It has been more than a year since Gionee release it's flagship device Elife E7. Though the Chinese mobile phone company has been refreshing its 'S' series, comprising slim phones on a short intervals, it has not upgraded its flagship smartphone range yet.
So, the company decided to launch its next flagship device, the successor to Elife E7 in next quarter. Gionee's president William Lu said, "The company's new flagship phone will be released in June 2015 globally, including India."
William Lu claimed that the Gionee has 4% market share in India and they would be launching its new flagship after almost 18 months of Elife E7 because the forthcoming model would not just be an incremental upgrade, but a completely new,redesigned device, that will "compete with the best".
However Gionee has not unveil the hardware specifications, Elife E8 is expected to sport a 5.7- to 6-inch IPS LCD display. Rumoured to be powered by an octa-core processor and 3GB RAM, the device could feature an 18MP rear camera and a 10MP front-camera along with a 3000mAh battery.
Gionee has set aside an initial investment of around Rs 300 crore for the factory. It has so far invested Rs 200 crore on its Indian operations and employs about 70 employees. Interestingly, Foxconn's recently shut down plant in Chennai too is on Gionee's radar for starting its manufacturing. Other possible locations are in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat and Goa/Karnataka.