New Delhi: Domestic handset players Lava and Karbonn may launch Windows-based smartphones in the price range of Rs 6,000-12,000 in the coming months. Lava's price starts with Rs 6,500.
“We will come out with four devices with Windows-based operating systems by the end of May or starting June in the price range of 6,000-12,000,” Karbonn Managing Director Pradeep Jain said.
Lava International CEO and MD Hari Om Rai said: “A series of Windows-based phones will be launched under the Lava brand by July. These will be priced in the range of Rs 6,500-8,500.”
Rai said the phones will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processors and feature the Windows 8 platform.
For Xolo brand of phones, the expected timeline of launch is the coming quarter.
“We at Xolo believe that Windows OS has certain goodness to offer for a certain market segment and it will help us reach a desired 15 percent share of the smartphone market by end 2014,” a Xolo spokesperson said.
Last month, at the Mobile World Congress Microsoft had announced that it would be working with nine new Windows phone partners, including Foxconn, Gionee, JSR, Karbonn, Lava (Xolo), Lenovo, LG, Longcheer and ZTE.
HTC, Huawei, Nokia and Samsung are already making Windows-based devices.
As per the IDC figures of the last quarter of 2013, Android had a 78.1 percent share of global smartphone shipments while the Microsoft Windows Phone platform share stood at 3 per cent.
