me_saket 73 Report post Posted February 27, 2010 source-DNA New Delhi: In a last-ditch attempt to save the Indian mobile market from a complete walkover by GSM companies, hardware firms under the aegis of Qualcomm Inc will launch a dozen CDMA smartphones in India this year. They will also introduce around two dozen fully interoperable handsets to prevent ‘locking in’ of handsets to particular networks. Currently, almost the entire high-end handset market in India, expected to grow to Rs 6,000-10,000 crore this year, is with GSM manufacturers, with the small exception of CDMA-based BlackBerry phones. Most consumers who spend a large amount on their handsets prefer to by GSM phones as they can be used on multiple networks, unlike traditional CDMA phones that were ‘wedded’ to a particular network. This has resulted in CDMA networks in India getting stuck with entry-level phone users who have average spends that are around half of what GSM consumers spend. “Today, only around 2% of the CDMA phones are in the price range of $100 (Rs 4,700) and above. About 88% are below $40 (Rs 1,880),” said Atul Joshi, chief sales officer and member of the central steering committee of Sistema Shyam Teleservices - the latest entrant to the CDMA market. “In comparison, only 37% of GSM phones cost less than $40 and the proportion of GSM models above $100 is considerably higher at 18%.” Currently, there is only one 3G-enabled CDMA handset in the country — Corby by Samsung. LG, Motorola and Indian vendors like Spice and Micromax are expected to launch more smart and 3G phones in the coming months. To reassure customers that they can re-use costly CDMA phones on all CDMA networks, the industry had come up with the concept of certified “open market handsets” that can be used on any of the major CDMA networks. Around half a dozen certified ‘open’ handsets have been introduced to the market, primarily by Samsung. This year, different vendors will introduce 25 more of such ‘open’ models, around half of them in the “smartphone” or high-speed category. The CDMA operators, who include Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices and Sistema-Shyam’s MTS, plan to push their ‘3G’ advantage to corner the high-end market. Unlike GSM operators, which require almost as much spectrum as they currently have to launch 3G services, CDMA operators are able to launch high-speed 3G services using a third or a fourth of their existing spectrum. Indeed, all three primary service providers have already launched 3G networks but did not have 3G capable handsets to tap into them, forcing them to use the new network for laptop data cards. Private GSM services, on the other hand, have been saddled with the converse situation — a plethora of 3G handsets, but no network. With the 3G capable smartphones in the works, CDMA operators are banking on stealing a march on their GSM counterparts before GSM 3G becomes ready in one year. “This year, you will notice an influx of smartphones (on CDMA). We will be able to differentiate ourselves due to the better quality data networks that we have,” said Vrajesh Shelat, head of mobile devices at Reliance Communications. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Greatest 55 Report post Posted February 27, 2010 2 dozen new cdma open market handsets... lottery lag gayi.. lol.. hope they are not only those lg/samsung... HTC are u listening... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KanagaDeepan 1,084 Report post Posted February 27, 2010 Good to hear this news.. But 25 more OPEN CDMA 3G or SMARTPHONEs in this year (may be a dozen by Spice or Micromax the different coloured chinese $hit phones possible) seems unbelievable... But I welcome with Full heart, if it was made possible.. Further this whole year is NOT ENOUGH to educate even the CC guys what is OMH RUIM and OMH handset ... It depends FULLY on CDMA operators to sacrifice their profit on handsets and allow the success of OMH handsets.. But what to do, even CDMA biggies (RCom, Tata, BSNL) are likely to promote their GSM counterpart much more than their CDMA operations... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
me_saket 73 Report post Posted February 27, 2010 Hope some docomo will cash this opportunity with many more 3G services from japan, Wait for few days rcom, tata and BSNL will promote CDMA once customer will see donzen of handset in shop and aks for omh sim, just waiting for MTS to launch it's smartphone series in APRIL Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rajeshkatiyar 3 Report post Posted February 28, 2010 (edited) Hope some docomo will cash this opportunity with many more 3G services from japan, Wait for few days rcom, tata and BSNL will promote CDMA once customer will see donzen of handset in shop and aks for omh sim, just waiting for MTS to launch it's smartphone series in APRIL Dear Friends It appears that these new sets will inspire TATA and reliance to comlete EVDO network.It will be better if other biggies launch dual sim GSM CDMA sets to Promote CDMA Samsung has already done itwith Duo 259 at 6650 Rs with 1 gb memory card Edited February 28, 2010 by rajeshkatiyar Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
commonman 228 Report post Posted February 28, 2010 great news all the same Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KAPILKDEV 68 Report post Posted March 2, 2010 good news. If value for money CDMA smartphones(OMH) are released, CDMA will grow as GSM. Otherwise CDMA will be erased from india. All of my friends using CDMA is waiting to move to GSM when Mobile Number Portabilty is possible. The major reason "why people hesitate to buy CDMA" is the network locked phones. People want freedom to change their operator without changing their handset. If a number of handsets(OMH) with reasonable price are introduced this problem will be solved. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
