern among cellphone companies that customers could become disenchanted by complex price packages or poor service, Motorola called on mobile phone players to ensure the industry did not suffer.
''Both operators and manufacturers have to take responsibility for the health of the industry,'' Frank Lloyd, senior vice president and general manager of Motorola's Personal Communications Sector in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told Reuters.
He warned that those proffering promises -- such as Internet access -- would not last long in a cut-throat industry if their services did not meet customer expectations.
His remarks come a week after Hans Snook, chief executive of UK cellphone group Orange Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: ORA.L), accused rivals of allowing customers to be ''fleeced'' when buying pre-pay phones, as the true costs could be disguised in the small print of the package.
''There is a fine line between responsibility and pioneering,'' Lloyd said in an interview. ''But unfortunately, pioneers tend to get shot, bitten by snakes and die in the desert.''
However, Lloyd welcomed news that entrepeneur Richard Branson's Virgin Group [VA.CN] was teaming up with One2One, the British mobile phone group being bought by Deutsche Telekom AG (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: DTEG.F), to launch a $160 million plus joint venture for cellphones flying the Virgin colours.
Virgin, whose empire stretches from airlines and trains to pensions, plans to sell its own-branded phones from more than 300 high street outlets in time for Christmas.
The group, which says customers will be able to book air, and rail tickets, buy music and financial services online from their mobile phones, also plans to manufacture its own handset next year.
Virgin is pitching itself against industry heavyweights which are trying to feed an expected voracious consumer appetite to remain in touch and online, while on the move.
Motorola and Nordic arch rivals Sweden's Ericsson and Nokia Oyj of Finland have set the pace in mobile telephone and Internet technology and plan to ply their latest technologies at the Telecom 99 conference in Geneva next month.
Orange has already announced plans to sell the Nokia 7100 WAP (wireless application protocol) phone in the fourth quarter. The handset will adapt the Internet to a small screen, showing five lines of text. France's Alcatel Alsthom has similar products in the pipeline.
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