Huawei to design, develop and test handsets for India market
Huawei to design, develop and test handsets for India market
Bangalore: China-based telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei on Tuesday announced the establishment of a product development centre here that will design and develop software and test mobile handsets for the Indian market, where it plans to build the brand in a big way.
This centre would take up entire design of the phones, the software that gets inside and end-to-end testing of the products for the Indian market, director-sales, Huawei India Device Business Department, P Sanjeev, said.
However, manufacturing would be done in China. He said the company was trying to marry the “best of both worlds", the software strength of India and the manufacturing muscle of China.
Huawei on Tuesday launched three smart-phones for the Indian market ; IDEOS X5, IDEOS X2 and IDEOS Chat, targeted at young consumers in the city and said it would launch eight to ten mobile handset models in 2011.
“We will target smartphones, tablets as well as 3G-featured phones (in India)," Huawei India Device Business Department director-Marketing & Solutions Anand Narang said.
Sanjeev said the company would focus on phones priced above ₹ 5,000.
Narang said the company would launch tablets in India in the third quarter (July-September) of 2011.
Huawei is aiming at a 5-7% marketshare in the Indian mobile handsets market by 2013.
Sanjeev said: “We are going to build a complete local organisation for both distribution and after-sales service."
Narang added: “We will have direct retail presence. We will also start building our own brand visibility."
On the new phones launched on Tuesday, the company said the IDEOS X5 smart-phone, priced at ₹ 14,999, is targeted at young professionals, while the touch screen IDEOS X2 ( ₹ 8,999) is for the youth.
The IDEOS Chat (Rs 8,199), with both a touch screen and qwerty keypad, would be focused for younger and on-the-go consumers.
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