Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 8 (IANS) Chinese mobile equipment manufacturer Huawei Wednesday launched its Ideos range of mobile handsets in the country and said it was targeting a 15 percent market share in terms of sales by 2015.

“We are targeting 15 percent market share in the handsets market by 2015 and 5-7 percent by 2013,” said Victor Shan, president, India device business department, Huawei.

The company said it will launch its tablets in the third quarter of 2011, adding that its pricing will be competitive.

The company last year announced an investment of $2 billion in a new research facility in Bangalore and its manufacturing unit in Chennai.

The investment, which will be made over the next five years, will also focus on augmenting the Chinese firm’s capabilities in local sourcing, increasing headcount, while scaling up potential of its research and development and manufacturing units.

The company which launched three generation Y smartphones — Ideos X5, Ideos X2 and Ideos Chat — also has plans to introduce 1,500-2,000 points of sale across the country by the end of this year.

Priced at Rs.14,999, Ideos X5 is a high definition phone, offering a 3.8 inch WVGA touch screen and 5 megapixel camera. Ideos X2 comes for Rs.8,999 and is loaded with a 3.2 megapixel camera, 3.2 HVGA touch screen and is powered by Android 2.2 operating system.

Ideos Chat is a touch and qwerty phone which offers unique smileys and “@” sign on its keypad. Powered by Android 2.1, this smartphone is priced at Rs.8,199.

“In the initial phase our smartphones will be available for sale across 10 cities through our partners Redington and Ingram Micro,” said P. Sanjeev, sales director, Huawei Devices.

“We are quite confident that these new 3.5G range of smartphones will receive an overwhelming response from the data and internet-hungry consumers in both the metros and tier-II cities in India,” he added.

The Indian device market contributes to 10 percent of the total revenue of the company.