Spice Launches New Dual Mode Phone

Spice Mobiles has announced the launch of its latest dual-mode mobile phone, the D-1111, with support for both GSM and CDMA networks. The D-1111 is a Windows Mobile powered smart phone that comes preloaded with hordes of VAS and applications.

The phone includes applications from Nimbuzz, Mitr, Opera and Reuters. The smartphone comes with a pretty basic 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and expandable memory support upto 2GB. The phone also comes with support for email2SMS, a software that will allows users to check their e-mails via SMS. The phone uses Windows Mobile 6.0 by the way. Wi-Fi seems to have been given the slip. The phone will retail at a price of Rs. 18,499 and is now available across all Spice dealers.

LG KM900 Arena Now in India

LG has launched its new stylish and fully-loaded multimedia phone, LG KM900 Arena, in India.

The phone features a new 3D S-class user interface meant to provide quality audio and video output. Arena is the first phone in the global market to use Dolby Mobile from Dolby Laboratories meant to deliver enhanced sound experience while listening to music content, the company said.

As per the company, its 3-inch WVGA screen with 16M colors has four times sharper resolution than standard QVGA screens. D1 recording capability with a 5 MP camera captures DVD-resolution video that looks great even when played back on a large TV through TV Out. Moreover, Arena can record 120 frames per second slow motion video to catch every detail.

Hundreds of music and movie files can be handled with expanded 40GB storage, including 8GB of internal memory and a 32 GB micro SD slot. LG claims that this phone's battery offers up to 30 hours of MP3 playtime, and video and photos can also easily be shared on social networking sites. Other features include Google Mobile Service, GPS and geo-tagging.

The phone packs in a sleek metal design with tempered glass over the touch screen. Priced at Rs. 24,990, LG Arena is available in silver and black titanium color schemes at all retail outlets.

Bharti, Vodafone to bring new 'iPhone 3G S' to India in August

India’s leading GSM telecom operators -- Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar -- are set to bring Apple’s latest iPhone, called iPhone 3G S, to India in August. The new iPhone 3G S, which offers faster data speeds, a new camera, video recording, compass and voice control, was unveiled in US earlier this week.

In India, Apple has exclusive tie-ups with Bharti and Vodafone and this is one of the few markets where the US-based technology firm has a tie-up with two operators. Bharti and Vodafone jointly account for over 170 million of the over 400 million cellphone users in the country.

Apple had issued a guidance, saying the iPhone 3G S would make its debut in India in August, but refused to specify the date and the pricing for the country. The guidance also added that the handset would be launched in 31 other countries in August. Additionally, as per information made public by Apple, the iPhone 3G S will go on sale in 10 countries, including the US on June 19, and another 32 countries in the month of July.

Both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar did not offer comments to a detailed query sent by ET.

In India, the new iPhone from Apple is set to face competition from smartphones such as Nokia’s N97 and similar offerings from BlackBerry and Samsung. Another handset that can be a potential threat to Apple’s new product is the Palm’s Pre which has just hit the US market, but is currently not available in India.

But, unlike handsets such as Nokia’s N97, the new iPhone 3G S will have a unique advantage as it has over 100,000 applications and also enjoys the support of the most vibrant and innovative developer community in this space. This implies, Apple’s product is more than just a technically superior handset, but more of a software platform with thousands of custom-made applications.

However, the catch is that the earlier model of the iPhone’s India entry has been a huge failure both in terms of sales (due to an unviable distribution model) coupled with a steep price tag and poor advertising which resulted in the brand failing to connect with customers here.

Also, customers in India who had followed Apple’s pricing globally during in other countries and believed that the iPhone would sport a similar price tag of $199 here were put off by the fact that they would have to shell out more than three time the amount to buy the product. Worse still, market watchers say that neither Apple nor Bharti and Vodafone Essar put in the efforts to explain the difference in market dynamics in India which led to the higher pricing here which left customers confused.

Market watchers and analysts also say that Apple’s decision to go in with only Bharti and Vodafone Essar in India was flawed, especially considering that GSM operators here are not major players in the handset retail space. This is because, GSM players rarely bundle handsets and restrict such offering to the lower-end phones in non-urban and rural markets.

For consumers, some of the new features that come with the iPhone 3G S include its ability to remember text that has been entered once, thereby eliminating the need to retype e-mail addresses, postal addresses or usernames, the digital compass which aids in navigation and a host of features that make it friendly for the disabled. Besides, it also comes with Apple’s own earphones along with a multi-button remote, but with a single control key and a mic.

Reliance Offers BlackBerry Rs. 299 Plan

After a rather late revision of tariff, Reliance Mobile has introduced the affordable 'Reliance E-Lite' plan for BlackBerry" smartphone users in India.

With the 'Reliance E-Lite' plan, users can have unlimited access to email and instant messaging (IM) on their BlackBerry smartphones for just Rs. 299 per month.

Airtel and Vodafone already offer similar plans which costs subscribers Rs. 299 per month.

The Reliance E-Lite service plan offers unlimited access to the widely used email and instant messaging features, allowing Reliance customers to access up to 10 supported POP3/IMAP email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts such as Yahoo! Mail and Google Mail).

The service plan is offered with all BlackBerry smartphones available from Reliance Mobile, such as BlackBerry 8703e, BlackBerry 8830, BlackBerry Curve 8300, BlackBerry Curve 8900, BlackBerry Pearl 8110 and BlackBerry Pearl 8130.

Samsung launches solar-powered phone

Leading mobile handset manufacturer Samsung launched a low-cost solar-powered mobile phone, and said it was planning to introduce about 20 more models by year-end.

The new handset, launched under its low-cost line of products -- "Guru" -- at a price of Rs 2,799, has a solar panel on the back, which can be used to charge the battery anywhere the sun is shining."We have developed this phone keeping in minds the needs of the consumers, especially for people in areas where the electric supply is unstable," said J S Shin, president and chief executive of Samsung, Southwest Asia.

The phone, christened the "Guru E1107", can provide around 5-10 minutes of talk-time with one-hour of solar charging when the handset is turned off and sunlight has adequate intensity.

"Solar charging can give you enough time to make few important calls when there is no electricity or you are not close to a plug point," said Sunil Dutt, country head of Samsung India. The battery will attain full power with about 40 hours of solar charging.

"But that is really not the intention behind the launch of this phone. It is to enable customers to make a call when there is no electricity," said Dutt.

The handset, the 11th model in the Guru series, will be in shops by month-end. The first few batches of Guru E1107 will be imported from South Korea. Samsung has already launched about 20 models this year and plans to take this number to about 40 across categories.

Asked whether the company would consider introducing solar charging features in high-end phones, Dutt said, "We would definitely consider doing so." Samsung, which has invested about $44 million in developing its mobile manufacturing facility in Noida, also has ambitious plans for the huge Indian mobile market.

"Our market share is in the early double digits currently. We plan to increase it by about 5-6 percent this year," said a company official.The company is also planning to introduce in India its solar-powered touchscreen mobile handset, Blue Earth - unveiled at a technology conference in Barcelona, Spain early this year.