HTC launches its cheapest smartphone at Rs 8,700

Desire 210 is built on Android's Jelly Bean platform, with dual GSM SIM smartphone and has 5 megapixel main camera and a VGA camera on the front

With an aim to more than double its market share in two years in India, smartphone maker HTC today announced global launch of its lowest priced smartphone Desire 210 for Rs 8,700 here.

"In the last 12 months or so we have been thinking about to come up with sub-Rs 10,000 product for Indian market ...If we are able to be succesful on that front it could be taken outside as well, in not just emerging market but sometime industrial economies as well," HTC President for Global sales and CFO Chialin Chang said here.

He said that current market share of HTC is estimated to be around 6-7%.

At Rs 8,700 price point, the 4-inch HTC Desire 210 will see competition from mobile phones like Nokia Lumia 520, Nokia X, Samsung Galaxy S Duos.

Built on Android's Jelly Bean platform, the dual GSM SIM smartphone Desire 210 has 5 megapixel main camera and a VGA camera on the front.

Besides this, HTC announced launch of its latest premium smartphone HTC One M8 for Rs 49,900 which has gesture base control on which it has high hopes globally for increasing market share. The global market share of HTC is estimated to be around 2%.

"Desire 210 shipment will start from May 2 while M8 will be available across stores in India from May 7," Chang said.

HTC One M8 has 5-inch full high definition display and supports up to 209 GB of storage.

HTC unveiled its third smartphone with 5.5 inch screen size Desire 816 which supports GSM, CDMA and 3G network for Rs 23,990. This phone has 13 MP main camera and 5 MP front camera.

"HTC 816 will be shipped to India in May," HTC's Senior Director for Asia Product Marketing Darren Sng said.

Early this month, HTC unveiled Desire 310 for 11,700 which was its lowest priced phone before Desire 210.