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Kolkata:
Samsung Telecommunications is planning to come up with a series of medium
to high-end CDMA phones in India, independent of Tata Indicom with whom it has
partnered to launch its "Explore", the country''s first ''mobile web browser''.
Vice-president
and head of Samsung''s CDMA division, Hyunbai Kim, said the company plans to launch
many other models with the same mobile web browser technology, which uses the
Qualcomm Single Chip (QSC). Most of these can be expected in coming months, at
price points lower than the Rs5,499 at which the Explore is currently available. The
company is also evaluating options to launch more CDMA phones, albeit independently,
as it wants to avoid a price war at the lower-end of the mobile handsets market. Samsung''s
manufactures its CDMA handsets in China and Korea. According to Kim, the market
for CDMA handsets is a 20-million unit, which generates $80 million in revenues. Tata
Indicom, with its subscriber base of 20 million, is looking to acquire market
share with the Explore, according to Pankaj Sethi, president, value-added services
business unit, Tata Teleservices. The
Explore addresses limitations in mobile internet access that are faced by WAP
users. Mobile WAP browsers can access limited sites, which are WAP enabled, and
moreover, access speeds are relatively slow. With
the Explore, browsing would be more comfortable as pages load in under 30 seconds.
Video streaming at this point would not be a feature, according to company sources.
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