HTC bets big on 4G to strengthen foothold in India

New Delhi, May 26 () Taiwanese handset maker

HTC

is betting big on 4G in India, lining up devices across price points, as part of its efforts to strengthen position in the domestic market. The company today launched a slew of smartphones here priced Rs 13,990 onwards and also unveiled its flagship -- HTC 10 for Rs 52,990. "We didn't have a strong 4G portfolio and we lost some ground in the last 12 months. And the market moved to 4G pretty fast. Now, we have a stronger portfolio and all our phones are 4G-enabled, most are VoLTE compatible as well," HTC President

South Asia

Faisal Siddiqui told . He added that the company's portfolio in the Rs 10,000-30,000 segment is vast and will help it to compete aggressively in the Indian market. VoLTE is voice calls over a 4G LTE network rather than 2G or 3G connections that are usually used. While 4G is usually thought to be more about downloading, streaming and web browsing, VoLTE can help connect calls up to twice as fast and offers better quality as well. India is one of the world's fastest growing smartphone markets. According to research firm IDC, smartphone shipments in the country grew 5.2 per cent to 23.5 million units in January-March 2016 from the year-ago period.

Samsung

led the tally with 26.6 per cent share of the Indian smartphone market, followed by

Micromax

(12.6 per cent),

Intex

(9.2 per cent) and

Lenovo

(with

Motorola

- 8.2 per cent). HTC has also partnered with GDN Enterprises, which has an assembly set up in Noida. It assembles about 70 per cent of its products available in India at the facility. The Taiwanese company today launched HTC One X9 (priced at Rs 25,990) as well as four smartphones under its Desire series. Its flagship -- HTC 10 -- features 2.2 GHz Snapdragon quadcore processor, 4GB RAM, 32GB internal storage (expandable upto 2TB), 12 MP rear and 5MP front camera and 3,000 mAh battery. SR SBT ABI