CoolPad, which recently launched a CDMA Android phone through Reliance Communications, plans to launch a 5 inch CDMA-GSM dual mode Android phone which is said to be something in between a tablet and a smartphone.
Talking to The Mobile Indian, Sami Al Lawati, managing director of CoolPad Communications, said, “We want to launch our 5 inch Android smartphone in the Indian market as we see a lot of potential for CDMA smartphones for people who are data hungry and have experienced CDMA data cards before and now want to use them on their smartphone.”
He said, “The phone will be a high end product, which will rival the likes of LG and Samsung in terms of quality, performance and features. We are looking at the Rs 25,000-price bracket for this phone.”
The phone, codenamed CoolPad 9930, is aimed at both the 7 inch-tablet and the 4+ inch-smartphone market. Dell had also tried a similar product with Dell Streak 5 but the device did not do as well as expected. The odds against CoolPad’s potential for success are that the CDMA business is already struggling in India, and that the brand is relatively unknown.
The smartphone definitely fills a void in CDMA operator Reliance’s product portfolio as there are very few CDMA smartphones available in the country and none at this price.
The company claims that the new smartphone’s 5 inch, 16:9 full-view ASV (advanced super view technology developed by Sharp) screen delivers a control and visual experience not inferior to Apple’s products. The phone will be run on Android 2.3 and will have quad Band 3G support and other Android regulars like WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and Google’s software suite with products like Google Maps, Gmail, Android Market etc.
What is still not known is which Processor the phone uses, and since performance ultimately depends on the processor, we will wait and watch for the device to be launched.