Mobile production in Iran; People have a right to be concerned
Production, manufacture or assembly of mobile phones in Iran though Recently and by receiving facilities from several Iranian companies It has received serious attention from users, but this is just a curtain of another set of events; The events that started with the mobile registry in 1396.
“Mobile Registry”, “Native Operating System” and finally “Iranian Phone Production/Assembly” are the three important parts of this flow that are now placed next to each other. Combining these three issues and with a pessimistic view of the restrictive experience in other industries, people are right to be concerned about their “right to choose” in the future of the mobile market.
First act: Registry
The first screen was the mobile registry. When this plan was proposed and started in a more serious way in 2016, all the focus of the Ministry of Communications and the Headquarters for Combating Goods and Currency Smuggling In the press meetings, it was said that the right of the consumer is to be respected And besides, the government should have income from official imports, but the main focus is on consumer rights. In the press conferences, it was said that the mobile market is extremely unfair – the consumer’s right is lost, his hand is not tied anywhere and… These were true, but not the whole truth. The record of the registry today is clearly defined and even in one case it has stopped the entry of a mobile phone into the country.
In the year 2018 When I asked Satar Hashemi, Deputy Minister of Technology and Innovation of the Ministry of Communications “Is it possible that the government will use the mobile phone registry to control the import of mobile phones and use this tool as a negative policy against foreign phones and their import into the country?” He answered: “We are not going to adopt these negative policies and this action is not done under the pretext of supporting domestic production.” In terms of knowledge and ability in the country, we do not need to turn to negative politics and our view is a competitive view. I think our producers can also be successful in this space.”
But this was not the truth. Three years later, in 1401, we saw how the registry became a tool to prevent users from entering and using the iPhone 14 family, and at least until today, this was just the beginning of such restrictions on the right to choose Iranian users. Today, on live TV, iPhone 14 became “phone number 14”; It is not unlikely that the Korean phone number 24 will be subject to the same rule in the future.
The second screen: Iranian Android
In July 2018, after many rumors, “Mohammed Javad Azari Jahormi” b Post a video on your Twitter Officially unveiled the “Iranian Android” project. Jahormi had mentioned the sanctions against Iran with the example of his local grocer. Of course, we explained it in Digiato at the same time that the customization of “AOSP” or the free and open source platform of Android, is not comparable to the black list of a grocer.
However, the few Iranian mobile phone manufacturers at that time were very happy with this news. For example, Hamid Saeedi, CEO of GLX He told Digiato in July 2018 that Iranian Android does not need Google services and has completely cut off access to Google services. In response to the question of what replaced Google services, the CEO of GLX said: “They have prepared an alternative service that can do the work of Google Play Services.”
Saidi also explained to Digiato about the type of cooperation with the Ministry of Communications:
“Negotiations in this regard have started several months ago. During this period, many knowledge-based companies and startups were involved in the development of this operating system at the request of the Ministry of Communications. Now we have reached a point where software has been prepared and we have worked on a suitable phone that can support the software in terms of hardware. This process went very well and by the way, yesterday we prepared about 500 samples of this phone and delivered some of them to the Ministry of Communications.
What was the output? The project had several different officials in different years and in the end, like many other government projects, it did not reach any results. Finally, the Iranian Android project, native or even the AOSP version, remained silent for years. But the Ministry of Communications of the thirteenth government said why not? In December 1401, the Ministry of Communications published a call and invited domestic mobile operating system manufacturers to cooperate.
In the call published by the Deputy Minister of Technology and Innovation of the Ministry of Communications, it was written: “In line with the implementation of clause 18 of the operational goals of the National Information Network Architecture and Master Plan document and in order to identify the technical and executive capacities of the production and development of smart mobile phone operating systems, natural and legal persons including private companies, non-governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations who have at least one operating system installed on a smartphone by January 20, 1401, are invited for evaluation.”
The fate of this call is not yet clear; But due to the fact that the issue of Iranian phones has been raised more seriously than ever, it is likely that new companies will be introduced in this field by the end of the year; As soon as nearly 10 new companies entered the field of mobile phone production. Of course, the Ministry of Communications has announced that Iranian phones currently use the Android operating system, but “Isa Zarepour” has emphasized that they have plans for the native operating system.
The third scene: Iranian mobile phone
Why Iranian Android did not reach any results? Because basically there was no third curtain and acceptable hardware in the real sense. But in the last year, there is a special focus on the term “Iranian mobile phone production”. There is even an association called “Mobile Manufacturers” that includes most of the mobile phone manufacturers in the country under its umbrella.
On the other hand, The Ministry of Communications announced in June 1402 It has set a target to produce one million domestic smartphones and to achieve this goal, it has considered “500 billion tomans of employment creation facilities”. Mohammad Khansari, the head of the Information Technology Organization, also mentioned support for the development of the native operating system. He said that resources have been included for this purpose and some companies (after announcing the operating system recall) have announced their capabilities.
Now the most important question is what will happen to the mobile market. Are the companies that receive facilities, design or manufacture mobile phones, going to be in direct competition with foreign brands of mobile phone manufacturers, or to support them, there is a need to limit the import of some models or increase their import tariff by means of a tool called “registry”? This is the most important question to determine the future state of the mobile market.
The important point here is that in recent months, an increase in the import tariff for passenger phones was experienced. If these types of plans expand, it is obvious that the phones will become more unaffordable. It seems that the path is the same as that of the automobile and household appliances industry, but with one difference: instead of a one-time general ban, the import tariff may increase to such an extent that Iranian phones suddenly become more attractive to the audience who are looking for a mobile phone under 15 million tomans.
So yes; People are right to be concerned – if the policy of restrictions and, as mentioned, tariff increases are to be applied to foreign mobiles. But people having experience in other industries even have the right to be pessimistic. Because they are worried that these three pieces together can ultimately limit their right to choose; It is for a tool that is used daily much more than cars or household appliances.
People who work in government like to use the term “digital economy”. These loved ones should not forget that the first tool to connect people and businesses for the formation of the digital economy is the mobile phone.