Phicomm is making its way to India with its LTE capable Passion 660

Phicomm, another Chinese smartphone brand is heading to India after Xiaomi, Meizu, Coolpad and ZTE. Phicomm is bringing its LTE capable Passion 660 to India at an event in Delhi to be held on June 3rd.

The Chinese invasion in the smartphone space shows the lucrative market India has become especially given the boost in eCommerce with the likes of Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal taking charge with exclusive partnerships. The flash sales model, no matter how much criticism is leveled against it, has become the go-to tool to sell new phones.

Now let's come back to Phicomm. The Passion 660 coming to India features a 5-inch 1080p full-HD IPS display powered by a 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 615 with 2 GB RAM, 32 GB ROM, 13 MP rear and 5 MP front cameras. There's a measly 2300 mAh battery here but it would support 4G LTE networks in India. It runs on Android KitKat. Pricing, although not confirmed, should hover around Rs. 10,000.

Tier 3 players like Micromax, Lava, Karbonn and Intex should take note, because their OEM's and ODM's are making way to India to directly sell devices. Most Indian smartphone companies source their devices from China, and if these Chinese vendors can sell their phones directly, cutting the middle-man's profit share, we might see a decline in market share of Indian companies.

Although the price-wars, competition, cheap-yet-powerful smartphones might seem great for consumers at first, most of these companies don't have adequate service networks here and partner with the likes of multi-brand service outlets like HCL, which generally don't offer a great user experience nor timely service.

Do tell us how you feel about the current state of Chinese smartphone domination in India in the budget space.