A year of myriad choices

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Led by consumer-centric features and applications, the Indian device market is poised to be flooded with affordable but feature-rich computing devices. The domestic players have already geared up to propel their premium products.

Advani feels that the tablet devices are meant for data access on a larger screen during smartphones are about voice calling even though they provide a limited browsing experience.

Smartphones are expected to go sleeker and smarter, making even Kareena Kapoor envious of their looks. 2012 would witness device metamorphosis. The OEM's focus would be to produce slim and lightweight devices.

The key although applications

Features hold the key although applications would be after a fashion similar in all makes. Windows OS, cloud storage and nearly field communications are some capabilities on which a section of vendors is banking upon.

For instance, Nokia in February this year announced that all its devices will be powered by Windows OS. Nokia Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 are then-placed products around this OS. Telecom equipment major Huawei has already made its presence felt with cloud phones.

The industry believes that out of the projected 5 billion mobile devices, 1 billion would be smartphones by 2015. The Indian smartphone market is expected to grow at 50 per cent CAGR for a period from 2010 till 2015.

Niche in the market

Samsung through its Galaxy Note tries to carve a niche in the market. In spite of glitches like power back-up and keypad, the company's optimism is high. Samsung is expected to unveil Galaxy S III at the Mobile World Congress in February 2012. The new Galaxy family device will incorporate 3D innovation.

Smart devices from Indian manufacturers just as Micromax, Lava, Karbonn, Spice and G-Five might have greater acceptance in relatively smaller markets. Few of them have already announced their plans for 2012. Lava is all set to bring in two new smartphones.

Research In Motion has launched seven smartphones in India since August 2011. BlackBerry Curve 8520 is the second highest selling smartphone in India, the company claims.

Sunil Lalvani, Director, Enterprise Sales at RIM India, said that they believe 2012 would enrich the experience of mobile computing with inventive range of devices, localized content, socially integrated applications and services built on new technologies.

RIM said it'll come up with then and there generation BlackBerry 10 mobile platform in 2012. "It combines the best of BlackBerry and QNX for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets and will create excitement for consumers in a big way," said Lalvani.

Banking on broadband, Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel have already forayed into this domain. The other Indian brands do not want to miss tablet bandwagon, and are expected to have their line-up ready earlier the dusk of 2012.

New category

It's a new category; in a word the company refrained from giving sales projections. Among Android OS tablet segment, the company aims to be on top in the market.

ASUS said that their focus will be to furthermore widen the new segments of tablet PC. "In 2012, ASUS will continue to augment in terms of design and offering of new technologies. There will be seen an innovative enhancement with our every product roll out," said Alex Huang, Country Head, System Business Group at ASUS India.