The level of competition in the smartphone market in India has gone up by a few notches with Samsung and Apple announcing the launch of Galaxy S II and iPhone 4, respectively.

While Samsung's latest phone is priced at Rs 32,890, the Apple product starts at Rs 34,500.

Announcing the introduction of Galaxy S II model, Mr Ranjit Yadav, Country Head, Samsung Mobile & IT, said: “With Galaxy S II, Samsung wants to set new standards of quality viewing and powerful performance on mobiles packed in a slim and modern design.”

The Samsung phone uses Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the latest version of the world's fastest-growing mobile operating system.

Incorporating a 1.2GHz dual-core application processor and HSPA (high speed packet access) connectivity, the phone has been equipped with an 8MP, high-profile camera and camcorder with 1080p full HD recording and playback.

Reader's hub

Samsung has created a ‘reader's hub,' which provides over 2.2 million books and novels, 2,000 global and local newspapers in 49 languages and 2,300 popular magazines in 22 languages.

“We are commencing the online pre-bookings for Galaxy S II. Consumers can pre-book a Galaxy S II online for Rs 1,000 and get exclusive online offers.Galaxy S II will be exclusively available across the Vodafone channel from June 3 and across the Samsung Smartphone channel from June 9 on a pan-India basis,” Mr Yadav said. Consumers buying a Galaxy S II will get 1GB of 3G data download free a month for six months from Vodafone.

New pricing model

The iPhone4 is being launched on Aircel's network starting May 27 with a new pricing model. Following an upfront payment of Rs 34,500 for the 16GB model and Rs 40,900 for the 32GB model, customers will have the opportunity to recover 100 per cent of their upfront iPhone cost in monthly credits on their service plan over 24 months.

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