The prices of smartphones have fallen below Rs 10,000, and the smartphone market is poised to see a further slide in prices even as it sees advanced features being increasingly bundled with the phones.

Typically used by businesses or users as email devices, smartphones are more data-centric and have a suite of productivity tools like Word, PDF viewer, voice to text converter and a PC-like web browser.

They also offer features that are common on regular mobile phones, such as easy access to Web-based messaging tools, music players and cameras. And fighting for a share in the 9 million smartphone user base, vendors like High Tech Corporation (HTC), Nokia, Palm, Blackberry, HP agree that price sensitivity and push email would be the top priority for everybody.

By early next year, HTC, Nokia and HP are planning to launch business phones that cost below Rs 10,000. HP India, for instance, is hopeful of introducing a Rs 8,000 worth smartphone by 2008 and slashing its PDA (personal digital assistant) phone prices by 25 per cent.

HP has been a major player in the personal digital assistant (PDA) world, ranking second behind Palm in worldwide PDA sales for the first half of 2007, according to market research firm IDC.

But the rise of smartphones has changed the way PDA makers did business. According to P Raghuraman, country manager (Emerging Business), Personal Systems Group, HP India, "We will be betting big on specific productivity tools. For instance, a logistics company might need application that can track its daily deliveries and we have been actively working on simplifying real-time data syncing over our mobile devices."

"A no frills datacentric device that would be essentially be a great email tool � and priced well below the Rs 10,000 mark � is what users can expect in 2008," says Ajay Sharma, country manager, HTC (India).

Currently focused on enhancing its retail presence by launching HTC experience stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai besides ramping the number of service centres from the existing 14 centres, Sharma is hoping to steal some of Nokia's share by next year.

Converged devices, ones that are driven by datacentric enterprise applications, stand at an estimated 250,000 units per year market for vendors.

"The number will probably touch 450,000 units by next year end, and is going to be ruled by vendors who can manage prices and features without complicating the user interface," reckons Sharma.

Palm too has shifted its approach towards more phone-like devices by expanding into the mobile and smartphone market in the past couple years.

Sharon Ee, business head (South Asia), Palm had shared at the time of Palm's India launch, "Palm would be definitely an aggressive player and would be launching new smartphones on both the Windows Mobile and Linux operating systems that would help the enterprises to configure their mobile workforce better."

According to IDC analysts, "Microsoft's size and strong position as a supplier of enterprise software will push device vendors such as HTC, Samsung, and Palm to attack the core BlackBerry user base." But Blackberry disagrees.

"We are aware of the still under-penetrated market for mobile e-mail and that should provide tremendous growth opportunities for RIM," adds Norm Lo, Asia-Pacific VP of RIM, the makers of Blackberry.

Widespread adoption of smartphones in India is at a tipping point, claims Nokia � by far the dominant player in the mobile phone market. Chakrapani G K, country general manager (Enterprise Solutions), Nokia is confident that Nokia would be able to deliver a newer price category for the business phone segment.

"With E51, we brought a sub-Rs 10,000 phone, without compromising on the software suites. Nokia would probably look at  the Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 price range, but expects the price slide in smartphone market to be inevitable.

"When we entered the market, the average entry cost was around Rs 25,000 in the business phone and the form factor was nothing to boast about," says Chakrapani. It should be very interesting to see how the market divides itself up in the future.