ZTE to market $20 mobiles in India
ZTE has entered the Indian retail market as a standalone player.
It is hoping to hike the contribution of the Indian market to its global handset sales would go up to 20 per cent from the existing 16 per cent.
ZTE India Chairman & Managing Director D K Ghosh said in a statement that India is a key focus market for ZTE.
The company has launched a range of low-cost GSM handsets — S315, A261, R220, R230 and R230BT at price points ranging from USD 20 to USD 80. ZTE has sold over 20 million handsets in India through operator partnerships . It is targeting a network of 100,000 retail outlets in India by this year-end.
The company has appointed “Overseas Mobiles” as its national distributor. Overseas Mobiles will be appointing 80 regional distributors across India and will manage relationships with distributors and corporate customers on behalf of ZTE.
With global sales of over 100 million handsets last year, ZTE is currently the sixth-largest handset manufacturer in the world. It has established partnerships with mobile operators like Vodafone, Hutchison Whampoa, Telefonica globally and BSNL, Reliance, Tata, Vodafone, Spice Telecom and Aircel in India.
Hutch returns to profit on better business in India, Israel
(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications returned to profit in the first half of this year, boosted by an improvement in its businesses in India and Israel.
Net profit for the six months ended June was HK$2 million ($257,100), a turnaround from a net loss of HK$370 million ($47.6 million) in the first half last year.
Hutchison Telecom, a unit of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing’s Hutchison Whampoa, said its first half revenue rose to HK$15.67 billion ($2.01 billion), from HK$10.59 billion ($1.36 billion).
The company attributed the improvement in its profitability in the first half to strong performance in the Indian and Israeli markets.
The company’s Indian operation, Hutchison Essar, was the largest revenue contributor. It reported a first-half revenue rise of 51% to HK$7.09 billion ($1 billion), while its subscribers doubled to 17.5 million.
In Israel, Hutchison’s Partner Communications had a 5% rise before taxes to HK$1.51 billion ($148 million), on a “healthy increase” in its customer base and average minutes of use.
“Customer growth in the first half was in line with our expectations and, provided there is no slowing of the momentum in India, we expect that to continue in the second half,” Hutchison Telecom said in a statement.
The company’s business in the second half will depend largely on the timing of operation launches in Indonesia and Vietnam, both of which are scheduled for the second half of 2006, the company said.
Source- http://www.telecomasia.net
Technorati : Hutch, India, Israel, Mobile
Ice Rocket : Hutch, India, Israel, Mobile
