Airtel to bundle services with Palm Treo 750

NEW DELHI: US-based Palm Inc, a leading high-end mobile handset maker, Tuesday entered an exclusive agreement with Bharti Airtel Ltd, India's leading telecom service provider, to market its Treo 750 smartphone in India.

The Windows Mobile-based smartphone will cost Rs.26,990.

"India is a lucrative market for any global telecom service provider fighting for a space out here," Sharon Ee, head of business, South Asia, Palm Inc, told a press conference here.

"We have signed an exclusive agreement with Airtel to penetrate the Indian market," Ee added.

The smartphone segment in India is poised to grow to $2.7 billion by 2011 with a sales rate of about 9.2 million units, according to company estimates.

Airtel had earlier entered a similar agreement for providing bundled services with BlackBerry and HTC.

The $1.56-billion Palm Inc entered the Indian market first in 1999.