China-based telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei today 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, told reporters here.
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 today 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 this year.
"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 costing above Rs 5,000.
Narang said the company would launch tablets in India in the third quarter (July-September) of this year.
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 today, the company said the IDEOS X5 smart-phone, priced at Rs 14,999, is targeted at young professionals, while the touch screen IDEOS X2 (Rs 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.
