Spice mobile announces launch of Blue Gen variety phones

Kolkata, Nov 08 (UNI) Spice mobile phone services is all set to capture at least ten per cent share in the country's cellular phone market by the end of this fiscal when its total sales is likely to cross Rs 240 crores.

This was announced here today by Spice Limited Chief Executive Officer(CEO)Kunal Ahooja during the national launch of its elite class 'Blue Gen' range of mobile handsets targeting the high end customers.

Stating that since the introduction of a total range of 15 models so far they had been experiencing about 20 to 25 per cent growth in sales within the country and hoped to maintain the trend in the wake of huge demand for cellular phone services.

Mr Ahooja said interestingly and contrary to popular belief the growth in mobile phone services in India was far greater in semi-urban and rural India than in urban areas.

Referring to their expansion programme since Spice Limited set its footprints about a year ago and built a value-based proposition, Mr Ahooja said they had been offering cutting edge handsets which combined mobile phone functionality with enriched content and smart device capabilities besides having data processing capacity.

He said in order to meet the increasing demand for spaceage handsets Spice Limited had decided to set up its own manufacturing facility at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh at an estimated cost of "several hundred crores of rupees" by next August with an installed capacity of producing 500,000 sets every year.

"Till now the sets were being imported from Taiwan in knocked down condition and being assembled in the country through franchise services," he said.

To another query Mr Ahooja said Eastern and Northeastern market for mobile phone services had been recording the fastest growth, followed by Northern and Western India Markets. "This had encouraged us to announce the formal launch of the Blue Gen sets from this city," he said.

The three sets which were formally launched today cost between Rs 12,900 and Rs 35,000 each aiming for the high-end customers and having numerous web enabled facilities,Mr Ahooja said.

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