Spice became the first Indian company to launch its products in Barcelona. On the first day of the event, B K Modi-owned Spice launched a low end phone called People´s Phone at a price below $20. "This is initial price. The prices will fall as the mass production of this phone begins," Modi told TelecomTiger in Barcelona.

Spice also showcased World''''s first mobile phone which also works as a DVD player. This phone will be launched in the market on commercial basis in June.

Spice will start selling its "People's Phone", which comes without a screen, in Asian markets from Iraq to Indonesia from March, and plans to introduce more phone models in the $10 to $20 price range in the near future, said Modi.

All cellphone vendors are eyeing entry to the lowest end of the market, as growth in the rest of the spectrum is expected to slow this year. So far the sub-30 euro ($43.5) market, which represents 20 per cent of all phones sold globally, has been dominated by the world's largest cellphone maker Nokia.

Nokia's cheapest mass market product, Nokia 1110, retails on average for 23 euros on Western European markets, data from research firm CCS Insight showed.

Modi said the company had been able to keep the costs down on its new model as it has not added a screen and other non-essential features.

If things go well we are talking about 10 million phones in the first 12 months. That's our target," he said. A couple of vendors tried in the 1990s to sell phones without screens but they found no mass appeal. Motorola also tried to tackle Nokia's stronghold of the market in the past few years.

"Only half of the people in the world use mobile phones at the moment. The problem is the cost of the phone," Modi said, adding a global manufacturing firm would make the first phones in China, but Spice had started to build its own factory.