Nokia has just had a tiny taste of the touchscreen phones world with its 5800 XpressMusic phone. We’re expecting more phones to follow that trend in the near futures. At a recent Nokia event in New Delhi, the marketing director of Nokia India, Devindere Kishore said that: “We will have lots of touchscreen phones coming up, including an N-series device very soon.” Not that a future N-series to sport a touchscreen is such an unexpected move but we have at least a small confirmation from a Nokia official.

Indians will now have one more option if they are looking for good touchscreen device as Samsung has just announced the availability of Samsung Omnia i900 on the subcontinent.

Sunil Dutt, Country Head for Samsung Telecom, stated, “Samsung Omnia is our flagship model aimed at users who desire a lot of functionality, a lot of style, a lot of usability, and a lot of entertainment in one innovative device. Samsung Omnia will help users to be at the forefront of work and play and at the same time, to stay connected anytime, anywhere.”
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India’s leading CDMA provider, Reliance Communications, has teamed up with RIM to bring BlackBerry devices closer to the masses by launching prepaid services for both CDMA and GSM networks. Up till now, BlackBerry smartphones were only available on Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, two of the largest GSM providers in the subcontinent with postpaid connections, but with this new “pay as you use” service, Reliance aims to woo the 200 million odd people who still rely on prepaid connections.

Mahesh Prasad, Reliance Communications President for Mobile Data and Content Services said:

We recognize the needs of customers and believe a prepaid option enabled by Reliance Communications will significantly broaden the consumer interest in BlackBerry smartphones and expand our business opportunity.

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Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are the companies which have been selling the iPhone 3G in India so far. The phone will be available starting this December from BSNL as soon as their 3G network gets launched.

BSNL is a carrier company owned by the Indian government and they are upgrading their 3G network to UMTS. Vodafone and Airtel have GSM/EDGE while waiting for their portion of the 3G spectrum. So why say you people of India? Are you happy to see BSNL get in this iPhone 3G action? Which one do you prefer? Airtel, Voda or BSNL?

It’s rumored that BSNL might even go ahead and offer the handset for a better price than its competition but there aren’t any prices or plans available yet.

Indian carrier Bharti Airtel has come up with an Equal Monthly Installment scheme for the convenient purchase of the iPhone 3G. The new plan will be available to all VISA cardholders of ICICI bank, HDFC bank, SBI Cards and Citibank.

SBI and Citibank customers which have already purchased the iPhone can benefit from the plan? How would that happen? Well just go to your Bharti Airtel representative and ask around. The only thing you have to check is the iPhone purchase date. Purchases older than 10 days won’t qualify.

Will Bharti Airtel sell more iPhones with these EMI plans?

LG has a new music phone for Indian customers. The KP199 Dynamite is the model I am talking about. Besides music features it will get you some good battery life. But let me show you more of it’s specs!

This LG will sport a VGA camera with video recording, an MP3 player with FM radio, A2DP Bluetooth and 60MB of internal memory space upgradeable via microSD cards. There’s an FM radio alarm and an anti-theft mobile tracker. USB charging is also possible besides data transfer.

The phone will cost you just 4,390 Rupees in India or about $100. There’s no news on international pricing yet.

As you already know, we are 2 days away from the second iPhone 3G wave. 20 more countries will receive the new Apple handset, including India. Vodafone is going to sell the device in India and it has prices lined up already. The 8GB version will sell for 31,000 Rupees or $708 and the 16GB version will sell for 36,100 or $824.
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Nokia fans in India should keep an eye on their carrier’s special offers for September. They are in for a treaty. The Nokia N96 will arrive sometime this September. Pre-booking is available provided that you do it now from Nokia’s India site.
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India is one of the 20 countries set to get the iPhone on the second worldwide release date which is August 22nd. Bharti Airtel is the carrier which will unleash the iPhone frenzy on Augusts 21st at midnight sharp.

Sanjay Kapoor, President of Bharti Airtel mobile services, said:

iPhone has been an iconic technological revelation of this year and Airtel has been at the forefront of innovation and customer delight in the Indian telecom sector.

Vodafone is the second carrier to bring the iPhone 3G in India but they will do it later this year. What we lack so far is official pricing and plans which Airtel’s officials are yet to announce.

While it’s top line isn’t satisfactory for some, Motorola does seem to have covered budget cell phone market pretty good. Fresh off the block is the Motorola W362, a followup to the W360 released last year, which comes with a cheap price tag, thanks to being manufactured in Motorola’s Indian unit, and features that are worthy of a low-range stalwart.

For Rs. 4199 ($98), the Motorola W362 will service you on the 800MHz CDMA frequency with a 160×128px 65K color TFT display, an mp3 player, FM radio, USB 1.1 support, expandable memory (no idea what kind), and a VGA camera (no video recording).

The Motorola W362 will be available across India on the subcontinent’s leading CDMA carrier, Reliance, at the price of Rs. 4199 although there is no info on when.
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Even as the original iPhone is yet to lay foot on the subcontinent, things are heating up between two of the largest mobile operators in India, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, now that both the companies have tied up with Apple to provide the iPhone 3G in India. To get an advantage over Bharti Airtel, Vodafone has already started pre-registering customers for the upcoming Apple device later this year. iPhone is already pretty well known in India thanks to the thousands of unlocked original iPhones that have found their way in through the gray market. We will just have to wait and see how well the iPhone 3G will be received compared to the original iPhone, both scheduled for release later this year only months apart from each other.
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Well, what do you know? The original iPhone still hasn’t made its way into those tech-savvy Indian hands and Apple announces that it will put the iPhone 3G on the subcontinent later this year. The iPhone 1.0 is scheduled for a release in September on both Vodafone and Bharti Airtel, two of India’s largest mobile operators. Going by that rule, we wouldn’t be surprised if Apple gave Vodafone a chance to put the iPhone 3G on its portfolio too.

There are no details on pricing yet but given that the original iPhone is set to cost somewhere around Rs. 27000, it would be logical to assume that the iPhone 3G will be a bit more heavier on the pocket.
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HTC has teamed up with India’s largest telecom network, Bharti Airtel, to release an EDGE only version of the Touch Diamond. With a mid-June release date, the price will be no more than Rs. 27,500 ($640). Wow, an EDGE only version? Now why would anybody want to do that? Wouldn’t it be a better idea to let 3G be and use an EDGE connection? Here’s the lame official reason:

Since India has not yet started to implement 3G services, HTC is offering an EDGE-version of the Touch Diamond to Bharti Airtel, HTC said.

And if 3G does make some headway in India in the near future, the only option left for Diamond lovers is to buy the 3G edition at the same/higher price the non-3G version begs. Great way to cripple a great device, if you ask me.

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While the 3G iPhone is making all the waves world over, one of India’s largest mobile service provider, Bharti Airtel, and Apple have inked an agreement to offer the iPhone in India. The announcement comes hot on the heels of Apple’s agreement with Vodafone to sell the first-gen iPhone in India, signifying that Apple has changed gears and is no longer sticking to a single carrier to provide its best-selling device. Unofficially, the iPhone has already made it to the Indian shores imported in its unlocked state. The phone will also be sold in Singapore by SingTel, StarHub, and MobileOne carriers. At this pace, it might take another year or two for the 3G iPhone to make an appearance in these countries. So, better late then never, eh?

LG Electronics, one of the world’s leading mobile phone manufacturer, has announced several handsets to be launched in India. The handsets include the LG KF510 and LG KP320 phone.

The LG KF510 features a 10.9mm slim phone that supports MP3, MPEG-4 player, FM radio, GPRS, EDGE and can record and play back QVGA video. Aside from this, the phone also has a 3 megapixel auto focus flash camera, image stabilization and red eye reduction. The phone is also equipped with a touch sensitive navigational keypad.

The second phone to be released is the LG KP320 which is part of LG’s Dynamite series. It comes equipped with a 3 megapixel camera and auto focus, the phone supports video-recording and high internal memory with TV out feature. The KP320 measures about 107 x 46 x 13.5 millimeters and weighing only 81 grams. It has a 2 inch TFT display with 262k colors support, music and video player, FM radio and Bluetooth.

LG KF510, LG KP320 will be available at Rs 12,250 and Rs 7,990 respectively.

via: infotech

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Apple’s iPhone is supposed to be launched in India somewhere in September 2008. This isn’t breaking news but since I have been covering different countries today and their cell phone endeavors, I thought it’s worth mentioning.

Vodafone is the carrier who will bring the iPhone to its Indian admirers. It appears it will be more expensive to get an iPhone in India. The 8GB version will retail for 28,000 to 30,000 INR (that’s up to $740) with a plan I would assume. That’s a lot of money to be asked for an 8GB iPhone, particularly now when the world is waiting for the 3G iPhones in June. On the other hand, it should be expected for other countries to sell such phones like the iPhone for much more than they are worth in the USA right now.

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Samsung announced the launch of entry-level cell phone, Guru100, in India. The Samsung Guru100 is a candybar phone with basic features including MP3 ringtones, 9-hour battery life, and mobile tracker. To demo its MP3 ringtone feature, it comes with 2 preloaded popular Bollywood tunes. Aside from said specs, the Samsung Guru100 also sports a 3.86cm 128×128 pixels color display, Hinglish SMS support, Speakerphone, and 500 contacts phonebook capacity. It will retail in India for approximately US$50.

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Nokia announced the establishment of its first design studio in India (and the first in a series of satellite design studios). The studio, which is part of a two-year partnership with Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, will lend to new design ideas not only for India but global markets.

The studio will explore a range of design trends and themes, and will also conduct detailed research into color and material trends in India, mobile use of the net and how it affects cell phone design. The Global headquarters of Nokia at Espoo, Finland, already houses its first ever design studio.

Similar studios are planned in other parts of the world, with one opening in London later this year. Nokia designers comprise of researchers, anthropologists, engineers, technology specialists and more. Expect to see some innovative designs from Espoo soon.

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