In the year 2013, 44 million (4.4 crore) smartphones were sold in India, which is a three times increase compared to 2012. It seems that some of biggest names in mobile industry are watching our market closely.
As per recent reports, John Sculley, the ex CEO of Apple is planning to launch a smartphone brand exclusively for India. The yet unnamed brand will be led by Ajay Sharma who heads Micromax’s smartphone division and previously spearheaded HTC India.
The brand would be funded by Inflexionpoint, a Singapore based investment firm where Sculley is a founding member. As per reports coming in, Ajay has already formed a team of his best persons, and work is on full swing to release the phone into the hot Indian mobile market.
As per insider sources, this smartphone series would be priced in between Rs 5000 and Rs 15,000 and will try to differentiate itself from other existing brands by means of its unique features and low prices. It seems that pricing is the only big differentiator when it comes to branding inside India; and besides Micromax, who can understand this fact better!
As this smartphone brand has been priced low and targeted to the entry level consumers, there won’t be any Sculley vs Cook war over here, as Apple targets entirely different set of customers, having different needs. But the introduction of a new brand by an ex Apple head will surely force technological enthusiasts to have a look at this brand. The team behind this initiative certainly looks promising as of now.
Last year, over 1 billion handsets were shipped all over the world, which is a growth of 38.3% compared to 2012. Within last two years, this number has almost doubled which can give us a fair idea about the market potential. As US and European market has almost saturated, it’s the developing world of Asia and Africa which will be the focus of telecom entrepreneurs.
As of now, we don’t have report or information as to how Ajay and John plan to enhance user’s experience and engagement using their smartphone and how they plan to differentiate themselves in already very-crowded Indian smartphone market. But, they are very much aware about the huge potential which Indian market offers for smartphone vendors, and will try to encash that through every possible way.
