Hyundai rolls out mobile handsets

After riding high in the domestic automobiles market, Hyundai Corporation, a South Korean chaebol, is entering into new businesses in India.

The company on Tuesday announced its foray into the booming mobile handsets business by forging a marketing and distribution alliance.

The $25 billion group, which has a presence in construction, chemicals, shipping, consumer electronics and information technology, had recently tied up with the Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) Videocon group for bringing its consumer electronics products to India.

Hyundai India Telecom, the sole licensee, will focus on high-end GSM and CDMA mobile phone handsets, PDAs and smart phones. The company also plans to introduce 3i mobile products, DECT phones and wi-fi laptops.

Hyundai Corporation is also looking at the possibility of setting up a mobile handset manufacturing unit in India in the next couple of years.

H W Joo, general manager, Hyundai Corporation, said, "We are looking at setting up a 40 million units per annum manufacturing plant in India. Although, we have not yet finalised on the location. In all probability, it could be Bangalore. And the investment would be around $50 million."

Hyundai's foray into mobile handset making comes close to the rival LG Electronics' announcement that it too will be setting up a GSM handset facility in India.

The Hyundai range of mobile phones will be endorsed by Bollywood superstar Suniel Shetty, who is also on the board of Hyundai India Telecom.

KP Jayaram, co-promoter of Hyundai India Telecom, said, "The company is in the process of 100 distributors and setting up 70 service centres across the country." Jayaram had also introduced LG's FMCG business in India.

Hyundai India Telecom plans to introduce 20 GSM handset models in the next three months. The products are priced between Rs 3,590 to a lakh depending upon its features. The worldwide handset sales are expected to reach 650 million units (GSM & CDMA) in 2004, and in India it is targetted at 10 million units.