With the costs of chip production perennially in decline, mobile phone companies are projecting that cell phones with basic communication features can be sold at a price of $20 USD by 2007. Low cost handsets are generally attributed with the rise in mobile phone penetration in developing countries, where high prices and poor land line infrastructure had long prevented rudimentary telecommunication. The reduction in manufacturing costs is likely to be spurred by efforts to condense the functions of 150 essential chip parts in mobile phones into 50.

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How would $20 handsets change your mobile phone buying preferences?