subject: Whats your mobile handheld brand? [print this page] Yes,This was a general question you would have encountered a couple of years back when you got a new mobile handset, but with time the new private label brands and small time brands like Micromax and Maxx are making it big with the help of IPL and massive marketing.Big brands like Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorla are having tough times in one of the world's largest market with every other mobile operator boasting of having over 100 million customers.
Many mobile retail store chains have exclusive tie-ups and even have private label brands like RAY by The Mobile Store,Fly by Big Bazaar and Univercell pushing their own brands among the others.Apart from the already existing mobile retail chains a lot of Business Houses have moved towards the growing Handset market which is eyeing towards Rs.50,000 crore and has seen brands like Micromax from the stable of Micromax technologies, Ion from The Manipal Group, Videocon from Venugopal Dhoot of Videocon ,Onida Mobiles from Onida and exciting start up ventures like Maxx, and Lava making it big in the market.
As against the traditional way of pricing premium and having handsets in each segment to mark its presence new entrants are fully focussing on the Base of the Pyramid by getting ultra low cost handsets into the market. Most of the companies are focussing on the below Rs.5000 market as it accounts to roughly 60% of the mobile handset sales in India with handsets rich in feature compared to the already existing giants like Nokia and Samsung.
The other reason why these small brands are giving tough competition has been the investment made by those companies to enter the handset market. Almost all of the new entrants are importing handsets into the Indian market at zero percent duty from China whereas companies like Nokia have made heavy investment in manufacturing facility in India which has high overall cost compared to the Chinese counterparts which gives and edge to the new entrants to deviate the money towards marketing the handsets wherein Micromax itself has reserved Rs.100 crores for promotional activites.
These upcoming brands have majorly targeted the tier-2 and tier-3 population who generally do not go by the brand and believe in purchasing value for money deals and its only their urban counterparts who go by brands. The Fact also remains that with the increasing number of mobile operators and cut throat competition in tariffs mobile operators themselves have accepted that customers are using multiple sim cards and making the most of the tarrif war which is leading to customers moving towards dual sim and triple sim handsets which are manufactured by the Chinese counterparts and marketed in India by these new entrants against companies like Nokia who is yet to get a dual handset in the Indian Market under its umbrella.
Gone are the days when mobile was a status symbol today's mobile boast of being equipped with mosquito repellent to currency evaluator, all thanks to those Chinese innovation to get it all into the handsets and making it more cheaper wherein handsets are now available at Rs.800 and even a rural small farmer can now connect through his mobile phone.
All in all its a win-win situation to the Indian customer who are able to use QWERTY handsets and touch screen, usually regarded as high end products at prices less than Rs.5000 and ultra low handsets for the rural poor.
With around 30 mobile handset vendors in India and handsets ranging from as low as Rs.800 there is an handset for you in the market for every Rs.50 you would like to spend on your next mobile phone and Customer's are not able to differentiate between handsets on basis of features,brand and price. So now what's your mobile handheld brand?
