Qiku eyes 1 mn handset sales in India; to strengthen R&D

NEW DELHI: Qiku, a joint venture between Qihoo 360 Technology and China's Coolpad Group, today said it expects to sell one million units of Qiku branded smartphones in India in its maiden year as it forays into the heavily contested domestic smartphone market.

The company has launched its first device, Qiku Terra 808, priced at Rs 19,999 onwards in India.

"India is a very important market. While the Chinese market is somewhat flat now, the Indian market is still on a growth curve. We have a differentiated offering and in the first year, we hope to sell one million devices," Qiku Global Vice President Alex Qian told PTI.

He added that the company will expand its product portfolio in India in the coming months.

"India will be the top market for us in the next 18 months. We are strengthening our presence in the country, concentrating on R&D. For after sales, we have over 200 service centres in place already," Qian said.

Coolpad, which holds a minority stake in the venture, is one of China's largest mobile phone companies. Coolpad had launched a sub-brand of Qiku called 'Dazen' in India earlier this year.

Qiku launched two new smartphones -- Q Terra and q Luna in China in August this year.

On competition with its group brand, Qian said both Dazen and Qiku can coexist.

"There are other companies which have two brands and are doing well. If you position the devices differently, it can work," he said.

The phone -- Terra 809 -- will go on sale through an invite system starting December 5 on online electronics platform, Gadgets 360 for Rs 19,999.

The company is also making the device available without invite in open sale for Rs 21,999.

The device features a six-inch display, 360 OS (based on Android Lollipop), 1.82 GHz hexacore Snapdragon processor, 3GB RAM, 16GB memory (expandable upto 128GB), 3,700mAh battery, 8MP front camera and a fingerprint scanner.

The phone features dual 13MP cameras on the rear, one sensor captures colour while the second one is black and white sensor.

"This helps capture images with better details and improved low light photos," Qiku India CEO Varun Sharma said.

The customised OS also offers features like permission manager, battery saving mode and a heat source tracking.