Huawei, the Chinese telecom infrastructure vendor, has announced the launch of 20 new phones that it will retail under its own brand in India. The phones, based on Qualcomm’s chipsets, have been classified under two sub-brands – Hang Out and Android. The Hang Out series will have phones in the entry and mid-level segment in GSM, 3G and CDMA varieties. Huawei will retail these phones across India from August 1. The vendor already manufactures cellphones and USB modems for carriers in India.



Huawei will start selling its Android range of smartphones around Diwali, which is like the Christmas holiday season in India. The company has a handful of Android smartphones, which will start from Rs 8,000 and go up to Rs 15,000. Most of the phones will run on Android 2.1 (at the time of launch).



We liked the build quality of most of these Android phones, which were much more refined than most of the stuff these ‘homegrown handset brands’ serve from their Chinese OEM partners. However, Huawei is just another ‘new’ Chinese brand for Indian consumers and it will be challenging for Huawei to project itself as a consumer-centric handset brand in India, which is already bubbling with close to a hundred cellphone brands.



We believe Huawei’s best bet lies in bundling its Android smartphones with carriers with 3G spectrum, who are expected to launch their 3G networks in key cities around Diwali.