BIC: from stationery icon to mobile phone company

Written on July 22, 2008 – 12:01 pm
Robin Wauters, Next web enthusiast & Plugg organizer

In case you haven’t read this elsewhere (I haven’t, but the press release is dated 11 July): BIC, the French company whose name will infinitely be linked to ballpoint pens - in fact, in Belgium, Greece and France, the name has even become downright generic - has set up a partnership with Orange and Alacatel to market a basic mobile phone aptly named the BIC Phone. Who needs further proof that cellphones are now nothing more than a commodity?

Presented as a basic handset that’s “100% ready-to-go,” the BIC phone comes packed just like one of its razors and includes a SIM card, 60 free minutes and a fully-charged battery. This makes the new handset ready to be used right after you buy it, hence it could be a perfect secondary or emergency phone. Built by Alcatel, the BIC phone measures 98 x 44 x 12.6 millimeters, weighs only 61 grams and has a battery capable of providing up to 4 hours of talk-time and up to 240 hours of stand-by time.

As from August 7, the BIC phone will become available across France in two colors (citrus orange and lime green) for a retail price of 49 Euros (about $77 USD), including tax. The handset will be sold over the counter in supermarkets, as well as in convenience stores, like tobacco shops or stores from train stations and airports.

I hope you like that post!

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BIC, BIC Phone, cellphone, commodity, mobile phone

About the author: Robin Wauters is a Belgium-based social media consultant, startup advisor, blogger, entrepreneur, Twitter fanatic, conference organizer and allround web addict. Between trying out just about every new web application that gets in his sight, he advises local startups like ContactOffice, Oxynade and Yuntaa. And when he's not busy trying to keep tabs with what's going on in the virtualization & cloud computing industry as managing editor of Virtualization.com, he's probably working on the organization of Plugg, an annual celebration of European web entrepreneurship.

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3 comments to “BIC: from stationery icon to mobile phone company”

By joshua on Jul 22, 2008

But, why?

Reply
By Joop Dorresteijn on Jul 22, 2008

I think it’s most usuable for nomadds who reside only a few months in a country, otherwise for gangsters ;-) . Very cool though!

Reply
By Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on Jul 22, 2008

I wouldn’t mind having one in my bag for back-up purposes. Or one in the car. Or just at home for people visiting from other countries. For that kind of money you can’t miss…

Reply

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