Philips Mobile has forayed into Indian mobile market and launched today three smartphones and one feature phone at an event in New Delhi. The three Android smartphones announced are – W6610, W3500 and S308, priced at Rs. 20650, 16915 and 8290, respectively. The feature phone E130 is priced at Rs. 1960/- and all the four models will be available next week across India.These phones are being introduced by Sang Fei, which is a subsidiary of China Electronics Corporation (CEC) that owns the exclusive global licence to market and sell mobile phones under the ‘Philips’ brand.
During the launch event, the company announced that it intends to launch 3-4 new smartphones and feature phones in the next few months. It was also announced that the next device to be launched would be a phablet – the I928, which will have a six-inch display and will run on the latest Android Kitkat operating system. This will be powered by an Octacore 1.7 GHz processor, and will be equipped with a 13 megapixel rear camera, and a 5 MP front camera. This is expected to be priced around Rs 35,000 and would start retailing in India next month.
W6610
The W6610 sports a 5 inches qHD IPS display, and is powered by a 1.3GHz quad core processor, coupled with1GB RAM and 4GB internal storage, which can be further expanded upto 32GB via microSD card. This smartphone is equipped with 8MP rear camera with autofocus and 2MP front shooter. This smartphone supports DUAL-SIM (WCDMA+GSM) and runs on Android Jelly Bean version 4.2 OS. and is packed with the huge 5300mAh battery, which has not been seen by us in any other smartphone so far. This powerful battery is claimed to provide “an epic talk time of up to 33hours and web browsing time of up to 16 hours”. The Philips W6610 also comes with an ingenious Power-saving switch.
This is available in navy color only.
W3500
This smartphone features a 5 inches FWVGA TFT touch screen, and is driven by a 1.3GHz quad core processor. The W3500 runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS and is equipped with a 5MP rear camera.
S308
This phone comes with 4 inches WVGA TFT capacitive touch screen and is powered by a 1GHz dual core processor, alongwith 512MB RAM and 4GB of internal storagae which can be expanded upto 32GB via microSD card. This smartphone also houses 5MP rear camera with flash. The S308 runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS and supports Dual Sim (WCDMA+GSM).
This phone is available in black, red, yellow, blue and white colors.
E130
The Philiips E130 is a DUAL SIM feature phone and comes with digital camera and MP3 and FM Radio features. Its Bluetooth connectivity and 3.5mm audio jack will enable yout to enjoy loud music without disturbing others while on the go. This phone also houses a torch. The Philips E130 supports MicroSD cards of up to 32GB capacity.
This phone is available is black, red and yellow colors.
The Philips range of mobile phones will be distributed in India by the Redington and Accel Frontline will provide after sales service.
For smartphones, Philips will face tough challenge from budget phones like Moto E and Moto G and economical and mid-range smartphones of Micromax, Lava, Karbonn and various other Chinese and Indian brands. Philips is late entrant in Indian markets, which is being dominated by aforesaid Indian brands and of late Motorola and there are various players in mid-segment. It will not be easy for Philips to get the sizable market share if we evaluate the specifications of the smartphones and its prices, which are quite high.
