Sharp to sell handsets in India, targets youth

Sharp Business Systems (India) Ltd, a unit of Japan’s Sharp Corp, it the latest company to announce their entry into the Indian handset market. The company plans to target the youth with their four new devices.
Kishlay Ray, general manager, marketing, Sharp Business Systems (India) Limited added, “Our handsets have been modeled keeping in mind the youth between the age group of 16 – 30 years in urban and semi-urban cities.”
The company has unveiled four handsets namely Alice, Blink, Tango and Cyborg. The Cyborg would also be available in a 3G variant. While the four handsets would be available in the market starting today, Cyborg 3G would be available in two weeks’ time.
The handsets are priced starting from Rs 6,500 and going up to Rs 18,000. The price for 3G handset has not been revealed.
Sunil K. Sinha, managing director, sharp business systems (India) ltd, made it clear that the company does not intent to compete in the entry level segment.
Although the company has a manufacturing plant in India, they do not plan to manufacture phones in India. Hence, there investments would be majorly go into sales and marketing of the product. He however, refused to reveal any numbers.
The company is also ‘actively considering’ Android OS and the phones should be out in the coming 4-6 months.
Ray stated, “Over the next six months we will be coming up with various offers and ideas to keep the brand name top-of-mind in the consumers’ minds.”