Cheapo mobile phone tips up

MANY LAY CLAIM to launching a budget handset but few can have taken the subject so seriously as Alcatel Mobile Phones with the OT-S120. It's got a black and white screen plus no browser, for heaven's sake.

Officially launched this month (February), it should start shipping in April. Sadly, the INQ wasn't able to obtain a price tag for this beauty, but it must be very, very low.

Crazily, it wasn't even billed as the company's major new ultra low cost handset. That glory went to the OT-E101 which apparently is black and white with a colour background so its specs are slightly higher than the OT-S120.

Before you get too excited, the S120 won't work in the USA, it's only 900 + 1800 MHz for use in Europe and Asia.

The INQ reckons there's a market for such a handset in the UK for BOFs [Boring Old Farts]. Such people are forever saying that all the want a mobile phone for is making phone calls. Well, here is is. No camera. No internet access. No colours to confuse. That should do it.

Incidentally, the Alcatel Mobile Phone brand is owned and operated by China's TCL. Its CEO, Dr Fei Liu, claimed at the MWC show that he'd turned the company around and he's aiming to sell 18 million handsets this year – up from 12.5 million in 2007.
He's got a point. This is one of the few handset takeovers which actually seems to have worked.

Alcatel seemed pretty proud of a new motion-sensing feature which it calls the g-sensor that will be built into a couple of new handsets including the One Touch Sport.

Sadly the demo Sport handset was only a dummy, so the INQ could test the facility out. µ