25 new Open Market Handsets expected in 2010

Qualcomm and India’s CDMA operators Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Sistema Shyam Teleservices (MTS), Virgin Mobile India, along with OEM Micromax, have projected a strong growth for the CDMA handsets market in India, with the expected launch of at least 25 new OMH-capable handsets in 2010 from leading Indian and global OEM brands.

These handsets will range from basic multimedia models to smartphones and will be priced from Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 10,000 plus. All Indian CDMA operators are OMH complaint. They offer OMH SIM cards and support OMH handsets on their networks.

Sandeep Sibal, Country Manager and Vice President of Technology, Qualcomm India & South Asia, said, “We are here to celebrate the growing success of OMH initiative since the first commercial launch in August 2009. India being the second largest CDMA market in the world, with over 110 million subscribers, was the launch market for the OMH initiative. Today commercial OMH handsets are available from Samsung and Micromax with OMH SIM cards from all Indian CDMA operators. We expect 25 OMH handsets to be launched this year, ranging from entry-level multimedia to smartphones, half of which will have EVDO data capability.”

While basic handsets will have features like FM, MP3, camera and data capability, the feature-rich handsets and smartphones will have high-speed Internet access for consumers and the ability to enjoy applications like social networking (Facebook, Orkut), rich multimedia (streaming audio and video, mobile TV), faster e-mails and downloads, and a host of other applications like Twitter and instant messaging.