Nokia to launch 3 smartphone models in India this year

Finnish mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia, is planning to launch three smartphones, including its Pureview model with a 41-mega pixel sensor camera, in India this year. The company’s Sriperumbudur facility near Chennai, which saw an investment of $500 million so far, would also start manufacturing and marketing its two new models of feature phone series Asha in 2012, according a top executive of the company.

Nokia 808 Pureview, which has a 41-mega pixel sensor that enhances imaging quality of the camera, is expected to start shipping in India in the middle of this month. The company would launch Lumia 900 and Lumia 610, the Lumia sub-brand of smartphones it develops in collaboration with Microsoft, in the country in the third quarter of 2012, said Vipul Mehrotra, director (smart devices), Nokia India.

The company is also planning to launch two touch phone models under its Asha series in India this year. The models, Asha 305 and Asha 311, would be manufactured in the Chennai facility, said Prakash Katama, director of Chennai's factory operations.

He added that the Chennai facility was delivering products to more than 70 countries. The facility, started in 2006, has so far manufactured more than 600 million phones till November, 2011 and currently manufactures 23 different products.

The company, when it set up a telecom special economic zone in Sriperumbudur near Chennai, had committed an investment of $500 million including Nokia’s $300 million investment. The $500-million investment has already been completed, Katama said

Speaking to reporters here, D Shivakumar, senior vice-president, IMEA, Nokia said, “Globally, the Lumia sub-brand is seeing a good traction. In the first quarter of 2012, around 2 million units of Nokia Lumia were sold. The Microsoft Windows operating system in India has a good demand and it is growing fast, which would help the sales of Nokia Lumia.” The company generally add around 40 products to its kitty every year, he added.

He added that the online payment option for Nokia store in the handsets, in collaboration with mobile service operators, has increased the purchases through the store almost five times. Nokia has signed an agreement with Airtel and Vodafone to offer download services to its customers from Nokia Store by billing the product or content through the periodical bills of the operators.

“This has been widely accepted by the consumers and we see almost 66 per cent of the consumers preferring operator billing for their purchase from the Nokia Store. We are in discussion with other operators to extend the service to more customers,” Shivakumar said.

The company is also planning to offer two new services, Nokia City Lens in which it would provide information and services based on the location of the device, and Nokia Music with Mix Radio, which offers free mobile music streaming and offline listening app, this year.