Smartphones have 'grand impact' in India: Nokia

Bangalore, Aug 4: Smartphones, offering advanced capabilities beyond a typical mobile phone, was gaining popularity in India and will have a 'grand impact' on the country's cell phone market, Nokia India Director for Marketing, Devinder Kishore, said on Monday, August 4.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function where he announced the launch of Geographical Positioning System (GPS) enabled 'Nokia 6210 Navigator' handset, he said though the market of smartphones that offer value added services was still in nascent market India but offered great potential. "India is already the third largest market for smartphones after China and Japan. According to Indian Survey company Canalys, this category cell phones would have a grand impact on the market in the coming months," he said.

He said with 3G technology expected to be made available in India in the next six months, Nokia was braced up to offer 3G compliant handsets.

"We are already offering 30 devices in the market that are 3G compliant. When the technology is rolled out our customers need not run in search of it as Nokia had the biggest range of 3G compliant devices ranging from Rs 7000 to Rs 35,000," he said.

Mr Kishore said the price of the 3G enabled handset would depend on the bundle the customer opts for. Nokia's role would be to give end-to-end devices at a reasonable +cost. The pricing Nokia devices in India was connected the world pricing, he added.

UNI