On Sunday 14 Jan 2007 7:21 am, Manar Hussain wrote: > This pattern is happening, right now, in India with mobile phones. > 100s of small shops repair and rebuild phones with generic components > and reverse-engineered schematics, supported by a developed training > and tool-production infrastructure. > > How long before we're seeing cheap-as-chips kit phones, assembled by > entrepreneurs harvesting the market stands of Delhi?
This may already be happening in a different market segment. Ten years ago I did not buy a DVD player because it was priced at Rs 14,000 Late last year I had to get a 3 year old Philips VCD/Audio/MP3 player repaired and the Philips service agent kept it for 4 weeks citing a lack of availability of spares.He had given me an estimate of about Rs 1500. I reclaimed the piece and took it to SP road where a small repair shop on the balcony outside another shop repaired the thing for me - new spare part and all in 30 minute and charged me Rs 500. A few shops away I bought a DVD/VCD/SVCD/MP3 player with a built in audio amplifier for Rs 1500 - while the going rate in the "main" market is about Rs 3000+. shiv
