Huawei unveils products and Message+ service developed by India R&D

BANGALORE, INDIA: Huawei Devices, which, aims to be amongst the top five OEM handset brands globally, announced its first customized Smartphone U5510 for the Indian consumers. The event also marked the launch of Cloud Services for the first time in India & the showcasing of Message+ service, developed indigenously by Huawei’s Indian R&D center for the global market. The highly awaited MediaPad and two new generation Cloud-phones -- Sonic and IDEOS X3 -- were also unveiled for the tech and style oriented audiences in the country.

Huawei’s U5510, the first customized 3G feature phone developed in the Huawei R&D centre at Bangalore is priced at Rs 4,799 and is targeted at an audience aged 20 – mid thirties. The phone comes with a bundle of features to connect with the larger world. It has an ergonomic design and compact size with 3G Video Calling with Dual Camera.

It comes with HSDPA/HSUPA with 7.2Mbps DL and 5.76Mbps UL, and is loaded with SNS, Multi IM, EMAIL & SYNC Features. It is the first 3G feature phone with Wi-Fi Router, has a Dual SIM to keep your professional and personal life separate.

Another first from Huawei Device’s Bangalore R&D center was the development of Message+ service that is a key functionality of the Cloud+ service. Message+ service is an instant messaging service for Huawei smartphone owners. Users will be able to send and receive messages in seconds and see when their contacts are typing. Richer messaging allows swapping of text, pictures, videos and voice notes. The Message+ service also supports automatic Friend Finder feature from the phone’s contact list, group chat and creation of personal groups.

Also showcased was Cloud+ service whose growth has been driven by the explosive growth in content, multi-device ownerships, range of connectivity options, social networking services and any time anywhere access. Huawei Cloud+ service offers 16GB Cloud disk for storage, richer messaging with Message+ to share texts, pictures, videos and voice notes, Phone Finder to locate, back-up and lock, Cloud Gallery to easier viewing and sharing, Huawei Streams for integrated social phonebook experience, Huawei App Store for popular Indian and global apps, Sync Data and Over the air (OTA) Solution for OS upgrade. Huawei Cloud+ services enable easy downloads and sharing of content and anytime, anywhere, any device access.

Huawei’s MediaPad launch has been pegged as one of the biggest in the industry. MediaPad is the world’s first 7” Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet, targeted at mobile professionals who are looking for a portable entertainment and business optimized tablet. Unlike other tablets, Huawei Mediapad is a “clutter breaker” in the 7” inch segment and offers a full spec tab in this segment.

The MediaPad is a complete entertainment powerhouse driven by Qualcomm’ s dual-core 1.2GHz processor to drive easy multi-tasking, richer web browsing and faster processing of HD movies and games. The MediaPad provides a fabulous user experience in a stylish, high-performing and ultra-portable package. The MediaPad is Huawei Device’ s smartest, slimmest and lightest tablet yet, measuring just 10.5mm (0.4 inches) deep and weighing approximately 390g (0.86 pounds).

Huawei Mediapad offers the industry’s highest 217 PPI(pixels per inch), an IPS screen, WXGA(1280X800 pixels) display, 1080P full HD and SRS - delivering amazing movies and videos playback experience. It also features a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera and 5 megapixel auto focus rear facing camera with HD video recording capabilities. With HSPA+ 14.4Mbps and high-speed WiFi 802.11n Internet connectivity, the MediaPad doesn’t just entertain – it keeps you connected. Mediapad support PC like web browsing with Flash 10.3 support, full HDMI output and 4100 mAh battery delivering over six hours of play time. Priced at Rs 28,359, Huawei Mediapad also comes with multiple sensors and GPS and A-GPS with Google maps.

Huawei also showcased its range of World’s First cloudphones – Huawei Sonic and Huawei IDEOS X3, both powered by the latest Android 2.3 v Gingerbread and Huawei’s Cloud+ service. Both cloud phones offer an industry First - a 20GB storage (4GB bundled micro SD card and 16GB cloud net drive).

Targeted at the trend-setting youth & young working professionals aged between 16-35 years, Huawei Sonic offers the ultimate entertainment and social networking experience on a bigger and brighter 3.5” HVGA display, multi-touch UI, multiple sensors and Receive Diversity for better coverage and data performance and Wi-Fi 11n for six times faster internet. Priced at Rs 9,210, Huawei Sonic comes with noise cancellation with dual-mic and a powerful 14oo mAh battery.

Targeted at the style-conscious user, Huawei IDEOS X3 offers premium design detailing with stylish curve lens for smoother touch experience and wider viewing angle and Huawei’s new UI offering 3D homepage animations that makes it easy to navigate. Huawei IDEOS X3 features dual camera (3.2 MP & VGA), 3.2“ HVGA screen and the latest 3.5G (7.2 Mpbs), Wi-Fi 11n for faster internet.

Priced at Rs 10,229 IDEOS X3 with Cloud+ services, offers the latest experience with Google Android Gingerbread and new features like Easy Sync music list and Easy Backup & Restore.

Commenting on the launch, Nicolas Haifeng, director R&D, Huawei Devices, Bangalore, said: “We focus on delivering the best to our customers in this ever evolving world of technology. Huawei understands the Indian market well and to strengthen our commitment towards Indian audiences we have set up our own R&D centre here in Bangalore. We want to focus on creating technology as per the market need and hence we have manufactured customized products and services for the Indian market. We have developed U5510 handset and Message+ service for the Indian market and are hopeful it will be well received. Our focus is on customizing the products according to the Indian trends and delivering the best to them at par with the global offerings.”

P. Sanjeev, sales director at Huawei Devices, said: “We are pleased to bring Cloud Services in India for the first time along with the global launch of Huawei’s MediaPad. Both Huawei Sonic and IDEOS X3 have received resounding sales success world-wide and we are pleased to offer these next generation of smartphones with cloud services for the first time. We remain on track with open market progress in India and we are confident that we will be able to achieve our objective of being amongst top five OEM handset brand worldwide and in India over the next three years.”

Anand Narang, marketing director at Huawei Devices, said: “We are extremely ecstatic to bring a bundle of Products and service in India. Huawei as a brand believes in offering the latest, innovative and advanced technology to its customers. Today we are delighted to launch the first customized 3G feature phone U5510, the highly awaited MediaPad and the new generation smart phones -- Sonic and IDEOS X3 -- with the latest Cloud Services in India. With the launch of the new technology in India, we look forward to cater to a larger audience base now and further strengthen our belief in our tagline of “Why Wait?”.”

The devices come with a 3GB download for three months with Aircel and will be available pan-India across multiple outlets covering general retail, online stores and large format retailers.