Will your next mobile be a Maxx, Spice or Karbonn?
In a previous post, I mentioned a couple of Indian mobile vendors like Micromax, Spice, Karbonn and Maxx. These vendors sell currently millions of devices each month in India and are of course aiming at taking market shares from the big vendor names like Nokia, Samsung and LG.
What are the reasons behind why local Indian vendors are increasing their market shares? A few points can be identified.
- Combinded affordabilitiy with features
The features on these handsets are mostly basic but some innovative exceptions exist. For example, Micromax X235 has an in-built remote control that can be used with the TV set, the DVD player or your AC. Combine these basic but practical features with a relatively low price and you have an interesting option for a mobile buyer in India.
- Support for dual SIM cards
As described in a earlier blog post, it's common for the typical Indian mobile subscriber to use several SIM cards depending on which operator is currently offering the lowest cost for calls.
A rough estimation is that 20% of the handsets in the Indian mobile market currently support dual SIM cards. Some models even have support for three SIM cards (normally with 2 GSM slots and 1 CDMA slot).
Samsung has already seen this demand and has released a couple of models with this feature. Nokia has still not released any dual SIM capable model, rumours say however that a model with this feature will be launched during 2010.
- Distribution and local availability
Good distribution channels and availability in rural India, where the mobile market growth has been biggest, is an important factor behind this development.
- Customer service
Indian handsets vendors have understood the importance of having good customer service. Zen mobiles for example have currently over 300 service centers around India and Micromax has over 200.
- Marketing and presence
Karbonn and Maxx were official partners to IPL (Indian Premier League), the big cricket event held during April this year in India, and their commercials could be seen throughout the games.
Other brands tie famous Bollywood and cricket stars to become their "brand ambassadeurs".
It will be interesting to see if some brand will stand out as the number one challanger to Nokia, Samsung and LG. It will also be interesting to see what kind of more advanced features will be available on these handsets.