After Xiaomi and Sony, Taiwanese manufacturer HTC is now planning to introduce a smartphone developed specifically for the Indian market. According to a report in ET Telecom, the company will bring this smartphone in Q3, 2015 and it will be a mid-range device.
“We have a third-quarter plan for our global launch in India to introduce a device which is specifically designed for the Indian consumer,” Chia-Lin Chang, HTC’s CFO & President of global sales told ET in an interview recently.
According to Chang, India will act as the launchpad for this upcoming smartphone and it will later be released in select other markets. He did not share specifics of the smartphone, but it is expected to be priced between INR 15,000 and INR 20,000.
The company plans to launch 10 more smartphones this year in the country and half of these will support 4G LTE networks.
Given the increased competition in the mid-range segment from the companies like Asus, Xiaomi and Motorola, it is high time for HTC to become aggressive and bring a worthy smartphone. Most of the company’s mid-range Desire smartphones have either been over-priced so far or were inferior to the competition.
In related news, HTC is also mulling to start assembling its smartphones in the country. The company will take a call on the same in the next four-five months.
“We are considering a lot of things. Before getting into manufacturing, we will need to ensure smooth delivery of devices from R&D lab to the end consumer,” Chang told ET Telecom.
