Indosat and Transsion to bring affordable smartphones to Indonesia

Indonesian telco Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison announced on Wednesday it has signed a strategic MoU with Chinese phone maker Transsion Holdings to make affordable smart devices available to Indonesians, particularly in rural and underserved areas.

Xiaomi reportedly revealed plans to invest CNY50 billion (US$6.9 billion) over the next 10 years to develop its own mobile processors, and is set to unveil such chips this week.

Smartphone shipments in Southeast Asia grew 14% year-on-year in Q2 this year reaching 23.9 million units, as the region continues to recover from macroeconomic effects.