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Haier India forays into the mobile space
MUMBAI: The home appliance major Haier, touted as the second largest home appliances brand in the world, today unveiled seven GSM state of the art mobile phones officially foraying into the mobile handset segment in India. The range of phones include entry level cost effective phones like Z 100 offering a standby time of 18 days to a handset that comes with FM radio to high end models like the P 7 which is said to be the world’s first pen phone with 300K pixel camera and a dicta phone.
Haier mobile phones are being launched all over India in a span of 15 days. Haier arrived in India in June 2004.
Speaking on the occasion Haier India president and CEO TK Banerjee said, “It is our pleasure to be a part of the rapidly growing Indian cellular industry. We hope to have a significant presence in the Indian mobile telephony segment by the end of year. We hope that our phones with their unique features which have made them popular worldwide will also be widely welcomed by the Indian consumers. Introduction of mobile phones also reflect Haier India’s commitment to provide best and latest technology to Indian consumers.”
Haier India director Pranay Dhabhai added, ” Haier has a vast range of mobile phone models and these seven models are most suited for the Indian market as they cater to the requirement of all segments and user needs. Our entire range of mobile phones comprising over sixty models is designed to meet individual customer requirements.”
The company officials also stated that the aim was to be among the top four players who constitute 90 per cent of the market today. Coming to distribution, Haier has tied up with Trust Telecom who will act as the national distributor for the company’s mobile arm. A nation wide after sales service network has already been set up, which is in the process of expansion.
A full range of CDMA phones will be launched in three months.
The base line for Haier mobile phones is coined as ‘Talk your talk’. The company also enjoys strategic alliances for component sourcing with Intel, Fujitsu and other world leaders.
MAM
Sameer Nair shares heartfelt note as he exits Applause Entertainment
After nine years building the streamer’s content engine, one of India’s best-known TV men is moving on
MUMBAI: Sameer Nair is out. The chief executive of Applause Entertainment, the content studio backed by Kumar Mangalam Birla’s media empire, has announced his departure after nearly nine years at the helm, closing the chapter on one of Indian entertainment’s more quietly consequential careers.
Nair, who built Applause from the ground up in its current avatar, oversaw a slate that spanned Indian originals and international adaptations, threading together a hub-and-spoke business model that partnered with streaming platforms, broadcasters and production houses alike. The results were uneven, as they always are in content, but the ambition was not.
In a post on LinkedIn, Nair was generous to his outgoing patron. He thanked Birla for being an “inspirational boss and a great patron of the arts,” and signed off with a cheerful “Au Revoir” and a promise to remain Applause’s biggest cheerleader. Whether that sentiment survives the next chapter remains to be seen.
No successor has been named. Applause Entertainment did not immediately comment.
Nair built the machine. Now someone else has to run it — and in a streaming market that is simultaneously consolidating and convulsing, that is no small ask.
