One of the world's largest clock makers, the Orpat Group, is now foraying into the mobile phone market in the country. For this, the company has collaborated with NXP Semiconductors, the independent company founded by Philips.

Orpat will be entering the market with ultra-low-cost (ULC) and multimedia handsets under its brand name. These phones will be basedon NXP's Nexperia cellular system solutions 5130 and 5211, and will target rural and semi-urban areas. They will offer multimedia capabilities such as stereo recording with FM radio, MP3 and video playback, a mega pixels digital camera interface, USB charging, connect-to-PC, and Bluetooth stereo.

Speaking on the occasion, Nevil Patel, director of Orpat Limited, said, "We believe these phones will provide the next experience in providing feature-rich and multimedia-enabled handsets at competitive price points to a largely untapped and high-potential market outside the mainstream market, and in India's vast rural areas. In the initial phase of the roll-out, we aim to garner a major share of the replacement market in the Indian mobile telephony space.

Orpat plans to sell its mobiles through its existing sales network of about 80 exclusive showrooms and over 50,000 retail outlets.