THE uptake of 3G phones in the Philippines is expected to increase rapidly in the coming years as operators and brands launch cheaper variants to support applications that appeal to different segments of the market, global mobile phone chips provider Qualcomm said.

Mantosh Malhotra, regional head of Qualcomm Asia Pacific Pty. Ltd., said based on studies and analysis of trends in the Philippines, the percentage of 3G users to the number of mobile phone subscribers will go up to about 60 percent by 2014 from only 14 percent at the end of 2010.

“We expect there will be more 3G uptake in the Philippines. We expect it to grow at a faster speed now with the prices going down and with the availability of more applications,” Malhotra told the BusinessMirror.

He said local brands and telecommunication firms are now more aggressive in marketing 3G. Smart, for instance, he said is now doing innovative things to bring 3G more accessible to the market, while Chinese brand Chery Mobile has launched smartphones using Qualcomm technology.

Malhotra said there are now 3G phones that are being introduced by manufacturers that are as cheap as $30.

With this, the bottleneck is no longer in the cost but in making the applications more relevant to the specific type of users. “It’s the experience.”

For example, Malhotra said in India, cheap 3G phones targeted for fishermen have been programmed to report daily on the weather and the selling price of fish.

In Indonesia, he said an “Islamic phone” was launched during the period of Ramadan, with a compass so the users will readily know which direction to face when they pray, gives verses from the Quran, and has a shade of green which is the Islamic color.

He said this will be the same direction that the local operators and brands will take as they seek to increase 3G penetration in the market.

“A few things have to come together for 3G to be successful in the market. It should be the right device, right price point, right application and right speed,” Malhotra said.

The San Diego-based Qualcomm is a leader in wireless technology with $19-billion capitalization and employee base of 14,000 worldwide. It has a licensing unit, chips division and a wireless business group. Among its products are the Snapdragon family of mobile processors which make mobile phones run faster than netbooks, and the Brew MP operating system.