Airtel to push HTC, iPhone under its umbrella

NEW DELHI, INDIA:  Following the agreement to introduce Apple’s iPhone in the country later this year, Bharti Airtel will also be pushing iPhone rival, HTC Touch Diamond exclusively on its network.

Speaking on the sidelines of the unveiling of Taiwanese phone manufacturer's, latest product offering, HTC Touch Diamond, Bharti Airtel, Executive Director,  Syed Safawi, said Airtel will be pushing both brands in Indian market as the market size was huge enough to allow both the competing brands to compete and survive.

“They are very different products and will be targeted against a different customer segments, so as a company, we don’t see any conflict between the two partnerships,” said Safawi.

“The market is big enough for both the brands to survive and compete” added Safawi.

Bharti Airtel also has an exclusive tieup with Research In Motion (RIM) for Blackberry in India.

HTC’s Touch Diamond is high end phone positioned by the company for both the business and consumer market. Diamond has a 2.8-inch touch screen, offers high-speed connectivity and 4GB storage. The phone is priced at Rs 27,500 and will be available in 17 cities in the country from second week of June.

Whether the partnership limited the reach of HTC phone in India, Peter Chou CEO, HTC said the Airtel being India’s number one service provider will give company leverage to address India high end mobile market.

“We are excited about this alliance and are sure to achieve the numbers that we have targeted”, added Peter.

The Taiwanese smart phone maker expects to double in sales in India for 2008. HTC sold 100,000 phones last year in the country and bolstered by the entry of HTC Touch Diamond, expects 100% growth this year.

The company is also looking to boost sales globally by 30 percent this year. Its first touch phone, called the HTC Touch, has already sold 3 million units.

"We have already achieved the growth figures of 2007 in these first few months," said HTC's India Country Head Ajay Sharma.

HTC’s, CEO also hinted at the company's plans to move beyond the Windows platform to Google’s open source Android soon.

“We are still on track, planning to launch Google call phones by the end of this year”, said Peter

Speaking about the market positioning of the brand, country Manager, HTC, India, said the HTC diamond is targeted across all segments and will compete with high-end Nokia handsets, Blackberry and iPhone.