Exclusive: Sony Xperia C To Release in India By Mid October 2013

The world's leading smartphone vendor - Sony Corp - seems intent on making India its next hub, when it comes to "connected devices." An early debut of Xperia Z1, company's new flagship camera phone speaks loud about how critical India as a market is for the Japanese giant.

Now to further solidify its position in the mid-segment smartphone market, Sony is about to release Xperia C, it's affordable smartphone in India soon. Till now, the release time frame of the upcoming handset was not confirmed, however; now GizBot has got some exclusive information on the same.

Yesterday at the Sony Xperia Z1 launch event in India, a senior executive over at the company, who wishes to remain anonymous, exclusively told GizBot that MediaTek SoC powered Xperia C is coming to India in mid-October. He informed that it completely depends on the shipment of the device and consequently Sony is planning to release the handset in Indian market sometime around second week of October.

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While, the executive was mum about the pricing of the device, GizBot is expecting the price to be around Rs. 16,990.

The Xperia C is a critical handset for Sony because for the first time this vendor has come up with MediaTek SoC based phone. Whether Sony agrees or not, the Xperia C will directly compete with smartphones marketed by Indian tech vendors, here in India.

Most of the Indian tech vendor and China based manufacturers favor MediaTek chipset, when compared to Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC. Taiwan-based MediaTek commands 50 % market share in low-end to mid-end smartphones, especially in countries in India, China and other emerging nations.

MediaTek competes with San Diego, CA, based Qualcomm, the world's biggest chipset manufacturer for mobile devices. MediaTek has already launched octa-core MT6592 chipset with 4G LTE support. Reports say that soon MediaTek will overtake Qualcomm to become the largest chipset manufacturer.

For Sony, India is an important place to be considering South Korean giant Samsung now enjoys 26% of smartphone market share( via IDC). The competition between the two tech giant is now visible; both Sony and Samsung launched their big ticket handsets alongside much talked about smart watches immediately after IFA tech show.

Samsung is definitely a competition in front of Sony, but the biggest hindrance in front of Japanese giant are Indian tech vendors such as Micromax, Karbonn and Lava , among others. All these players have occupied top positions in the Indian smartphone market. According to a report by International Data Corporation (IDC), Micromax is the second most popular smartphone vendor in India with 22 % market share. A close to 9.3 million smartphones shipped in the Q3 2013. Sony ranks No. 5 (as per market share) smartphone vendor in India.

Click Here For New Sony Xperia C Smartphone Gallery

Clearly, India is indeed a favorable place to do business, and for an International vendor like Sony, there is enough room for growth. In the past few months, we saw end new handsets launched by Sony for the Indian consumers.

Devices like Xperia Z, Xperia ZR, Xperia Z Ultra and now Xperia Z1, are premium priced handsets. On the other hand, Sony Xperia SP, Xperia L and Xperia M come at an affordable price tag. The Xperia M retails for Rs. 13,990, whereas the Xperia SP is priced at Rs. 23,990. The dual SIM version of Xperia M is yet to be made available in the Indian market.

Sony Xperia C - Highlighted specifications

The Xperia C was originally announced for the Chinese market earlier this year. It was exclusively made available at select carriers. After tasted waters with Xperia L and Xperia M , Sony is all set to launch Xperia C in India - most probably mid-October.

The Xperia C boasts off a 5-inch QHD display having resolution of 960 x 540 pixels. It will be powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589 chipset (MG SGX544 graphics) coupled with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of ROM (expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card). The phone also comes with an 8-mega pixel rear facing camera with Sony's Exmor R lens and LED Flash light. Also add a VGA quality front facing camera.

The Chinese version of Xperia C was launched with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. We're expecting Sony to launch Xperia C with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, when it comes to the Indian shores in mid-October. Other connectivity features include: 3G, dual SIM, Wi-Fi, micro USB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 2390mAh Li Ion battery. Stay tuned to GizBot for more updates.

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