Kochi: A new mobile phone handset is about to hit the market with a slew of accessories. Priced at Rs 5,800 to Rs 34,000, the China-made Mphone sets will have 3D and 4G features.
They will be launched in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra on January 29. The new brand has signed up Amitabh Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar as its ambassadors.
The ‘M’ in Mphone stands for mango and a little bit of Malayalam. The Mphone Electronics and Technologies Limited partner Anto Augustine, who hails from Kalpetta in Wayanad, said the company will soon launch Mwatches and Mpads on the lines of iWatches and iPads. His other partners are Roy Augustine and Josekutty Augustine.
The enterprise with an investment of about Rs 3,500 crore relies on Korean technology to manufacture the devices. The company had its beginnings as a contract manufacturer in China for Korean and European phone makers. The company is venturing into its own branding after four years of contract manufacturing.
The Mphones claim to run for three days without recharging the 6050 MAH batteries. They will also be fitted with 23 MB cameras and unbreakable Gorilla glasses. The 3D features do not require special glasses to make the effect. The phone will have 3 GB ram and 32 GB memory. Its selfie cam is 8 megapixel.
The company has already selected 149 distributors and trained them to run service centres under their limits. The company’s R&D centre is based in Korea. A factory has been set up in Shenzhen in China at a cost of about Rs 700 crore. The development of the phone cost about Rs 250 crore. The phones to be marketed in the first stage were made at a cost of about Rs 2,500 crore.