Munoth dials up phones for senior citizens
Chennai, Aug. 11
A senior citizen is out in the park for a walk and feels giddy and collapses. He presses a red SOS button on the back of his mobile phone which activates a loud siren, alerting passers-by to his plight. Simultaneously, the phone sends out ten pre-set SMSes to relatives, friends, an ambulance service and even one to his insurance company. The mobile phone screen then freezes and displays the name of the person, a password and a link to a Web site where the medical records of the user are stored. Through a GPS system the person's location is also known.
Chennai-based Munoth Communication launched its own brand of mobile phones in the southern market touting the S5, or the senior citizen phone as one of its unique selling propositions. Priced at Rs 2,500 to begin with, the phone has large key pads and large screen for easy reading, a torch and a sturdy body that can take falls. Mr Jaswant Munoth, Managing Director, said the phone will have an additional feature of a sensor which can be carried on one's person. If one moves say 10 to 15 feet away from the phone, a beep will alert them that they've left the phone behind. “A person can even leave the mobile in a suitcase and it will alert you if someone moves it without your knowledge,” said Mr Munoth. Munoth will soon tie up with a few insurance companies for them to take cognisance of such SMS alerts from insured patients. Details of a patient's condition need to be updated on a Munoth Web site.
Mr Munoth said the phones, three of which are application-based, will be targeted at the Rs 1,400 to Rs 4,000 price bracket, from which 70 per cent of mobile phones sales come. “We will be positioned in the upper end of each segment,” he said. For now, Munoth does not intend going up the price band. The company has unveiled nine models all of which have a provision for dual SIM and memory cards. Mr Munoth said the company is sourcing its phones from China and Hong Kong. The phones, he claimed, emit lower radiation and have a longer standby battery. The company targets selling one lakh mobiles a month from the third month onwards to earn revenues of Rs 30 crore a month. The phones will be launched initially in the South; the company was earlier a distributor for Siemens and Panasonic phones.
Munoth has also launched a ‘community phone' targeting the Jain community.
