Tendulkar-backed Smartron launches t.phone, its second consumer offering

Smartron India, a company founded by Mahesh Lingareddy, Rohit Rathi and Narsi Posham and backed by investor and brand ambassador Sachin Tendulkar, has launched its second product, the t.phone.

Bangalore-based Smartron, which launched its first product  - t.book – which is the Indian equivalent to Surface Pro 4 – launched the t.phone at an event in Hyderabad on 19 May in the presence of Sachin Tendulkar and minister of IT for the state of Telangana, KT Rama Rao.

Priced at Rs22,999, the t.phone will come with Smartron's tron.x platform bundled in and is available in dual tone colour design - coming in four colours such as classic grey, metallic pink, steel blue and sunrise orange.

Featuring Android Marshmallow operating system, 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, octacore CPU, and 4GB RAM, the device has a 5.5-inch display, and can be seamlessly connected with a wide variety of devices and electronic goods which will soon be part of the 't-home' experience.

Unveiling the mobile phone on Thursday, founder-chairman of Smartron, Mahesh Lingareddy said the phone is ''totally designed and engineered in India'', and that manufacturing too will very soon be shifted to India.

The company is very closely working with Foxconn, for shifting the manufacture to India, after offshore manufacturing of about 10,000 phones.

Reddy also revealed plans to launch the phone in Middle East, Russia and South East Asia.

''Being the Skill India campaigner, I welcome the product which is totally engineered and designed in India.'' Sachin Tendulkar said while speaking on the occasion. He noted how smartphones have made life easier by increasing accessibility of people constantly on the move. Phone controlling the life and homes, seems unreal, though it is becoming a reality, he added.

Telangana minister for information technology KT Rama Rao assured his support to the company, and expressed hope that more globally competitive products will emerge from the city-based ventures.