MediaTek to bring Facebook on low-cost devices

New Delhi: Taiwanese chip-maker MediaTek has announced its partnership with Facebook under which the social networking website will be available on entry-level devices.      

Facebook would be embedded into MediaTek's mobile platform solution MRE  which would form a part of affordable low cost handsets, MediaTek Corporate Vice President Cheng-Te Chuang told reporters.       MediaTek is working with handset brands including Spice Group and Micromax in India to roll out the MRE solution. While Micromax would launch its first handsets with the embedded solution by the end of this month, Spice plans to launch them next month.       "Micromax would be launching three devices by the end of this month. They will be priced below Rs 5,000,"  Micromax Mobile Business Director Vikas Jain said.       Spice, on the other hand, would launch 1-2 handsets next month.       "We'll launch 1-2 devices with the new mobile solution next month. They'll be priced below Rs 5,000. Going forward, we are looking at mobile devices in the range of Rs 2,000-8,000," Spice Mobility Managing Director Dilip Modi said.       Modi added that they are also talking to mobile operators for bundling of the new device with data plans.       Last year, phones powered by MediaTek chipsets accounted for over 40 percent of the Indian handset market, the company said, adding that with this partnership it expects more than half of its customers in India to adopt its MRE solution.       Facebook Mobile Partnerships and Corporate Development Vice President Vaughan Smith said, "The partnership is important to us to add new facebook users. We expect the next million users to come from mobile device and that India would soon overtake Indonesia and the US to become our biggest market." PTI