UK's Kloudpad plans facility for 3G Intel tab phone in Kochi

UK-based Kloudpad Mobility Research is gearing up for an additional investment of Rs 15 crore to set up a facility here to manufacture Intel-powered Kloudpad 3G tablet phone. The product will be launched in India on November 12 at Bengaluru.

Kloudpad Mobility Research, a subsidiary of UK-based Kloudpad, started its operations in the city through the Emerging Kerala Investor Meet hosted by the Kerala government in 2012.

The tablet, priced at Rs 11,999, will be launched at CeBIT, the Indian edition of the world's largest IT and ICT event to be held at Bengaluru from November 12-14. The tablet phone is a fully featured enterprise grade tablet PC with all features of an Android smart phone.

"We are partnering with PAYTM, one of the biggest ecommerce portals in India, to launch the tablet across the country and make it available nationwide as a retail product," said Aromal Jayaraj, co-founder and managing director of Kloudpad.

Currently, the tablets are made at the company's production facility in Shenzhen, China.

"We have already invested close to Rs 5 crore for the current product line in ensuring quality manufacturing partnerships with Intel and content players like Pearson Smart School. We are planning to invest an additional Rs 15 crore through a combination of debt and equity financing in setting up a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for Intel mobile devices products," he said, adding the tablet was one of its major flagship products. The company is scouting for land near Kinfra and along the seaport-airport road.

Abhishek Jayaraj, CEO, said that the tablet comes with preloaded SmartSchool application that offers an interactive CBSE and ICSE-approved study content for KG to plus-two students. As a launch offer, students could get one classroom content of their choice free with the tablet, he said.

Intel India president Kumud Srinivasan will launch the tablet at the event. The company has a full-fledged research and development centre at Startup Village in Kalamaserry.