Setting its eyes on India's growing mobile phone user base, China's largest mobile phone manufacturer, Bird International, on Thursday entered the Indian market with the introduction of four cellular handset models.

"We are targetting an export of close to a million mobile handsets and expect 30-40 per cent to come from India in 2004 and by the end of the current calendar year, we hope to sell 30,000 units," Jean-Alexis Chatelain, director, Bird International, told reporters in New Delhi.

S288, an entry-level model will cost Rs 5,500, while S1120 is priced at Rs 7,500. SC04, an exclusive ladies model with multimedia service features along with GPRS carrying both voice and data is priced at Rs 14,000, while V10 will cost Rs 12,000, Albert Sun, deputy marketing director, Bird, said.

The company will launch another entry-level model at the sub Rs 4,000 level in October this year around the festival time, he said, adding Bird would also unveil CDMA models in India in January.

The company plans to launch one PDA phone carrying voice, data and video in the range of Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 by the last quarter of 2003.

"India is the second largest mobile market in the world and Bird through its product, value proposition and string partnership will build a large marketshare here within a year," K P Wong, managing director, Bird said.

Other features of the models that are being launched include the SMS remote control functions that operate even from a distance. The three SMS remote control functions comprise retrieval of missed calls, unread SMS messages and phone switch-offs activated by remote SMS message.

The other three models have also dual screen display and Chinese zodiac screen saver and polyphonic ring tones.

The company has tied up with Agrani Convergence and CD Services as its distributor for the retail channel. Agrani has 50 stores across the country.

Bird, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchnage has a marketshare of 15 per cent in China and an annual revenue of $845 million with a workforce of 13,000.

It clocked sales of 7 million units in 2002 and has already sold over 6 million units during the first half of 2003 in China.