Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced its exclusive partnership with Taiwan-based smart-phone manufacturer HTC to launch HTC Smart handset. It runs on Qualcomm’s Brew operating system. Airtel also launched i-phone 3GS in India last week. It is competitively priced at Rs. 9,990. It also has 3G capabilities.
With back to back release of 3G devices it is clear that Airtel is gearing for the launch of 3G services by the end of this year. Sanjay Kapoor Bharti Airtel CEO (India and South Asia) quoted
As the undisputed leader in the Indian telecom industry, Airtel is committed to constantly delighting its customers and offering innovations to enrich their experience. With the HTC Smart, Airtel customers will be the first in the world to experience a revolutionary smartphone that is not only affordable but is also 3G-ready
This phone will be available exclusively on Airtel networks in 30 cities. HTC Corporation CEO Peter Chou quoted
HTC Smart marks our strategic focus on India, the fastest growing telecom market in the world. The demand for smartphones is also increasing fast, and in next three years it would account for around 40 per cent of the total handset sales. Our latest handset is an easy-to-use and affordable smartphone through which we aim to create a new category of smartphones
Features of HTC Smart:
- 300 MHz processor, OS – Brew Mobile Platform
- 2.8-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with QVGA resolution
- HSDPA/WCDMA, GSM/GPRS/EDGE
- Bluetooth 2.0 & A2DP, mini-USB 2.0, 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
- 3.0MP camera with Flash, Fixed Focus
- 1100 mAh battery with 450min & 370 min of talk time & 450h and 600h of standby in 2G and 3G.
- Integrate Facebook, Twitter and Flickr into one stream with HTC’s friendstream.
- Special offers for data and content.
This handset looks great and is packed with several features and is also affordable. Airtel may release many more 3G enabled handsets by the end of this year before launch of its 3G services. More details on phone here and official page here.
