New Delhi: Taiwanese handset maker Asus will start contract manufacturing in India soon, having identified the country as one of its top three smartphone markets, thanks to its mobile phone subscriber base of a whopping 980 million, a top official has said.

"We should able to zero in on a partner be it Foxconn or any manufacturer by the end of third quarter of this calendar year and actually start delivering the phones by the end of the fourth quarter," Peter Chang, country manager at Asus India, said.