Orpat Group and NXP Semiconductors join hands to launch mobile handsets in India

Mumbai: Orpat Group, the world's largest clock maker under the Ajanta brand, has eneterd into the mobile handsets business in collaboration with NXP Semiconductors, who will supply low-cost chips for the Orpat handsets.

Orpat will use NXP's Nexperia Cellular System Solutions 5130 and 5211 to launch ultra-low-cost (ULC) and mobile multimedia handset models in India under the Orpat brand, to manily tap rural consumers.

The company will upgrade to the more advanced 49xx single-chip solution from NXP later in this year.

The Nexperia Cellular System solution 5130 features a wide range of applications and connectivity. The handset minimises power consumption to deliver industry-leading standby and talk times targeting faster entry into the ULC market.

The Nexperia Cellular System Solution 5211 based handsets will offer advanced and affordable multimedia capability to mobile handset users such as stereo recording from FM radio, MP3 and video playback, a mega-pixel digital camera interface, USB charging, connect-to-PC and Bluetooth stereo for a complete, vibrant multimedia offering.

Apart from the system solution, NXP will share with Orpat insight into the India handset market in terms of feature requirements and differentiators, the handset ecosystem and the partnerships necessary. The first batch of handsets has been a commercial success during the pilot phase in India.
 
Speaking on the collaboration and launch, Nevil Patel, director, Orpat Limited, said, ''We are glad to collaborate with NXP in our foray into the Indian mobile phone segment and NXP's Nexperia cellular solutions are key to the success of our launch strategy.

"We believe these phones will provide the next experience in providing feature-rich and multimedia-enabled handsets at competitive price points to a largely untapped and high potential market – outside the mainstream market and in India's vast rural areas. In the initial phase of the roll out, we aim to garner a major share of the replacement market in the Indian mobile telephony space,'' he added.

According to industry reports, mobile users in Indian mobile subscribers will be at 500 Million by 2010, of which rural India will account for around 35 percent. With its rural consumer insights, Orpat will aim to strengthen the Orpat brand and harness its 50,000-strong retailer distribution network and service capabilities to roll out the newly launched phones.

Ashok Chandak, director, global sales, NXP Semiconductors, stated, ''Orpat is  a well known Indian household brand and Nexperia-based Ultra Low Cost (ULC) systems have the most extensively proven designs available globally, making the combination perfectly positioned to target rural and semi-urban Indian markets. At NXP, we constantly engage with customers, helping them identify opportunities in new product segments for different markets. We leverage our expertise to create semiconductor ecosystems that eventually help build business models for our clients with strong value based propositions. The collaboration with Orpat is a clear example of our commitment to enable home-grown Indian brands to enter new market segments and facilitate locally branded solutions.''