FIRSTOUCH: World’s First Regional Smartphone makes Indian entry with Gujarati

·      Ex-IITians launch a Smartphone branded Firstouch as the “World’s First Regional Smartphone".

·      Patented swipe technology now Translates AND Transliterates messages from English to Gujarati and vice versa.

·      Has a 48-key virtual keyboard that's designed to easily type matra & characters.

·      The predictive typing technology ensures that as you type Gujarati words, it assists you in finishing the words along with the correct Matra and also gives you the next probable words.

·      Firstouch has tied up with AIRTEL to offer customers 512mb/month data free for three months &talktime worth Rs 25

·      All Firstouch consumers would also get one US number for life time and Rs. 100 international talk time, powered by Jaxtr’s Mobile App

 A Mumbai firm founded by three former IIT graduates is giving the Smartphone industry a desi makeover. Firstouch, their made-for-India device, has an indigenously designed OS [operating system] that caters to a population that is not comfortable with English as a language for communication. Two years of rigorous research and efforts have gone into creating an OS that would now cater to Indians who don’t count English as their first, second or third language of communication [only a tenth of our population count English as their first, second or third language].

Rakesh Deshmukh, Akash Dongre and Sudhir Bangarambandi, who have developed and patented the virtual keyboard and the predictive matra engine that goes along with it, are aiming to break the language barrier with the phone. The team has done many rounds of consumer studies& has been able to precisely locate the pain points the consumers have with the interfaces that are currently available in Smartphones. The Phone Interface on Firstouch thushas evolved after extensive research and observation as to how a common man in India uses his smartphone. It’s the simplest user interface available and has a zero learning curve.

The 48-key virtual keyboard in Firstouch devices is ergonomically designed to accommodate Indian alphabets & all its matras in one single screen. Unlike the linguistic key boards available in other brands, Firstouch users now need not toggle between various screens to type an alphabet along with its matra

Speaking on the launch, the elated Mr Rakesh Deshmukh, CEO & Co-Founder, Firstouch said “It’s an honor & pride for us and India as a country to introduce World’s first Regional Smartphone, made for the people of India, by the people of India in Gujarati language to begin with”

“Firstouch – World’s First Regional Smartphone has been designed keeping in mind the challenges faced by millions of Indian customers. With customized Indian language operating system, fastest typing Indic keyboard ever designed in history, embedded translation services and regional language app bazaar, it is the first Smartphone that offers an easy to use phone experience for first timer Smartphone user,”  added Mr. Deshmukh.

The predictive text and swipe technology on Firstouch is far more complex and advanced than anything the trio has done before. It's capable of translating messages written in a local language to English with a left swipe, and transliterating it by swiping right.

“No current Smartphone allows users to translate a message from English to an Indian language and vice versa. This is the only unique home grown breakthrough Language Swipe technology that will revolutionize the complete Smartphone industry and will herald a new era in the growth path of Smartphones not only in India but also Internationally. Firstouch is the first regional Smartphone which will bring millions of rural and semi urban customers, a perfect smartphone, made in their language.”

The company has also taken care of the ABC [Astrology, Bollywood & Cricket] in the devices before bringing them to the market. The devices come pre-bundled with an astrology application from Ganeshaspeaks.com. The Bollywood content is powered by an application from Hungama Mobiles. Cricket and various other games are available on Firstouch’s own App Bazaar through partners like Disney, EA [Electronic Arts], Nazara Games, Hungama and various others.

Firstouch’s own App Bazaar is integrated with the Telco’s payment gateways. Thus, consumer need not have a credit card to purchase any application or game from the App Bazaar.

Customers buying the Firstouch device with an Airtel  connection can enjoy additional benefits of 500 MB of free 2G data and a talktime worth Rs. 25/-per month for 3 months.The offer can be activated by sending the SMS <FT> to 51619 and will be applicable to both existing and new Airtel prepaid customers.

For consumers who have friends and relatives abroad, Firstouch phone is a must have. Every Firstouch phone comes with one US number for lifetime and a Rs. 100 free international talk time. This is powered by Jaxtr mobile application that is pre-bundled with Firstouch A10.

The first batch of Firstouch phones, model A10, will be for Gujarati users and will be available in stores in Saurashtra & Kutch from this week, priced at Rs 6,000.

Formed in 2008, MoFirst Solutions has developed Firstouch in every aspect of the product. Other products developed by MoFirst include mobile trading platform for Motilal Oswal Securities in 2012, m-commerce and m-ticketing solutions and more.