Last two years have been a big bang year for Indian Mobile Manufacturing industry, few years back there was no real Indian Mobile manufacturer, Only Nokia,Samsung,Song Ericssona and LG were the Big players in the Indian market. But now there are almost 10 new brands (and most of them Well established in other areas). The likes of BPL,Onida,Karbonn,Fly,Philiphs and innumerable others have opened shop and already started to impact the big players in the bottom segment.
They offer much more value compared to Nokia or Sony Ericsson in the Rs 1000-5000 segment, and most of these manufacturers also offer minimum 1 year warranty unlike the chinese phones, So its a party out there for Indian consumers and growth story of these manufacturers also is incredible.
Other reason for their fast growth is that most of these manufacturers sell phones with newer features like Dual Sim etc for an extremely low price. For instance Karbonn offers a dual sim phone for Rs 1800/- with FM and a toy cam. And for a dual sim from big players you might end up paying Rs 8000 for Samsung’s only model.
With the ban on Chinese handsets, people and shopkeepers are looking for safer options in these new brands, who are ready to capture market even with a loss. Karbonn and Fly phones also offer service centres too, you can walk into any Sony Ericsson service center and get your karbonn or Fly phones serviced. These strategies help both the manufacturers ie Sony Ericsson as well as the new players.
But on the other hand this aggressive growth has threatened the big players, for instance Sony Ericsson has stopped/closed their Dealerships in B/C cities due to poor profitability. In few years we might see a whole new hierarchy in the Indian market. Lets wait and watch this game.