News
Motorola launch pedal phone at e-expo
Carlton Reid Jan 9 2007, 12:00pm
From 1999 to 1996 Motorola sponsored a US cycle racing team and the telecoms company is now back in the bike trade but this time with a pedal-powered phone to be marketed to the Developing World. The green phone charger was launched yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Motorola is seven years late into the market: a UK/Swedish company had a dynamo-powered phone charger in 2000.
Ed Zander, chairman and chief executive of Motorola, introduced the bike-powered Motofone during his keynote speech in the Venetian Hotel at the electronics show in Las Vegas.
Znder said:
"For people living in emerging markets, energy is a scarcity. In Southeast Asia, rural China and Latin America, we can actually put this in, hook it up and charge this device while we are riding a bike."
The device would be marketed in the Developing World, where electricity supplies can be erratic but where sales of cellphones are rocketing.
The new Motorola device is dynamo-powered and ships with a handlebar mounted cradle. The US company is hoping to tap into the fast-growing cellphone markets of China and India, where bicycles are still mainstream.
In 2000, a UK/Swedish company showed BikeBiz the Pedal & Power dynamo device which could power cellphones. It never sold terribly well.
