With Apple’s iPhone 3G hitting Indian shores, cellphone vendors like Nokia, Samsung and Motorola are getting their act in place with a two-fold strategy. This involves rolling out a portfolio of next-gen touch-screen phones at a much lower price than iPhone in India and building their online music services to compete against Apple’s popular ‘iTunes’.

The move seems to be triggered by the fact that iPhone is expected to expand the market for touch-screen phones in India. A study by research firm Strategy Analytics claims that 40% of all phones may incorporate touch-screen technology by 2012. Apple’s iPhone 3G is priced in India at Rs 31,000 (8 GB) and Rs 36,000 (16 GB).

“iPhone is a device which is desired by the Indian mass market. But its prohibitive pricing will play a spoil sport, something which other vendors can capitalise by rolling out user-friendly touch phones at competitive prices,” said IDC Asia-Pacific research manager Aloysius Choong.

For starters, Nokia plans to roll out a portfolio of touch phones across the low-to-high end of Indian market. Sources said Nokia’s first touch phone, code-named Tube, will target the mid-segment and have features that compete against iPhone 3G at a much lower price. Nokia’s internet services platform Ovi will have a music store, which will be loaded with regional and Hindi music, sources said.

When contacted, Nokia India director (marketing) Devinder Kishore said: “We will launch touch-screen phones in India by December. Ovi will also be launched by then and will have a host of entertainment services, among others.” Nokia enjoys a dominant market share of about 70% in India.

Samsung is also going to create an online music service in India. “We are aggregating content for music service which will be launched next year. The focus will be on evolved touch-screen phones with full functionality like drag and drop of menu, video streaming and high resolution camera,” Samsung Telecom India country head Sunil Dutt told ET. Samsung is going to launch its flagship touch phone Omnia next month.

Even Motorola is soon going to hit the Indian market with a new range of touch phones across price segments. “The phones will be competitively priced against iPhone,” said Motorola India director (marketing) Lloyd Mathias. Motorola has recently launched its online music store in India with 3.5-lakh songs.

Source:economictimes