After Celkon, Karbonn in discussion with Telangana; may set up mobile handset plant

Domestic mobile phone company Karbonn is in discussions with the Telangana government to set up a handset assembly unit in the state. The proposed unit is part of the company’s Rs 800 crore investment plan with the funds being deployed over next three years. “We are in discussion with Telangana to set up a manufacturing unit. We will be investing up to Rs 800 crore on mobile devices manufacturing in the next three years,” Karbonn Mobiles Executive Director Shashin Devsare said. Production at the Noida plant in UP and Bangalore will start by the end of the month and end of the year, respectively, he added. “In a year, we expect local production to meet 60-70 percent of our domestic market requirement,” he said. Karbonn is a joint venture between Jaina Group and Bengaluru-based electronics manufacturing firm United Telecom Limited. Mobile phone companies are looking to make handsets in India after the government in its budget increased duty for imported devices. Global handset makers like Samsung and domestic players like Micromax and Spice have assembly units in the country. Given the government’s push for ‘Make in India’, many device makers have evinced interest in starting manufacturing in the country. According to research firm IDC, Samsung led the smartphone market in India with 22 per cent share, followed by Micromax (18 per cent), Intex (8 per cent), Lava (7 per cent) and Xiaomi with 4 per cent share in the fourth quarter of 2014. Karbonn today launched its new handset – Titanium Mach One Plus – priced at Rs 6,990. “Powered by artificial intelligence, SwiftKey Keyboard provides personalised predictions and auto corrections, learning and adapting to the unique typing style of each user,” SwiftKey Chief Revenue and Distribution Officer Eric Collins said. Partnership with keyboard app SwiftKey will help Karbonn offer users the ability to type in up to 22 local languages, including Malayalam, Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Konkani and Urdu. “Vernacularising the smartphone experience would play a pivotal role in connecting the next 100 million users under the smartphone fold,” Devsare said. The device features 2GB RAM, 16GB memory (expandable upto 32GB), 1.3GHz quadcore processor, 8MP back and 5MP front camera and is powered by Android Lollipop OS. PTI