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Haier Launched New Phones in India(SinoCast China IT Week Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) SHENZHEN, July 31, 2006, SinoCast -- Haier Telecom on July 25 unveiled its new range of touch screen GSM mobile phones in Inida. "We wanted to be different from the market clutter and, hence, a new range of mobile phones with unique design and style are being launched with touch screen," Haier Telecom MD Arun Khanna said in a statement here. The series, priced between INR 7,000 to INR 12,000, has been launched in three models: M2000, M230 and M260. M2000, available in three different colors, is enabled with features like extra wide touch screen, handwriting recognition, MP3, organiser, integrated hands free and a battery life of 150 hours standby time with 2 hours and 50 minutes talk time. The other two handsets offer a 2.0-mega pixel camera, touch panel screen, handwriting recognition feature, video streaming, MP3 music player and have a 1000 SMS storage capacity. The company aims to sell more than 50 lakh mobile handsets within the first phase of operations. The phones include a complete range from entry level to high-end multimedia phones with prices ranging from INR 2,000 to INR 20,000 and above. Haier plans to introduce more variants in the same series over the next few months, the statement added. Haier is casting eyes on revenues of USD 300 million from the sale of mobile phones in India in the coming two years and then consider setting up a plant, its India head of mobile operations said on June 1. India is expected to snap up about 55 million mobile phones this year, up 71 percent from 2005, and the market is forecast to grow to USD 5.8 billion by 2010. Haier Telecom (India) Ltd, a joint venture of Haier group and India's Scope group, will sell GSM and CDMA phones imported from China priced at USD 43 to USD 432. "The aim is to be among the top brands in the Indian mobile phones segment by the end of our first year of operations," Arun Khanna, managing director of Haier Telecom India, said. The company would also consider starting manufacturing operations in India about two years from now "with a significant investment," he said. That would cater to the Indian market as well as south Asia and south-east Asia. Haier hopes that its mobile phones can piggyback on its appliances in the Indian market. Haier Electronics has said it plans to become India's third-biggest home appliances and consumer electronics firm by 2010. Haier said in April it would sell its struggling mobile phone business to parent Qingdao Haier Group Holdings. Nokia controls more than half the USD 2.5 billion Indian mobile phone market and has a manufacturing unit, as do South Korea's LG Electronics Inc and Samsung. "We do not believe we are late, the market is growing quickly, and there is room for everyone," Khanna said. Between 4 million and 5 million new users enter the market each month, and analysts expect the user base to expand to 278 million by 2010. Haier now is standing head and shoulders above its competitors in India's mobile phone market. So far it has won 2- million-sets of mobile phone orders from Indian telecom carriers. Industry analysts say that led-by Haier, Chinese mobile phone brands are in full sail to expand their footprints to the international markets in the hope to sit in a better position globally after they lost half of the domestic market. |