Rural India Sits Back And Unwinds With Philips Radio

["Irfan Khan" <khania2@super.net.pk>]

February 18, 2003


Music For The Masses: Rural India Sits Back And Unwinds With Philips 
Radio      

Kavitha Vivek       


Bangalore: Out on a camping trip, a group of scientists from 
Bangalore listen to the radio. At the same time, farmers out in their 
fields take their afternoon snooze listening to the soothing music 
the radio plays.

While there may be nothing unusual about it, the common link between 
the two parties is their sturdy portable radio players which deliver 
good quality music anytime sans batteries and sans power —- thanks to 
the wind-and-play technology.

Encouraged and surprised by the results, targeting the mass market or 
the lower end of the so-called population pyramid with technology for 
the masses seems to be paying off for audio major Philips India Ltd.

So much so that Philips, following the launch of its 'Free Power 
Radio' —- a unique radio based on the principle of converting 
mechanical energy into electrical energy to run it —- is all set to 
flag off its 'Philips Maha-sangram' into the rural markets once it 
expands its range adding two new feature-rich variants to its 
portfolio this year.

The initiative will see the company popularising the technology as 
well as the products across rural markets in India.

The numbers for the first year of sales are interesting. While a 
total number of 1.5 lakh units were sold since February 2002 till 
date, there has been almost a near equal split between the units sold 
in the rural and the urban areas!.

"75,000 units were sold in the rural markets and 80,000 in the urban 
regions across the country (especially the northern regions). These 
results are encouraging and go on to indicate that there is a market 
for the right kind of easy-to-use technology products," says Philips 
India official spokesperson - consumer electronics Aslam Karmali.

While the need for playing FM drove numbers in the urban markets, the 
ability to listen to the radio without any further maintenance or 
power was the over-riding factor in the rural markets.

This radio which was completely conceptualised, designed and 
manufactured by Philips India is a portable one (priced at Rs 795) 
which does not need any power to operate.

Instead the product has a winding system which can enable the radio 
to play 30 minutes of music for every one minute of winding.

The option for using batteries, however, is available in the product.

"We want to widen our range and offer variants of the products based 
on the same technology but with additional features at various price 
points. The rural markets will especially be a key thrust for us 
because we believe the technology is right. The product also has been 
sturdily designed keeping in mind the Indian terrain and climatic 
conditions and will be available in colours that appeal to the Indian 
consumer," Mr Karmali said.

source: 
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=28316