Smartphones flood market in festive season

To cash in on the festive season, mobile handset makers like Apple, HTC, Karbonn and Lava have launched a series of smartphones in the price range starting from Rs 5,000 to Rs 59,500 for Indian consumers.

Telecom operators Airtel and Aircel today announced launching iPhone5 in the price range of Rs 45,500 to Rs 59,500 along with promotional offers.

While Aircel has announced option of easy instalments for 12 months through its company stores, Airtel has come out with five monthly plans at discounted rates for its post-paid customers buying iPhone 5.

Taiwanese handset major HTC has launched smartphones in the price range of Rs 19,260 to Rs 40,190.

The company launched its Andorid-based smartphone HTC One X plus for Rs 40,190 which has in-built storage of 64 GB and additional online storage of 25 GB free for two years.

HTC announced two smartphones built on Microsoft's Windows platform in the price range of Rs 19,260 to Rs 35,000.

The company will also start selling its Desire SV smartphone built on dual core processors from this month onward at a price of Rs 22,590.

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grown mobile phone company Karbonn also announced its entry into smartphones built on dual core processors.

The company launched two Android-based smartphones Karbonn Smart A21 for Rs 11,990 and A9 plus priced at Rs 9,990 buil-on Qualcomm's snapdragon dual-core processor.

"...dual core processor leads to a better gaming experience, faster browsing and less power consumption," Karbonn Mobiles executive director Shashin Devsare said.

Another Indian mobile phone company Lava said it will start sale of its IRIS range that will be priced between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.

The company will be launching the first two smartphones in the IRIS range - N320 and N350 this month followed by five more smartphones in quick succession by the end of January and another five before the end of March.

"All the smartphones being launched by Lava will have more than 1 Ghz processor," the company said in a statement.

Nokia Lumia 920 and the Nokia Lumia 820 are also scheduled for launch in India this month but prices of these phones have not been disclosed by the company yet.