Celkon launches Windows smartphone at Rs 4,979

Murali Retineni, executive director of Celkon Mobiles, said 'Win 400', the first Windows phone from Celkon's stable, runs on Windows Phone 8.1 operating system (OS).

"Our plan is to bring more smartphones on the Windows platform. The next in line will be a 5-inch Windows phone, which is currently in the testing stage," Retineni announced in a press conference.

Celkon currently holds a 4 percent share in the Indian smartphones market and is aiming at taking this to between 7 percent and 8 percent by March 2015, he added.

Rajiv Ahlawat, director (mobility), Microsoft India said 'Win 400' would be their most affordable offering. "We would like to develop a larger portfolio of Windows phones in association with Celkon," he said.

Ahlawat said Microsoft is aiming to develop with its partners an ecosystem in India which would place it in a much bigger position in the next six to 12 months.

The new handset features a 4-inch high-definition display, powered by 1.2-gigahertz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 chip set and backed by a 1,500-mAh lithium ion battery. It sports a 5-mega pixel rear camera with LED flash and a 1.3-mega pixel front-facing camera.

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Samsung electronics seeks China turnaround, unveils mid-tier handsets with premium feel

The Galaxy A3 and A5 will be Samsung's first devices to feature fully metal bodies and its thinnest smartphones to date. In size, they are comparable to those of the top-of-the-line Galaxy S5, though of lesser screen resolution quality.

Samsung said on Friday that it will start selling the Galaxy A3 and A5 in China sometime in November. It classified them as mid-tier, and said they will be launched in other "select markets", without disclosing the pricing.

The announcement, combined with hopes for an earnings recovery and bigger dividends, pushed Samsung's shares to a two-month high in Seoul in midday trade on Friday.

The news comes a day after Samsung reported its worst quarterly operating profit in more than three years. Earnings from its handset division slumped 73.9 percent from a year earlier.

The company said its responses to "rapid shifts in the competitive landscape" were not quick enough. It vowed to revamp its offerings.

"For our mid to low-end smartphones we will enhance product competitiveness by differentiating our displays and materials as well as upgrading camera functionality," Senior Vice President Kim Hyun-joon told analysts on Thursday.

The world's smartphone leader is regrouping as it lost market share in annual terms for the third straight quarter in July-September, according to Strategy Analytics.

It has been beaten by Apple Inc's iPhones in the premium segment and undercut by Chinese rivals like Lenovo Group Ltd and Xiaomi Inc at the bottom end.

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