HTC, Taiwanese smartphone and tablet maker, wants a pie of the mid-range smartphone segment in India and will be introducing handsets in the Rs 8,000-15,000 price range.

"We are looking to start from about Rs 8,000. We are hoping to gain 7.5-8 per cent share in this category (Rs 8,000-Rs 15,000) in the next six months," HTC President (Global Sales) Chia-Lin Chang told reporters in New Delhi after launching the company's mid-range One A9 and budget Desire 828 smartphones on Thursday, 26 November.

The company does not have a presence in the sub-Rs 10,000 segment, unlike other entrenched players such as Xiaomi, Motorola, Lenovo and Micromax.

Eyeing the segment that accounts for about 65% of the overall smartphone market in one of the fastest growing markets of the world, he said, "If we can capture 2 per cent of the budget phones sold in India, we will have a huge growth momentum in India taking our global revenues higher," reports PTI.

Smartphone shipments to India during the quarter ended September 2015 stood at 28.3 million units, up 21.4% in the corresponding period last year, according to IDC.

Samsung was the market leader with a 13.1% share, followed by Micromax.

In the quarter ended June 2015, smartphone shipments to India were 26.5 million units. IDC had also estimated that India would overtake the US as the second largest smartphone market by 2017.