New Delhi, Jan 7 (IANS) Seeking to “dissolve the language barrier”, domestic handset-maker Karbonn on Thursday launched a smartphone that allows non-English speaking users the comfort of accessing the device in their first language.
Available at an affordable price-point of Rs.3,990, the K9 Smart offers users the option to navigate the device in up to 12 Indian languages and the flexibility to choose from 21 Indian languages for typing input, a company statement said.
“With the launch of K9 Smart, we aim to dissolve the language barrier which is one of the major impediments inhibiting Smartphone adoption amongst non-English speaking population,” said Shashin Devsare, Karbonn Mobiles’ executive director, at the launch of the device here.
According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the local language user base grew 47 percent and touched 127 million in June last year.
“The growing consumption of local language content on mobile phones is a clear indicator of the need for vernacularising the Smartphone ecosystem for bridging the gaping digital divide. With K9 Smart launch we aim to bridge this divide by offering Indian users an affordable smartphone device which offers access in their native language for ease of use thereby encouraging adoption,a¿ Devsare added.
K9 Smart also enables users to search and add contacts in upto 11 Indian languages. With smartphones becoming an important source of news and information, the device offers the option to access news and magazines on Newshunt and enjoy cricket commentary, score and live updates on CricBuzz in six languages of their choice.
Users can also access various utility and social apps like Google Maps, YouTube, Facebook and Whatsapp in various Indian languages.
K9 Smart comes with a 12.4 cm screen, 1.2 GHz quad core processor and 2300 mAh Li-ion battery. The smartphone is packed with an internal memory of 8GB which is expandable to 32 GB. It offers a 3.2 MP rear camera with flash and a 1.3MP front camera. The device has dual SIM support with faster 3G connectivity with bundling offers from leading network operators.
