China’s Coolpad plans handset assembly, R&D units in India

Announcing its India foray, Chinese handset maker Coolpad on Thursday said it will set up an assembly unit as well as a research and development centre in the country to tap the multi-billion opportunity in the Indian smartphone market.

The company, which has launched two new smartphones today in partnership with eCommerce firm Snapdeal, is exploring options in Aurangabad for the handset assembly facility. “Due diligence is being finished and in under 10 weeks, we will make an announcement. We are looking at Aurangabad. It will be an assembly unit, a brownfield,” Coolpad India CEO Varun Sharma said. He, however, declined to share details of investment and capacities planned. The company aims to sell about two million smartphones in the next one year. India is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets globally and according to CyberMedia Research data, smartphone shipments in India stood at 19.5 million units in the January-March 2015 quarter.

The company is also setting up a research and development unit in Bangalore to work on its products. “Our brand is aimed at the digital natives. We want to offer the best in technology at affordable prices. We will launch more devices, these will be priced sub-Rs 20,000,” he said. Priced at Rs 17,999, the Coolpad <g data-gr-id="28">Dazen</g> X7 features a 5.2-inch display, 13MP rear and 8MP front camera, <g data-gr-id="29">octa-core</g> 1.7 GHz, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage and 2,700 mAh battery. Coolpad <g data-gr-id="30">Dazen</g> 1 is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, coupled with 2GB RAM and 8GB of built ?in storage. It sports <g data-gr-id="32">a 8-megapixel</g> rear and 5MP front camera, 2,500 mAh battery and is priced at Rs 6,999. The 4G-enabled devices will be available in India from June 9 onwards and will compete with devices from Lenovo, Xiaomi, Yu and Asus.

“India has always been a very exciting market and is also the fastest growing online smartphone market in the world and that is why we wanted India to be among the first markets where we would launch our new innovations,” <g data-gr-id="25">Dazen</g> President and Global CEO Li Wang said.