Seeing the growing popularity of the touch-screen phones, Nokia is planning to strengthen its portfolio of touch-screen phones in the cell phone market of India. The Finnish mobile handset manufacturer is aiming to launch at least 4-to-5 new touchscreen phones, in the Indian market, in the mid-to-high end segment in 2009.

The director (marketing), Nokia India, Vineet Taneja says that Nokia is out to cash the growing popularity of touch phones in India. The company is confident that touch-screen phones can help boost its revenue in India.

Taneja says, "Studies have indicated that touch phones will account for nearly 40% of the Indian market by 2012. This represents a huge opportunity and we too will evolve our portfolio accordingly. We were waiting for the touch technology to mature before going full steam. Now is the right moment.”

According to Taneja, the upcoming touch phones will be focused on enterprise, music and multimedia segment. The new touch devices will use the Symbian S60 smartphone operating system S60, but the company planning to roll out a few touch phones running S40 OS. The new Nokia touch-screen phones will have larger screens to allow the use of multiple applications simultaneously.

Nokia is considering the possibilities to market touch phones at the under-Rs 10K price in India. Presently, Nokia has two touch-screen phones – 5800XpressMusic and 6208 Classic – in the Indian market. Nokia N97 will be launched in the near future. These touch phones are priced upwards of Rs 13K. Taneja says, “Pricing is a dynamic factor and there are possibilities of launching sub-Rs 10,000 touch handsets next year.”

Nokia’s plan to launch new touch phones in India, is based on an extensive study focused on the consumer behaviour towards touch phones. The IDC study articulates that the shipments of touch phones in India surged from 0.7% of total mobile phone shipments in 2007 to 1% in 2008.