HTC eyes stronger play in premium smartphone market in India

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC today said it will beef up its portfolio in the Rs 10,000- 25,000 category and move out of the "hyper-competitive" sub-Rs 10,000 segment.

HTC had recently said it would exit the entry-level smartphone market. However, HTC President South Asia Faisal Siddiqui believes there would hardly be any impact on Indian operations.

"We did not have phones in the sub-Rs 10,000 category anyway. We have a strong portfolio of phones in the Rs 10,000-25,000 and we will continue to grow that," he told PTI.

Siddiqui added that the sub-Rs 10,000 market has become hyper-competitive and that it will now play in the Rs 10,000 and above segments.
 

HTC also launched two new premium devices today.

HTC today unveiled U Play and U Ultra smartphones, priced at Rs 39,990 and Rs 59,990, respectively. The phones will be available in Indian retail market from March.

"The launch of the HTC 'U' series marks the beginning of our several exciting launches in India this year. Our focus is on design, quality, HD adaptive audio and Artificial Intelligence integration for customers looking for a premium product with a global appeal," Siddiqui said.

HTC is also working on bringing its popular virtual reality (VR) headset -- Vive -- to India by June this year.

"We will hopefully bring the Vive in India in the next few months, hopefully by June... We have received a lot of interest from enterprises here as well who have asked for the device to be brought in," Siddiqui said.

The HTC U Ultra comes equipped with the dual display, HTC Sense Companion, U Sonic and voice recognition. With a 5.7-inch display, the device is powered by 2.15GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor.

It has a 4GB RAM, 64GB internal memory (expandable up to 2TB), 12MP main and 16MP front camera and 3000 mAh battery.

HTC U Play comes with a 5.2-inch display and is powered by octa-core Mediatek Helio processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB internal memory (expandable up to 2TB), 16MP main and 16MP front camera and 2500 mAh battery.