HTC, inspite of its performance in other niches and markets has been lagging behind in India due to its overpriced devices that don’t do particularly well against those put forward by manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Micromax, Motorola among others. Even the much vaunted, mid range Desire series failed to impress due to the fact that the features on offer could not keep up with their price tags. But with these companies reaping the benefits of the vast Indian market with their mid range smartphones, it seems like HTC has finally set out to correct the mistake.
Apparently, the company is bringing a brand new, price-efficient smartphone designed specifically for the Indian market, set for release in the third quarter of this year. As Chia-Lin Chang, HTC’s CFO & President of global sales told ET Telecom “We have a third-quarter plan for our global launch in India to introduce a device which is specifically designed for the Indian consumer.”
The device will also be released in other markets once it debuts in India and from what we can guess, will be priced anywhere between INR 15,000 and INR 20,000.
We are not saying that the company hasn’t made attempts in this direction, however thay have been mostly half hearted. Now, it’s certainly high time for HTC to play a bit aggressive and bring out a mid range device worth its salt that can help the company carve a niche for itself in the market.
The company is also considering setting up assembly lines for its smartphones in the country — to be decided in the next few month. As CFO Chang said “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,”.
Well, it seems like the company has large plans for India and it will be quite interesting to watch them materialize. For now, stay with us as we bring you the most interesting news on everything Android.
Discussion