China-based telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei today announced the establishment of a product development centre here that will design and develop software and test mobile handsets for the Indian market, where it plans to build the brand in a big way.

This centre would take up entire design of the phones, the software that gets inside and end-to-end testing of the products for the Indian market, the Huawei India Device Business Department Director-Sales, Mr P. Sanjeev, told reporters here.

However, manufacturing would be done in China. He said the company was trying to marry the “best of both worlds” — the software strength of India and the manufacturing muscle of China.

Huawei today launched three smartphones for the Indian market — IDEOS X5, IDEOS X2 and IDEOS Chat — targeted at young consumers in the city and said it would launch eight to ten mobile handset models this year.

“We will target smartphones, tablets as well as 3G-featured phones (in India),” the Huawei India Device Business Department Director-Marketing & Solutions, Mr Anand Narang, said.

Mr Sanjeev said the company would focus on phones costing above Rs 5,000.

Mr Narang said the company would launch tablets in India in the third quarter (July-September) of this year.

Huawei is aiming at a 5-7 per cent market share in the Indian mobile handsets market by 2013.

Meanwhile, the company said the IDEOS X5 smartphone, priced at Rs 14,999, is targeted at young professionals, while the touch screen IDEOS X2 (Rs 8,999) is for the youth.

The IDEOS Chat (Rs 8,199), with both a touch screen and qwerty keypad, would be focused for younger and on-the-go consumers.

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