ZTE to foray into Indian smartphone and tablet market
18 May 2013
China's leading handset maker ZTE has announced it would be entering the Indian smartphone and tablet market. The company has collaborated with Pune-based Calyx Telecommunications which will take care of the handset maker's distribution, sales and marketing.
The Chinese company's initial focus would be on five handset models within the price range of Rs5,799 to Rs14,999. The company would at a later stage introduce tablets and PCs. By the end of October 2013, ZTE products would be available in all major states.
Starting out with five states, Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the company would later expand the focus across 60 cities and towns through over 7000 touch points.
In India ZTE would be taking on the likes of Samsung, Nokia and Sony. ZTE has plans for the sale of 1 million smartphones in the first year.
ZTE India CEO Xu Dejun said, backed by its strong portfolio and R&D capabilities supported by Calyx Telecommunications' strong financing background and distribution channels, the company expected to emerge as a key player in the Indian smartphone arena. Globally, ZTE was the 4th largest handset manufacturer and the company was certain to strengthen its position in India, which was a key growth propeller, contributing to 10 per cent of its overall revenues.
ZTE, has already been supplying handsets to Micromax, Karbonn, RCom and Idea Cellular.
ZTE's smartphones business has been a global success augmenting the company's cash flows and enhancing brand value at a time when network infrastructure gear and feature phone sales had been shrinking in world markets.
According to Xu Dejun the partnership with Calyx would help "strengthen its position" in a local handset market dominated by Samsung, Nokia, Sony, Apple and BlackBerry in volume terms.
He added, backed by Calyx's strong distribution channels, the company expected to strengthen its position in India, which was a key growth propeller, for contributing up to 10 per cent of overall revenues.
Though the first wave of ZTE smartphones and tablets would be shipped into India from its factories in China, the near future would see the company manufacture the products locally. According to Dejun, the company looked forward to manufacturing the smartphones and tablets at its Gurgaon factory in future.
Calyx Telecoms executive director Gaurav Somani said the company was broadening its distribution network to market ZTE's product portfolio initially in Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
