Business Standard

Bharti Airtel, HTC and Qualcomm launches the HTC Smart in India

Image

Announcement Corporate
  • Friendly and compact design with HTC Sense experience
  • World’s first commercial 3G smartphone based on Qualcomm’s Brew® Mobile Platform (Brew MP™) 
  • HTC’s Friendstream integrates Facebook, Twitter and Flickr into one stream of social communication updates
  • Airtel customers to get an exclusive offer for data and content with  HTC Smart

HTC Corporation, a global smartphone designer and Bharti Airtel, one of Asia’s leading integrated telecom service providers, today announced an exclusive partnership to launch the HTC Smart in India in collaboration with Qualcomm Incorporated. The HTC Smart marks HTC’s strategic focus on India, the fastest growing telecom market in the world. HTC Smart, an easy-to-use and affordable smartphone, aims to create a new category of smartphones by bringing the globally acclaimed HTC Smart to the masses.

 

“HTC has always focused on setting the stage for new mobile experiences and the HTC Smart is clear differentor from touch phone and the result of customer feedback from all over the world for an easier-to-use, affordable smartphone,” said Peter Chou, Chief Executive Officer, HTC Corporation. “We’re excited to launch the HTC Smart with Airtel in India first and Qualcomm, a company known for its innovations. HTC Smart offers easy-to-use widgets, browsing and connectivity at an affordable price. The integration of HTC Sense brings an unparalleled smartphone experience for people looking to do more on their phone.”

The HTC Smart incorporates the latest cutting-edge features and is powered by Qualcomm’s Brew Mobile Platform™ operating system. The stylish device sports a 2.8-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with QVGA resolution and is equipped with a 3.5 mm stereo audio jack. The HTC Smart also includes a 3.0 megapixel color camera with fixed focus and flashlight.

“As the undisputed leader in the Indian telecom industry, Airtel is committed to constantly delighting its customers and offering innovations to enrich their experience. With the HTC Smart, Airtel customers will be the first in the world to experience a revolutionary Smartphone that is not only affordable but is also 3G-ready” said Sanjay Kapoor, CEO-India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel.

“Qualcomm is pleased to collaborate with HTC and Airtel to launch HTC Smart, which brings the 3G smartphone experience to the mass market,” said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and chief executive officer of Qualcomm. “HTC Smart is the first smartphone using Qualcomm’s distinctive Brew MP operating system.  This platform, combined with the powerful HTC Sense technology brings a unique and compelling smartphone user experience to Indian consumers.”

Bringing HTC Sense To The Masses
The HTC Smart embodies HTC Sense, HTC’s unique design philosophy that focuses on putting people at the centre by making your phone work in a more simple and natural way.  The HTC Smart’s compact touch design integrates the pillars of HTC Sense - Make It Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected. People can customize their own personal experience using a variety of widgets for quick access to contacts, photos, music, weather and more.  People are able to follow their friends’ status updates using HTC Friend Stream, an application that seamlessly aggregates social communication streams like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr into one organized flow of updates. This simple aggregation makes it easier than ever to focus on what friends are doing as well as the images and links that they share.

HTC Smart utilizes Qualcomm’s Brew Mobile Platform™ (Brew MP), a powerful and popular mobile operating system that enables HTC to deliver the HTC Sense experience on more affordable smartphones. By pioneering a new era of mass-market smartphones, Brew MP also provides the HTC Smart with a mass-market opportunity for new applications and services from software developers worldwide.

Availability & Pricing
The HTC Smart™ will be available through Airtel in top 30 cities across the country at a Market Operating Price of Rs. 9,990.00* and at all authorized HTC resellers.
* Prices may vary according to the local applicable taxes

About HTC
HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry and continues to pioneer industry-leading mobile experiences through design, usability and innovation that are sparked by how the mobile phone can improve how people live and communicate. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com

About Bharti Airtel Limited
Bharti Airtel Limited, a group company of Bharti Enterprises, is among Asia’s leading integrated telecom services providers with operations in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In South Asia, the company had an aggregate of over 134 million customers as of end February 2010, including 124.6 million mobile customers in India. Bharti Airtel has been ranked among the six best performing technology companies in the world by BusinessWeek.

Bharti Airtel is structured as four strategic business units - Mobile, Telemedia, Enterprise and Digital TV. The mobile business offers services in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The Telemedia business provides broadband, IPTV and telephone services in 94 Indian cities. The Enterprise business provides end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national and international long distance services to carriers. The Digital TV business provides DTH services across India. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. Airtel’s national high-speed optic fiber network currently spans over 118,337 Rkms across India. Airtel's international network infrastructure includes ownership of the i2i submarine cable system and consortium ownership in five global undersea cable systems, SEA-ME-WE 4, EIG, I-ME-WE, AAG and UNITY. For more information, visit www.airtel.in

About Qualcomm
Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM) is a leader in developing and delivering innovative digital wireless communications products and services based on CDMA and other advanced technologies.  Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., Qualcomm is included in the S&P 100 Index, the S&P 500 Index and is a 2009 FORTUNE 500® company.  For more information, please visit www.qualcomm.com.

Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel

First Published: Mar 30 2010 | 8:21 PM IST

Explore News