Karbonn has today launched a new budget smartphone called the Titanium Mach One. The smartphone is priced at Rs 6,990 and will be exclusively on sale via ecommerce site Snapdeal.

As far as specifications are concerned, the Titanium Mach One flaunts a 4.7-inch HD display and is powered by a 1.3GHz quad core processor paired with Mali 400 MP2 GPU and 1GB of RAM. Also included is 8GB internal storage.

The smartphone also features an 8-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front-facing camera, 1,800mAh battery, and connectivity options like dual-SIM card slots, 3G support, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. On the software front, the smartphone runs on Android 4.4 KitKat, and Karbonn has promised that it will soon be updated to Android Lollipop.

Karbonn has also included gesture controls, including Gesture Mode that lets users access apps directly from the lock screen, and Smart Eye Gesture, which essentially pauses a video when a user looks away from the screen. Additionally, the smartphone also supports 21 regional languages.

At this price point, the Titanium Mach One will face some stiff competition from the likes of the popular Xiaomi Redmi 1S, Huawei Honor Holly, and the recently launched Lenovo A6000 which comes with LTE capabilities.

Mobile handset makers like Micromax and Karbonn have sought tax holidays and subsidies in the upcoming Budget to promote local manufacturing, a move they expect will create lakhs of jobs.

One of the fastest growing mobile phone market globally, India lags behind China as most handset makers, including Indian players, get their devices manufactured in China. It is imperative that the government provides a fillip to manufacturing in the country by making its policies directly competitive to present “monolith China”, Micromax Chairman Sanjay Kapoor told PTI.

“I hope the government will adopt a carrot rather than a stick approach for India’s burgeoning smart devices market through encouraging and supportive rules and regulations to expedite the ecosystem creation in India which is quintessential for smart device manufacturing,” he added.

Kapoor said failing to do this will make it “difficult” for smartphone manufacturers to provide the latest technology at competitive prices, which is pivotal for the success of ‘Digital India’. Pradeep Jain, Managing Director at Karbonn said indigenous products will help the country realise the vision of initiatives like ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ and take the mobile and Internet revolution to mass consumers.

“In Budget 2015, the government should be introducing friendly policies including tax holidays and interest subsidies to give a push to domestic handset manufacturing and increase the mobile phone user base in India,” he said. The collateral benefits are greater employment opportunities, higher quality standards and better pricing, said Jerold Pereira, chief executive at Videocon Mobile Phones.

Jain said government should also look at steps to facilitate easy financing options for mobility goods like mobile devices and tablets to establish India as global power in international mobile market, he said. ”With locally manufactured products, we expect to see billion hands using mobile phones for communicating and sharing data in coming years,” Jain added. Maxx Mobile Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Agarwal hoped that custom duty on imports for mobile handsets will be increased. ”We also hope that the government will offer ESOPS, subsidies on investments and incentives for Indian mobile manufacturers,” he added.

The latest report by IDC shares stats on the worldwide smartphone market shipments in the fourth quarter and the calendar year for 2014. The report reveals that 81.5 percent smartphones that were shipped in 2014 ran on Android OS, while Apple’s iPhones followed behind making up 4.8 percent of total smartphone shipments.

The total market share of both Android and iOS was a whopping 96.3 percent, indicating how little market share the likes of Windows Phone, and BlackBerry among others hold. These platforms are losing momentum, and BlackBerry is nearly disappearing with just 0.4 percent of market share.

In 2014, 1,059.3 million Android smartphones were sold, out of which Samsung had the most market share. No numbers were provided but the report states that Samsung retained the leadership position by a wide margin. At the same time, the report also stresses that Samsung’s total volumes for the year remained flat while Asian vendors like Huawei, Lenovo (including Motorola), LG, Xiaomi, and ZTE fuelled the most growth for Google’s platform.

Even though Android rules the smartphone market, the latest Dashboard stats indicate that only 1.6 percent of users have the latest Android Lollipop, even after it’s been almost five months since release. With 44.5 percent share, Jelly Bean is the most widely used Android version, followed by KitKat which has captured 39.7 percent of the install base.

These stats indicate that Android’s dominance can be attributed to affordable smartphones that retail in huge markets like India. Indian market is filled with cheap smartphones from local players like Karbonn, Xolo and Micromax that run on old Android software. Even Xiaomi, one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world uses Jelly Bean on the Redmi Note 4G and KitKat for its Mi 4 over its MIUI interface.

In comparison, Apple sold 192 million smartphones in 2014. Despite Apple’s late surge on its newly released iPhones, the Cupertino-based company saw its market share for the year drop slightly to 14.8 percent.

In the fourth quarter of 2014, Android dominated 76.6 percent of smartphone sales, while iOS dominated 19.7 percent of the market share. Windows Phone, BlackBerry and other operating systems contributed to only 3.7 percent of all smartphone shipments.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitely is scheduled to bring his second budget since his government came into power. Come Saturday, he will outline all the key areas the government plans to invest in the next financial year. With the e-commerce boom, smartphone manufacturing and the rise in Internet users in India, big bets are being made on investment in improving technological infrastructure in the country.

With Modi’s massive push towards ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ initiatives, we expect big announcements from the budget this year to improve the country’s digital economy. Some of the biggest players in the Indian tech sector shared their wish list for the Union Budget 2015. Most of their recommendations include tax holidays, subsidies, simplification of policies and improvement in technological infrastructure.

 Policy framework, subsidies and tax holidays
“Over the past nine months, the government has set the right context and articulated its vision for India’s economic development,” said Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman of Microsoft India. “Programs such as Digital India, smart cities and Skill India require the creation of technological infrastructure that will need budgetary support. A policy framework for industry and SMEs in particular that encourages innovation and adoption of technology can boost the Make in India initiative. We hope this year’s Budget will create an enabling environment for Indian industry to realize its growth potential.”

Mobile handset makers like Micromax and Karbonn have sought tax holidays and subsidies in the upcoming budget to promote local manufacturing, a move they expect will create lakhs of jobs.

“It is imperative that the government provides a fillip to manufacturing in the country by making its policies directly competitive to present ‘monolith’ China. I hope the government will adopt a carrot rather than a stick approach for India’s burgeoning smart devices market through encouraging and supportive rules and regulations to expedite the eco-system creation in India which is quintessential for smart device manufacturing,” said Sanjay Kapoor, Chairman at Micromax.

Pradeep Jain, Managing Director at Karbonn Mobiles, said indigenous products will help the country realise the vision of its proposed initiatives. “In Budget 2015, the government should be introducing friendly policies including tax holidays and interest subsidies to give a push to domestic handset manufacturing and increase the mobile phone user base in India. With locally manufactured products, we expect to see billion hands using mobile phones for communicating and sharing data in coming years,” he said.

Encourage domestic manufacturing – ‘Make in India’
Ritesh Suneja, CEO of Lava Mobiles, feels that the budget will play a very critical role in shaping the future growth of mobile handset industry in India. “Smartphones today have a huge potential to boost education, healthcare in the country and the government should try to ensure that it reaches in the hands of every Indian. We expect that the government will take measures to promote domestic manufacturing and investments in technology. Industry players should get incentives and taxation reforms such as a ten year tax holiday, interest free loans, exemption of special CVD (SAD) on mobiles accessories and parts, components for post sales warranty repair, exemption of BCD/CVD on Capital goods and removal of retrospective amendments in tax laws amongst others. A level playing field should be created between e-commerce and physical retail segments by putting a uniform VAT rate structure for mobile phones, until GST gets implemented.”

“Additionally, companies should also get full support in the cost for skill development for enriching the existing talent pool in the country. Talking about investments, we expect the government to also take measures in providing 100 percent clarity, transparency and ease for foreign investments in the country. A lucrative return on capital is very important for the investors to invest and is most critical for India,” Suneja said.

Y Guru, Managing Director at Celkon Mobiles, says that the need of the moment is to showcase the fact that this government means what it says. “We are in a new era – hence business investments in current times should not be viewed plainly in terms of plant and machinery but investments in terms of technology and infrastructure should be given more weightage when formulating incentives. In order to boost the sector the government should refund 100 percent of import duties for all exports made by Indian companies. We believe reduction of import duties with an option to allow businesses to ‘Make in India’ will be a welcome move. This will give a huge boost to the ‘Make in India’ initiative and also enable Indian businesses to exponentially grow,” Guru added. He also stressed that Corporate Income Tax should be reduced to 20 percent.

Chip manufacturing giant AMD expects this year’s budget to be aggressive, focusing on making India emerge in the top three hardware countries in terms of demand. Ravi Swaminathan, Managing Director at AMD said, “With this budget, we look forward to India becoming a centre of excellence for product development and design and also being integrated into the global supply chain with manufacture of key components for both domestic and international markets.”

Widen ‘geographical reach’ by improving infrastructure
Partha Iyengar, Vice President and Head of Research at Gartner India, feels that Digital India and Make in India are positive initiatives. “It will (hopefully) bring better access to the vast areas of untapped rural India, which can drive unprecedented economic growth across industry, by allowing companies across all industries to tap the elusive ‘bottom of the pyramid’ economic opportunity. Country level infrastructure improvements needed to drive ‘Digital India’ will also help spur industries embrace of the digital business paradigm, which will increasingly be a competitive imperative in the coming decade, as digital business hastens the demise of ‘geographical reach’ as a competitive barrier,” Iyengar said.

E-governance
Sanjay Rohatgi, President at Symantec, thinks that accelerating the process of simplifying tax reforms and the adoption of e-government projects is the need of the hour. “Technology has the potential to empower the 1.3 billion Indians through visionary programs like ‘Digital India’, ‘Smart Cities’ and ’Skill India’. The budget is a perfect opportunity to charter a clear plan in this endeavour. The budget should pave the way for expeditious implementation of e-governance projects, incentivizing investments in world-class data centres and cloud computing infrastructure besides a chance to be a pioneer in the realm of Internet of Things. However, this should be done without causing disruptions in the free flow of data across borders – the lifeline of India’s IT exports. Such steps will ensure high availability of trusted and secure information ecosystem thereby providing much needed foundation for inclusive growth and development,” Rohatgi said.

Online startups and e-commerce wish list -Tax benefits
Even online startups have high hopes from the upcoming Budget. Tapan Kumar Das, CEO of iTiffin.in (an online and offline healthy meal providing company) says, “I have huge expectations from the budget of 2015. According to me, ‘Nutrition services and Health food’, can be brought under the gamut of Health services, thus qualifying those services for Service Tax. The cost of healthcare in the country should be reduced in order to regulate the increasing number of lifestyle disorder cases in India. Also, I wish Food technology is made free of import duty. Income tax benefits should be allocated to the Nutrition and Health Food sector and in order to recruit people from the skill development academy while Nutrition and Diet Plan services should be brought under Mediclaim policy of General Insurance.”

Swaminathan Vedaranyam, CEO of VIA.com, says, ”As far as the travel industry is concerned, I think there is an urgent need for well-defined policies and clear commitments to ensure that all cultural heritage points are given more attention with improved infrastructural facilities. There is a recent spurt in domestic travel as well as a higher influx of foreign tourists in India and with dedicated upkeep of the tourist hotspots, we can ensure higher growth for the travel industry. Additionally, I wish that there is an allocation towards revitalising all unused airports in tier II and III cities as these geographies hold immense potential today. There should also be a rationalisation of air travel taxes for competitive pricing to boost travel and tourism.”

“From the IT industry perspective the long elusive transfer pricing clarity is one serious expectation,” said Ramesh Loganathan, President of Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association. “For the Startup ecosystem, clarity in operationalizing the Rs 10,000 crore startup fund will be great. More specific policy support that incentivize and support incubators will be a major boost to early stage ecosystem.”

Adopting foreign policies
Industry body Nasscom has a number of recommendations that would help the technology industry to grow. For instance, the industry body is suggesting a lowering in royalties and fees on technical services, and the adoption of international practices on foreign tax credit policies to increase competitiveness.

“We need to make patents simpler, and offer schemes and incentives that encourage startups to take risks if we are to grow,” said Sangeeeta Gupta, Vice President at Nasscom.

Nasscom also wants information technology and software products to be eligible for research and development deductions in taxes, as should the re-education of employees, which is necessary to maintain competitiveness.

Earlier this year, Karbonn launched the Titanium Mach One, priced at Rs 6,990. Today, the company has launched the second phone in the series called the Titanium Mach Two. The smartphone is priced at Rs 10,490 and is available on e-commerce sites as well as offline retailers.

On the design front, the smartphone is quite slim with a thickness of only 6.3mm and weighs only 112 grams. As for the body, the front and back of the smartphone are protected by Gorilla Glass 3, which makes it scratch resistant. Similar to the Titanium Mach One, the new smartphone too seems to have take design cues from Apple’s iPhone.

As far as specifications are concerned, the Titanium Mach Two flaunts a 5-inch HD (1280×720 pixels) IPS display, and is powered by a 1.4GHz octa-core processor paired with 1GB of RAM. Also included is 8GB internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 32GB using a microSD card.

On the photography front, the smartphone features an 8-megapixel camera at the back as well as the front. It comes with a BSI image sensor and features like Face Beauty Mode, Face Detection and Smile shot.

The smartphone also features a 1,900mAh battery, and connectivity options like dual-SIM card slots, 3G support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and on the software front, it runs on Android 4.4 KitKat.

Smartphone company Karbonn has branched out into the mobile accessories segment with the launch of portable power banks today. The power banks will be available exclusively on Snapdeal from Wednesday, with prices starting from Rs 999.

The power banks come in 5,000mAh, 7,000mAh and 10,000mAh variants for the price of Rs 999, Rs 1,299 and Rs 1,599 respectively. The power banks will be exclusively available on Snapdeal for purchase from tomorrow. The 7,000mAh and 10,000mAh power banks are equipped with dual charging ports for charging more than one mobile device.

The 10,000mAh power bank is touted to be India’s first multipower bank, and is fitted with an LED torch for illumination which also doubles up as a TF card reader. It comes with a LCD display for indicating power capacity.

Additionally, Karbonn also launched screen guards from under the brand “Ultra Clear” and will be available on various retail and ecommerce stores. “The increasing mobile adoption in India has given an impetus to the demand for mobile accessories market which is burgeoning rapidly. Currently, the accessories market is dominated by grey market products which impact the functioning and efficiency of the device. The move towards expanding our product portfolio to include mobile accessories is aimed at offering the consumer the choice of technologically superior mobile auxiliaries which are affordable. We are highly optimistic about the growth of Karbonn’s accessories vertical and expect it to touch 100 crores by the end of FY 2015-2016,“ said Shashin Devsare, Executive Director of Karbonn.

Three months after announcing the Lollipop release, Google pushed out the first Lollipop update to all Android One users in India. Now, the company has just officially confirmed that the next Android 5.1 Lollipop update is being rolled out to all Android One users.

Google India has released a cute video confirming this news. The video’s background score is the groovy ’Koi yaha naache naache’ with the signature Android caricatures having a party announcing that ‘things have just got better’ and that ‘Android One (smartphones) upgrade to Lollipop 5.1′.

It is a gradual roll out, so it might take some time before it shows up on your device. You can manually check for an update by visiting the ‘System Upgrades’ section in the Settings Menu. It is recommended to upgrade your device in a strong Wi-Fi connection, with a fully charged battery to prevent inconvenience.

The 5.1 Lollipop update will bring greater system stability, improved RAM management, and fixes for frequent app crashes, Wi-Fi connectivity issues, and issues with Okay Google function among others.

RELATED: Android One review: Impressive but not ground breaking

Google’s Android One initiative was launched in India in September with the aim to tap the rural segment and convert them into smartphone users. Google has roped in local vendors like Micromax, Karbonn and Spice with a vision to bring the “pure” Android experience to affordable smartphones.

Karbonn today launched a new smartphone called the Titanium Mach Five. The smartphone is priced at Rs 5,999, and will be available via Amazon India in silver, champagne and white-blue color variants.

As far as specifications are concerned, the Titanium Mach Five flaunts a 5-inch HD (1280×720 pixels) display, and is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor paired with 2GB of RAM. Also on offer is 16GB internal storage, which can be expanded up to 32GB using a microSD card.

The smartphone also features an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, 5-megapixel selfie camera, Infrared sensor, and a 2,200mAh battery. Connectivity options include dual-SIM card slots, 3G support, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and on the software front, it runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop out-of-the-box.

At this price, the Karbonn Titanium Mach Five will face competition from Micromax’s Canvas Xpress 2, which too is identically priced.

Karbonn today launched the Aura 9 smartphone in India. Priced at Rs 6,390, the smartphone comes with a massive 4,000mAh battery, which offers enough backup to last through the day.

The talking point of the smartphone is the massive 4,000mAh battery, which the company claims is good enough to offer up to 10 hours of talk time and up to 300 hours of standby time.

Karbonn Aura 9 specifications and features

The smartphone flaunts a 5-inch HD (1280×720 pixels) IPS-LCD display, and is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor paired with 1GB of RAM. It comes with 8GB of internal storage and includes support for microSD card to further expansion up to 32GB.

The smartphone sports an 8-megapixel main camera with LED flash, 5-megapixel front camera, and connectivity options like dual-SIM card slots, 3G support, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. The Aura 9 runs on Android 4.4 KitKat OS and includes Smart Gesture Control feature that allows for quick access to applications, even when the phone is locked. Keeping in mind India’s diverse cultural population, the Karbonn Aura 9 also comes with support for 21 regional languages.

At this price point, the Karbonn Aura 9 will be competing with the likes of Micromax Canvas Selfie 2, Xiaomi Redmi 2, and the Lenovo A5000 among others.

Domestic handset-maker Karbonn on Tuesday launched a new smartphone — the Titanium S200 — priced at Rs.4,999 in an exclusive partnership with Indian e-commerce portal Snapdeal.

The device will come with a five inch HD display, eight megapixel auto-focus enabled rear camera with dual LED Flash and 3.2 megapixel front camera.  The phone will be powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, 1 GB RAM and will draw juice from a 2,600 mAh Li-polymer battery.

“With smartphones becoming the primary screen for consuming entertainment content, we identified the need for bringing superior screen experience in the budget segment,” Shashin Devsare, the executive director of Karbonn Mobiles, said. “Titanium S200 comes with an HD IPS display offering life-like vibrant image quality for an enhanced smartphone experience. We have partnered exclusively with Snapdeal for Titanium S200 to offer easy access and buying options to our consumers,” he added.

The dual SIM Titanium S200 will have 8 GB of internal memory expandable upto 32 GB. It also offers 21 Indian keyboard languages and five Indian user interface languages. Currently, Karbonn has 85,000 plus retail partners and 900 plus service centres.

We are back with our weekly round up of top smartphone launches in India for this week. Well, this week OnePlus‘ new OnePlus X grabbed the limelight. Check out our detailed OnePlus X: Hands-on and first impressions here. But the OnePlus X wasn’t only the device launched this week. So without further ado, here are the top smartphones that were launched in India:

Asus Zenfone 2 Laser 5.5

First on the list is the Asus Zenfone 2 Laser 5.5, which is a variant of the Zenfone 2 Laser. The smartphone is prices at Rs 13,999. Talking about the specifications and features of the smartphone, it flaunts a 5.5-inch HD (1280×720 pixels) IPS display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4. Also on offer is 16GB internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 128GB.

On the photography front it features a 13-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash. Whereas on the front is a 5-megapixel selfie camera. The smartphone also includes a 3,000mAh battery, and offer connectivity options like dual-SIM card slots, 4G LTE support, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. On the software front, it runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop wrapped under the ZenUI.

Xolo Balck 1X

Xolo launched the second smartphone in its Black series, called Black 1X. The smartphone is priced at Rs 9,999 and will be available exclusively via Snapdeal. The first flash sale for the Black 1X is scheduled on November 6.  The smartphone flaunts a 5-inch full HD (1920×1080 pixels) display with 441ppi and Dragon Trail Glass protection. Under the hood is a 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6753 octa-core 64-bit processor paired with 3GB LPDDR3 RAM.

It offers a 32GB internal storage, which can be expanded up to 128GB using a microSD card. The smartphone also features a 2,400mAh battery, and connectivity options like dual-SIM card slots, 4G LTE support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS. On the software front, it runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop wrapped under the company’s HIVE Atlas UI.

OnePlus X

OnePlus launched the OnePlus X, its most affordable smartphone in the company’s port, with portfolio with prices starting from Rs 16,999. The company launched two variants of the phone. OnePlus X Onyx which is priced at Rs 16,999, while the OnePlus X Ceramic is priced at Rs 22,999. The latter is however a limited edition and the company say that only 10,000 units will be manufactured.

The smartphone features a 5-inch full HD (1920×1080 pixels) AMOLED display with 441ppi and Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Under the hood is a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor paired with Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB of RAM. Also on offer is 16GB internal storage, which can be expanded up to 128GB using a microSD card.

On the camera front, the smartphone features a 13-megapixel camera and there is an 8-megapixel f/2.4 selfie camera. The OnePlus X also includes a FM Radio, and a 2,525mAh battery with Quick Charge 2.0 support. It features a physical Alert Slider switch on the side, which lets users select the kind of notification alerts they want. Connectivity wise- dual-SIM card slots where one slot is used as a microSD slot, 4G LTE support, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. On the software front, it runs on Oxygen OS based on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.

Intex Aqua Play

Intex yesterday launched its entry level smartphone priced at Rs 3,249. The smartphone which is available in white, black, and blue color variants which the company claims to be their new entry-level smartphone features a 4-inch (480×800 pixels) WVGA display. Under the hood is a 1.2 GHz dual-core (MTK6572W Chipset) processor and 512 MB of RAM.

Up on offers is 8GB of internal storage which can be expandable up-to 32GB via microSD card. On the camera front it features a VGA resolution camera in both its front and rear panels. The Intex Aqua Play get the power from 1400mAh Li-ion removable battery, which the company claims to deliver up-to 4 hours of talk time and 180 hours of standby time.

On the connectivity front, the handset offers 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, Micro-USB 2.0, and GPS with A-GPS. The smartphone runs on Android 5.1 operating system.

Karbonn

Since the festive season has already begun, Karboon has launched four new smartphones for its Indian market. The new smartphones include Karbonn Titanium S205 Plus, Alfa A93 Pop, Alfa A91, and Alfa 112.

The Karbonn S205 Plus which is priced at Rs 6,790 features a 5-inch 720p HD display. Under the hood is a 1.2 GHz quad-core MediaTek MTK6735 processor, along with 2GB of RAM. It comes with 16GB onboard storage which is expandable up to 32GB, via microSD cards. It has an 8-megapixel primary camera with dual-LED flash, as well as a 3.2-megapixel front camera. It runs Android Lollipop v5.1 out of the box.

Karbonn has priced the Alfa A93 Pop at Rs 3,490. It comes with a 4.5-inch FWVGA display (854×480 pixels). Under the hood is a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. It has a 2-megapixel rear camera, 0.3-megapixel front camera, with a 1400mAh battery and runs Android Lollipop v5.1.

The Alfa A91 comes with a 4-inch display with WVGA resolution (800×480 pixels). Under the hood is a 1GHz processor, 256MB of RAM, 512MB of onboard storage with a 2000mAh battery. On the camera front the handset features a 2-megapixel primary camera along with a 0.3-megapixel front camera, and runs Android v4.4 KitKat. The smartphone is available for Rs 3,290.

The last smartphone by Karbonn is the Alfa 112 featuring a 4-inch WVGA display. The smartphone runs on 1GHz processor, 256MB of RAM, 512MB onboard storage. The storage is further expandable. On the camera front it has a 2-megapixel rear camera and a 0.3-megapixel front camera. It comes packed with a 1,300mAh battery, and runs Android v4.2 Jelly Bean. The device is priced at Rs 2,890.

In line with the government’s ‘Make in India‘ initiative, domestic handset vendor Karbonn will invest Rs 200 crore to set up a manufacturing plant at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for a dedicated mobile handset and electronics manufacturing facility at Tirupati. Apart from Karbonn, the facility will house brands like Micromax, Celkon and Lava.

“We are setting up an integrated facility at Tirupati. The plant, which will be operational by September next year, will have a manufacturing capacity of 500,000 units a month,” Karbonn Chairman Sudhir Hasija told PTI.

He added that the company will invest Rs 200 crore in the facility and employ 2,000 people to start with. “We currently have a monthly capacity of 1.8-2 million units and we are looking at scaling this up to 2.5 million by December next year,” he said.

ALSO READ: Karbonn to invest Rs 800 crore to set up manufacturing plants in India

Over the next few years, the plan is to develop the entire manufacturing ecosystem in India along with component manufacturing, he added. “By 2017, we will have miniscule imports as we will manufacture in India rather than just assembling here,” Hasija said. Karbonn has a unit in Noida that manufactures feature phones. It is also setting up a facility in Haryana that is about thrice the size of the Noida plant.

Global handset makers like Samsung and domestic players like Micromax and Spice have assembly units in India. Recently, international players like Xiaomi, Gionee and Asus have announced assembly units in India in partnership with electronics major Foxconn in Andhra Pradesh.

Handset makers are looking to tap the multi-billion dollar opportunity in India, which is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world. The Indian handset industry is poised to overtake the US as the second-largest market in next few years. According to research firm IDC, shipments in India grew 44 percent year-on-year to 26.5 million units in April-June 2015 quarter.

People will not have to cope with multiple remotes as Peel Technologies has revamped its universal smart remote mobile app to make it easier for Indian customers to navigate between the world of live TV and streaming video. Peel Smart Remote is one easy-to-navigate universal app and platform that turns user’s smartphone into a universal remote that works with all major brands of TVs, air conditioners and 600 set-top boxes available in India.

The revamped app, that was made available to Indian customers on Thursday, will now offer access to popular streaming and discovery of what’s currently airing live on a user’s TV. Peel Smart Remote app, which has 135 million registered users globally, addresses the growing complexity of the video entertainment landscape as the medium becomes richer and more populated.

“As more and more of our users diversify their entertainment consumption to include streamed content, it makes sense for us to simplify their journey to find something good to watch no matter what the source or destination is,” Thiru Arunachalam, Peel CEO and co-founder, said.

Indian TV shows and movies on YouTube are the first content to be available on the revamped app while more streaming video providers would be added soon. The streaming service will allow the Indian customers with access to 45 popular CatchUp TV series, movies and news channels in a variety of regional languages, including Hindi, Telugu and Tamil and the new features make recommendations based on users’ past TV viewing behavior.

The improved interface also helps easier navigation between the channels and remote controls, such as power button, volume up/down and channel up/down. The app, available for iPhone and Android users, is now coming preloaded on phones from several Indian distributors, including Karbonn, Xolo, Gionee, Panasonic and Celkon.

Domestic handset-maker Karbonn on Tuesday launched two new features-rich smartphones — Titanium Moghul and Titanium S205 2GB — competitively-priced at Rs 5,790 and Rs 6,790, respectively. Seeking to strengthen Karbonn’s Titanium smartphone series, the new offerings are perfect combination of style with substance, a company statement said.

The Titanium Moghul offers best-in-segment smartphone features including 1.2GHz Quad Core processor. It comes packed with 12.7 cm qHD IPS Capacitive screen, Dragon trail scratch-resistance glass, 8MP auto focus with LED flash back camera, 3.2MP front camera, and 2000 mAh long-lasting battery with energy to last all day and then some.

To ensure prompt multitasking and lag-free experience, the dual SIM phone has 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM which is expandable to 32 GB. It operates on Android 4.4 Kitkat. The Titanium S205 2GB sports the same screen size and Dragon trail scratch resistance glass as Moghul, but its HD IPS Screen offers an enhanced resolution for better viewing experience.

ALSO READ: Make in India: Karbonn to invest Rs 200 crore in manufacturing plant in Andhra Pradesh 

This dual SIM phone’s 1.2GHz Quad Core processor, 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM ensures seamlessly multi-tasking experience. It operates on the latest Android 5.1 Lollipop. The device offers an extensive memory space, allowing one to carry the whole world on smartphones. It offers 16 GB in-built memory and is expandable up to 32 GB SD card.

For music lovers, the device gives an opportunity to enjoy an ultra-long playlists, favorite movies and games uninterrupted with strong battery backup of 2200 mAh Lithium Polymer battery.

Seeking to “dissolve the language barrier”, domestic handset-maker Karbonn on Thursday launched a smartphone that allows non-English speaking users the comfort of accessing the device in their first language. Available at an affordable price-point of Rs 3,990, the K9 Smart offers users the option to navigate the device in up to 12 Indian languages and the flexibility to choose from 21 Indian languages for typing input, a company statement said.
“With the launch of K9 Smart, we aim to dissolve the language barrier which is one of the major impediments inhibiting Smartphone adoption amongst non-English speaking population,” said Shashin Devsare, Karbonn Mobiles’ executive director, at the launch of the device here.

According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the local language user base grew 47 percent and touched 127 million in June last year.

“The growing consumption of local language content on mobile phones is a clear indicator of the need for vernacularizing the Smartphone ecosystem for bridging the gaping digital divide. With K9 Smart launch we aim to bridge this divide by offering Indian users an affordable smartphone device which offers access in their native language for ease of use thereby encouraging adoption,a Devsare added.

K9 Smart also enables users to search and add contacts in upto 11 Indian languages. With smartphones becoming an important source of news and information, the device offers the option to access news and magazines on Newshunt and enjoy cricket commentary, score and live updates on CricBuzz in six languages of their choice.

Users can also access various utility and social apps like Google Maps, YouTube, Facebook and Whatsapp in various Indian languages.

K9 Smart comes with a 12.4 cm screen, 1.2 GHz quad core processor and 2,300 mAh Li-ion battery. The smartphone is packed with an internal memory of 8GB which is expandable to 32 GB. It offers a 3.2 MP rear camera with flash and a 1.3MP front camera. The device has dual SIM support with faster 3G connectivity with bundling offers from leading network operators.

Karbonn Mobiles is set to expand its smartphone portfolio with a new series called ‘’Quattro’. The first smartphone under the new series has already been listed on the company’s official site. The smartphone is called the Karbonn Quattro L50. Though the company has not revealed the official price, the smartphone is available on e-commerce sites for a starting price of Rs 7,840.

The company has made the smartphone available in three different colors – Grey, Coffee and Blue. Please note that the price of the smartphone vary according to color of the phone.

Karbonn Quattro L50 features and specifications: The smartphone features a 5-inch display with 1280×720 pixels resolution. The smartphone is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor paired with 2GB of RAM. Also on offer is 16GB of internal storage which can be further be expandable to 32GB via a microSD card.

On the camera front, the smartphone sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with an LED flash and a 5-megapixel front facing camera. The smartphone is backed by 2,600mAh battery which the company claims is good enough to provide a talktime of 8 hours and a standby time of 200 hours. The company also claims that the smartphone gets fully charged within 4 hours.

For connectivity, the smartphone supports 4G, LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. The Karbonn Quattro L50 runs on Android Lollipop 5.1.

The Karbonn Quattro L50 is set to compete with the likes of Lenovo Vibe P1m, Coolpad Note 3 Lite and Micromax Canvas Amaze.

Domestic handset maker Karbonn Mobiles on Tuesday announced the launch of its new user interface Kandy on the 4G enabled Karbonn Quattro L50 handset, offering a customized 4G experience to its users.

Karbonn’s UI Kandy has been especially developed to bring the most user friendly, stable and secure 4G experience to customers on Quattro L50 HD, a company statement said.

Cutting down on multiple menus, Kandy offers an integrated PCM, wherein users can access the dialer, contacts, logs and messages within a single menu with one swipe. Users can also customize their notification and shortcuts tabs to choose which notifications and functions they would want to access on priority giving one touch access to all the frequently used features.

With Quattro’s Kandy UI, users can also customize the entire look and feel of the device by choosing from a diverse range of themes, icons and colors to reflect their personal style and preference.  Users also get higher control over their data usage and information that they choose to share while using apps for a more secure smartphone experience reclaiming control over data expenditure and privacy.

Price at Rs 7,990, Quattro L50 comes with 12.7cm HD IPS full lamination screen in a premium unibody design. Powered by 1.3GHz Quad core processor, 2GB RAM and 16 GB ROM, Quattro L50 offers fast, snag free net browsing and app navigation experience and 2600mAhz battery to last heavy usage. The device offers 13MP AF rear camera with flash and 5MP FF front camera.

Karbonn unveiled two new smartphones - the Quattro L52 and Titanium Mach 6 priced at Rs 8,790 and Rs 7,490 respectively which come with the company's new Karbonn VR headset.

In a bid to take immersive virtual reality (VR) experience to the masses, Indian smartphone company Karbonn Mobiles on Monday launched two low-cost VR glasses-equipped smartphones. While the Karbonn Quattro L52 smartphone VR device is priced at Rs 8,790, Karbonn Mach Six will come at an unbeatable price of Rs 7,490 – a direct competition to Samsung Gear VR device that currently costs a little over Rs 8,000

Both VR sets are fitted with bi-convex lenses that augment a video to provide a theatre-like experience for entertainment lovers and gamers. The devices are pre-embedded with a library of engaging games and video content. Users can create their own VR videos using the pre-embedded VR app.

“The VR technology offers huge growth potential in India with the burgeoning smartphone market where affordability is key to encourage mass adoption. Karbonn’s VR glasses are an effort to bring VR technology to consumers across economic spectrum at a disruptive price,” said Shashin Devsare, executive director, Karbonn Mobiles, in a statement.

ALSO READ: Make in India: Karbonn to invest Rs 200 crore in manufacturing plant in Andhra Pradesh

Karbonn Quattro L52 4G LTE has 8MP rear camera with Sony sensor filter and 5MP front camera. It comes with 2GB RAM+16GB ROM expandable upto 32GB and 1.3GHz Quad core processor with 12.7cm full HD screen. Karbonn Mach Six has a huge 15.24cm HD display with 2GB RAM+16 GB ROM, 1.3GHz Quad core processor and a powerful battery at 3300 mAh (milliampere per hour).

According to a recent report, the global VR market is expected to touch an estimated $120 billion by 2020 and India, with its huge smartphone base, is set to become the largest VR market.

Karbonn will roll out an SOS app for women in all its handsets in the coming two months. The move precedes the Indian government's mandate for installing a panic button on all mobile phones starting January 1, 2017.

Karbonn Tuesday said it will roll out an SOS app for women on its handsets in the next two months, much ahead of the government’s mandate of installing a panic button on phones from January 1, 2017. ”The directive is a step towards harnessing the full potential of mobile devices which could be a potent tool in ensuring women’s safety,” Karbonn Mobiles said in a statement. The firm added it has been working on developing a mobile SOS app for women which would be rolled out over the next two months.

“This safety app would allow users to send alert messages to emergency contacts with a single tap on home screen; share their location to select contacts at a predefined time or distance automatically enabling their emergency contacts to keep tab on the users location in real time,” it said.

The feature will also allow users to raise and send alarms discreetly by simply shaking the device without unlocking the screen as well as send alerts by pressing down the power button for a certain duration. The government has made installing a panic button on mobile phones mandatory from January 1, 2017. An in-built GPS navigation system would be mandatory for all phones a year later with effect from January 1, 2018.

ALSO READ: Panic button, GPS on mobile handsets feasible within the deadline, but will raise prices

The handset industry body Indian Cellular Association (ICA) also welcomed the notification. ”We all understand that mobile handsets are all pervasive and the ideal information technology device for the vast Indian population. It was extremely important that we come up with a very simple solution both for feature phones and smart phones, so simple that anyone can understand it,” ICA National President, Pankaj Mohindroo, said.

ALSO READ: Panic Button on mobile phones will be a ‘game changer’: Maneka Gandhi

On implementation of satellite-based GPS on mobile handsets, ICA said the same “needs to be relooked at and ICA is requesting the DoT to have a relook”.

Karbonn has announced a new smartphone called the Quattro L45 ISP. The smartphone is listed on company’s official website.

Karbonn has added a new smartphone to its Quattro series called the Karbonn Quattro L45 IPS. The price and the availability of the smartphone are not known yet. The key feature of the smartphone is its 4G support. The smartphone is available in blue and black color options.

Karbonn Quattro L45 IPS specifications and features: The smartphone features a 4.5-inch FWVGA IPS display. Under the hood the smartphone runs 1GHz quad-core processor paired with 1GB of RAM. Also on offer is 8GB internal storage which can be further expandable to 32GB via microSD card.

On the camera front the smartphone sports a 5-megapixel rear camera with auto focus and flash and a 2-megapixel front camera with flash. The smartphone is equipped with 1,800mAh battery which the company claims is good enough to give 350 hours of standby time and 3 hours of talktime.

Apart from 4G support, connectivity options include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, micro-USB. On the software front the smartphone runs Android 5.1 Lollipop.