Huawei to launch 10 to 12 new products

HYDERABAD: Huawei Devices, the Indian subsidiary of Chinese telecom major Huawei Technologies, plans to launch 10-12 new products, including tablets and 3G-based phones, this year.

Launching three new smart phones here, Huawei India Devices director P. Sanjeev told reporters Thursday that the firm planned to unveil tablets by the end of third quarter. The tablets will cost less than Rs.25,000.

Huwaei Devices, which sold 25 million units in mobile broadband, home convergence and smart phone segments in India since 2004, expects 10 to 15 percent growth during the current financial year.

The company's revenues in last fiscal were $490 million. India contributes 10 percent to Huawei's global revenues of $28 billion.

Sanjeev said the firm planned to invest $2 billion in India over the next five years.

"The investment will be for research and development, for developing India specific products, for manufacturing facility in Chennai and marketing," he said.

Huawei India Device marketing director Anand Narang said the firm would focus on 38 percent of the Indian device market of above Rs.3,000 smart phones.

About 150 million handsets were sold in India last year while the forecast for the current year is 170 million.

Huwaei aims to capture five to seven percent of 38 percent market share by 2013 and 15 percent by 2015.

It has set up a 200-member production creation centre in Bangalore to develop products for Indian market. It will develop software with local content in Indian languages.

The R&D centre in Bangalore already has 3,200 employees. The company employs 6,500 people in 16 offices across the country.