Nokia has forayed into the dual-SIM mobile phones market that is mostly flooded with handsets made locally and imported from China.

“Yes, we are a late entrant in the dual-SIM segment but with our affordable price point we can achieve leadership position quickly,” Mr Prakash Katama, Director, Chennai Factory, Nokia India, he told newspersons on the launch of its ‘Made in India' dual SIM phones.

Nokia launched two entry-level variants of its dual-SIM mobiles. The C2-00 will be priced below Rs 3,000 while the other model Nokia X1-01 will be priced below Rs 2,000, said Mr Katama. The exact price is still being worked out and the new mobiles will hit the market in a few days, he said at the Nokia Chennai factory in Sriperumbudur, near here.

The need for dual SIM mobiles has been a long-felt demand of consumers as one can be used for data and service while the other for voice and SMS. Both the devices come with services such as Nokia Life Tools that provide consumers a wide range of information covering healthcare, agriculture, education and entertainment. Nokia X1-01 comes with Nokia Money to offer financial independence to entry consumers.

Quoting the research firm IDC, Mr Katama said dual SIM constitutes nearly 40 per cent of the mobile market – India has around 160 million mobile handsets.

“Bundling of SIM cards with mobile handsets at an entry price starting from Rs 500 and upwards, and the affordable lifetime connection plans caused a surge in new mobile connections,” said Mr Naveen Mishra, Lead India Telecoms Analyst at CyberMedia Research, recently.

More than a third of handsets sold in the country during the quarter ended December 31, 2010 were a dual- or triple-SIM slot phone as compared to less than one in hundred multi-SIM mobile phone sales in the quarter ended March 31, 2009, he said.

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