Huawei has big smartphone plans for India; invests Rs 175 crore for branding exercise

Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has set its eyes on India as a major market for its products. This news has come after Victor Shan, President, India Device Business Development, Huawei, said that the company will be investing Rs 175 crore for brand building and strengthening its presence in the Indian market. The company is aiming to sell 10 lakh smartphones in the next six months.

Shan, during the launch of its latest phablet, Ascend Mate, on Tuesday, said, “We will invest around 8 to 10% of our mobile devices revenue in India. In 2012, our India revenue was $300 million. The spent would be mainly in strengthening our retail presence and brand building exercise."

Earlier, the Indian government, in May, had set up a testing lab in Bangalore to test products manufactured by the Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE following security concerns by the intelligence agency. The Indian government had launched an investigation over the equipment of the two companies following increased scrutiny on China's alleged involvement in cyber-espionage.

Huawei wants to make a mark (photo credit: Reuters)

The Ascend Mate comes with a 6.1-inch HD touchscreen with 1280 x 720 pixel resolution. It is powered by a quad-core Hi-Silicon K3V2 processor that clocks in at 1.5GHz and has a 16 Core Graphics Chipset. The device runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 and is backed by 2GB of RAM. It has an internal memory of 8GB, which can be extended up to 64GB using a MicroSD card.

The Ascend Mate comes with an 8MP rear camera with an LED flash as well as a 1MP front camera. The device, despite its huge display, is just 9.9 mm thick and weighs in at 198 g. It is powered by a 4050 mAh battery. On the connectivity front, the phablet provides users with 3G, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and GPS connectivity options. The phablet is now available aross the country in leading retail stores and online shopping websites and is priced at Rs 24,900.

Huawei is also believed to be pushing to cement its footprint on the international stage, as the company said during the launch of Ascend P6 that it would be considering a possible acquisition of Nokia.