Nov. 5, 2009 (The Hindu Business Line) --
, Country Head, India - Smart Handheld Business Group and Sales Manager - Asia Pacific, Acer, at the launch of the smartphones in Bangalore on Thursday.
Addressing the media during the launch of Acer’s latest smartphone (phones with advanced features that offer a PC-like experience) range, Mr Richard Tan, Country Head, India – Smart Handheld Business Group and Sales Manager – Asia Pacific, Acer, said, “The smartphone market in India is getting accessible to many with prices coming down. We are looking to launch affordable products for the market mass.”
Acer’s latest smartphone (beTouch E101) for the mass market priced at Rs 11,900 is targeted at the youth. Last year, Acer had launched smartphones priced at around Rs 16,000.
Acer also launched the beTouch E200 touch phone targeted at those looking to connect with friends on the Internet (priced Rs 17,900) on Thursday. It also came out with the high-end neoTouch S200 phone priced at Rs 35,000.
The E101 phones, which run on Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, come with features such as touch-screen, Internet Explorer and Live Messenger, while E200 enables easy navigation, search and messaging. The neoTouch S200 phone comes with 3G connectivity, wi-fi, Bluetooth and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) 1GHz Snapdragon processor for fast Internet access and superior multimedia and gaming experiences. Acer has tied up with Tata DoCoMo to offer consumers 500 MB free download per month for six months. “Users can also experience these devices at the ‘Dive In’ retail stores of Tata DoCoMo,” said Mr Tan.
The smartphone market in India is currently estimated at 3.5 million units. Acer is looking to capture 10 per cent of the smartphone market in India by next year.
