EDN ASIA

Thursday, October 14, 2004

BUSINESS NEWS :
Quasar to Develop Full-Feature GSM/GPRS Phone

Bangalore based Quasar Innovations Pvt. Ltd. aims to become the first local design house in India to develop a fully feature GSM/GPRS phone. According to Ramakrishna Dutt, managing director, the firm is currently designing a full GSM/GPRS phone for a customer in Europe. It is likely to be released by the middle of next year.

Quasar has been in the telecom business since 2000. It has been focusing on the wireless -- both GSM and CDMA, as well as the optical domains. It has partnerships with various service providers and equipment vendors. Dutt says that once the firm acquired domain expertise in cellular, it became more relevant to get into the software part. This was part of an organic growth in the organization and that took shape in a design house that is Quasar today.

Dutt says: "We have two divisions -- one into network engineering that looks into network planning, RF planning, health checks on networks, network optimization, etc. The other focuses on design. We are designing a full GSM/GPRS for a customer in Europe. The activities started around March 2004. The mobile phone will be released in either Q1 or Q2 of 2005. We are the first local design house in India to develop a full mobile phone."

If things go Quasar's way, Dutt says he might also have the phone manufactured in India.

Regarding the company's model, Dutt says Quasar is a 'virtual ODM'. "We are coming up with a different concept. We are a virtual ODM that provides a 100 percent developed mobile phone. However, we throw in lot of benefits and also customize everything for the customer. We can also oversee manufacturing for the customer, if required. We have a quick turnaround time."

All testing and automation work will be done internally. Quasar is working on the GSM/GPRS phone and later intends to move on to designing and developing CDMA phones as well. The Bluetooth-capable GSM/GPRS phone will be aimed at the high- to mid-end segment and address all requirements of the European market.

Dutt adds that Quasar further plans to design and develop more phones as well as any consumer electronic device -- from concept to delivery.  It is very aggressive in the virtual ODM market. All of the designing work is carried out at the firm's Bangalore center, which currently has 40-45 people. The firm intends to ramp up operations faster in the coming months and work on further improving the time-to-market.