India’s First Islamic Phone, for Faithful on a Budget

The Beyon I-Tel i786 mobile. Click to enlarge.

India will soon get its first-ever Islamic mobile phone that has been custom-built for Muslim consumers, filled with relevant apps such as a Hijri calendar, and a Qibla direction finder app. It’s a joint venture between a local company, I-Tel India, and a handset maker called Beyon.

To be called the Beyon I-Tel i786 (pictured above), it’ll hit shelves in India on November 12th. It’s a feature-phone – not a smartphone – that’s designed to be cheap and very useful to its target audience. It’ll be priced at US$60, which is about Rs 2952. The mobile supports Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, and English for this market, as well as Arabic, Turkish and others which suggest that its sales will go international eventually. No word on the phone’s OS, but it’ll likely be the kind of tweaked JAVA-based platform that most such feature-phones run.

Pre-installed apps include the afore-mentioned Qibla and Hijri ones, as well as Islamic ringtones and wallpapers, an Halal meat guide, and a few other goodies. Being such a specialist product, I-Tel has taken some careful steps to do this right. I-Tel’s GM, Shan Sharma, tells Penn-Olson that:

The name of the mobile has been approved by leading Islamic scholars of India because [786] is a very auspicious number for Muslims […] And as corporate social responsibility, we are offering 2.5 percent as Zakat – a kind of Islamic tax – for an NGO that helps needy and poor Muslim children get an education.

Of course, India’s increasingly numerous mobile phone users can achieve similar results on their Android, iPhone, or BlackBerry handsets with the downloading of a few, choice Muslim-oriented apps. I’m sure that Nokia has a lot of options in its popular Ovi Store as well.

But those on lower incomes need something a bit more accessible, so this upcoming Beyon I-Tel phone lines up alongside alternatives such as Indonesia’s $15 mobile that was offered during Ramadan, or SIM card-based Islamic content for those who don’t wish to change handsets.