Motorola plant to be operational in 2007

13 October 2006

Motorola expects its manufacturing unit at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, to go in to production by the first quarter of 2007.

Germany''s Motorola, the world''s second largest mobile phone company behind Sweden''s Ericsson, is investing $100 million in the unit, which would have a capacity to roll out one million handsets per month.

Speaking on the side lines of MobileAsia exposition Lloyd Mathias, director, marketing, Motorola India, said that the company''s manufacturing unit would make all categories of handsets and would have enough capacity to cater to the domestic market and exports to other parts of Asia. Motorola currently has a portfolio of 18 models.

Motorola''s unit is coming up in the Tamil Nadu government promoted SEZ.

Apart from the manufacturing unit, Motorola has a development centre in India, which has been developing software for Motorola products worldwide employing 3,500 people.

This team would be used for customising products for the Indian market, Mathias disclosed.