Spice Mobility to spend Rs 25 cr on promotional activities

Spice Mobility today said it will launch 8-9 models and invest about Rs 25 crore in marketing and promotional activities during the festive season.

The new handsets, to be launched in the price range of Rs 2,000-6,000, will include basic handsets and QWERTY keypad phones. The company will also launch an Android-based tablet and handset, but has not disclosed the pricing yet.

"We have lined up 8-9 new new handsets for launch this Diwali. We expect good sales in the festive season (October-November) and have offering at various price points to suit each customer's needs," Spice Mobility's Vice President (Marketing) Naveen Paul told PTI.
    
He, however, declined to comment on the sales targets for the festive season.
    
"We would invest about Rs 20-25 crore in various marketing and promotional activities. We would also introduce three new television commercials, which would hit the screen soon," Paul said.
    
Asked about the Android market, Paul said, "The Android market is still a very small market in India, but is growing. We are still studying the market for the pricing and the product requirements. We will launch more devices on the Android platform."
    
Spice already has an Android-based mobile handset, priced at Rs 9,990 in the Indian market.
    
Android is a mobile operating system, which was initially developed by Google and later by the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), a consortium of 50 hardware, software, and telecom companies.

It allows developers to design applications independent of the handset type and users can download over 70,000 applications like games, music, music players and location-based services.

Handset makers like HTC, Samsung and Motorola have already launched Android-powered phones in India, with more companies looking to joining the bandwagon soon. Many players like Dell have also introduced tablet PCs based on the platform.

According to research firm Gartner, Android operating system comprised 17.2 per cent share of the global smartphone market for the quarter ended June 2010, third after Symbian and Research in Motion.