Beetel Teletech to begin selling its tablet this week at Rs 9,999

NEW DELHI: In what could lead to a possible price war among tablet makers in the Indian market, Beetel Teletech, Bharti Airtel’s handset-making and distribution arm, will begin selling its tablet this week at Rs 9,999, the lowest by any mobile phone maker yet.

The 7-inch Beetel Magiq tablet supports Wi-Fi and 3G and runs on Android, a popular platform used by a majority of tablet makers worldwide including Samsung, HCL, HP and Acer.

The tablet will allow consumers to make calls from any SIM card, regardless of the service provider, which might be a big pull for consumers choosing a tablet over the mobile phone. “The tablet is sim card-agnostic. We are open to tieups with other service providers,” company executive director and chief executive officer Vinod Sawhny said after revealing a bundled offer with Airtel.

Leveraging Bharti Airtel’s legacy of introducing products at the lowest price-points driving competition, Beetel plans to grab a large share in the tablet market with the ultra-competitive price, which is roughly three to four times less than Samsung’s latest 10-inch Galaxy tablet, launched at Rs 36,200, and Apple that is selling the iPad 3G at Rs 46,900.

The Indian tablet market has seen more than half-a-dozen tablet launches over the last several weeks, giving consumers a large array of choice. Larger brands like Motorola Xoom, Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, BlackBerry Play-Book are priced above Rs 25,000.