Huawei launches handsets for open market

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Huawei Telecommunications today announced its entry into open mobile handset market with the launch of 20 models that include a mix of 3G, GSM and CDMA handsets.

“We see a huge opportunity in Indian device market. Our devices portfolio is divided in four categories namely mobile broadband, handsets, convergence terminal and video product. This is just beginning of our entry into open market. We will bring other devices to the market in phased manner,” said A Sethuraman, executive director, Huawei Technologies.

The company today launched mobile handset in two categories namely Hangout and Android Series. All the Android handsets, except C8500, launched by the company will support 3G services which are expected to be soon launched in the country. Huawei C8500 wil support EVDO services which are run by CDMA operators in the country. These handsets have been priced in the range between Rs 8000 to Rs 20000.

Hangout series launched by the company has mix of GSM, CDMA and HSDPA handsets. The handsets in these series have been priced between Rs 3000 to Rs 12000.

Huwaei has been selling handsets and devices in Indian market since 2005 but they were all bundled with telecom service providers. Since it has entered into open market for the first time, the company is working out on its channel partner strategy to increase its presence in Indian retail network.

“We are targeting to expand our reach in 200 top cities of the country with presence across 20,000 to 30,000 retail outlet in a years time. We will also partner withe multi-brand retails stores as we are planning to launch a range of access devices, apart from handsets,” said P Sanjeev, director-sales, Terminal Department, Huawei Telecommunications.

All these handsets will be available across retails store within a month. Huawei has already started selling U9130 model under its Hangout series in western region of India.