Samsung rolls out credit card sized mobile

The surging handset market in India has attracted many major handset manufacturing companies to come up with new technologies and hardware. Of them, one is Samsung Telecommunications India (STI), which has expressed its intentions to increase the capacity of their handset manufacturing facility in Manesar, Gurgaon from the current 1.2 million units a year to 3 million by next year.

To lure the fashion conscious consumers in Indian market, STI has also rolled out a credit card size handset called SGH-P310. Equipped with a dual battery, stylish exteriors and cutting-edge features, the card-sized phone is available for Rs. 21,499.

This tiny phone is merely 8.5 mm thick and has an array of unique features like 1.9-inch 262K QVGA colour screen, touch sensor soft key, 2 megapixel camera, quadband, bluetooth wireless support, e-mail, direct TV Out, privacy lock and mobile printing. With dazzling chrome and black exterior, the phone gives looks like a sleek and smart credit card.

Speaking at an event in New Delhi on Thursday, Ryu, managing director, STI told about the company’s intentions to launch the phone. He said, "The launch of SGH-P310 reinforces our commitment to deliver cutting-edge technologies, superiorly designed mobiles with extended battery life to the Indian business and working professionals. P310 is loaded with the latest multimedia features, with a unique iconic design. Its mini-compact size with essential multimedia features meets Samsung's highest standards of quality."

Besides supporting all popular office formats like MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, HTML, and Standard Image formats, the phone has 80 MB of internal memory and slot for external memory that provides wider space to store business presentations, video footage, or MP3 songs. And an engrafted software, Piscel Viewer, enables access to business critical information in a seamless, graphically rich format.

To display the recorded video films, images, office documents, and games to be played on the television screen or through a data projector, the phone is equipped with a feature called "Direct TV Out," which can also be used to play MP3 melodies on hi-fi audio systems.

Telling about company’s plan to launch seven more handsets this year and display about 40 handsets at Mobile Asia, which begins on October 13 in New Delhi, Mr. Ryu, said: “India is a very critical market for Samsung Telecommunications India where we will keep launching premium colour and camera phones.”