Karbonn Mobiles to launch apps in local languages

Karbonn Mobiles plans to create a vernacular language-based system in India to target ‘mid- and low-price segments’. The Noida-based firm is in talks with major application developers to create apps in local languages. The company eyes a 50 per cent increase in annual revenue to Rs 6,000 crore by FY16.

According to Shashin Devsare, executive director of Karbonn Mobiles, India will have 750 million smartphone users by 2020, of which 500 million will be in the low- and mid-price segment. With 80 per cent of these consumers not fluent in English, there is immense scope for mobile apps in local languages, he added. Karbonn recently partnered with UK-based SwiftKey to provide mobile phones that are accessible in 22 Indian languages.

However, as majority of the mobile apps are in English, Karbonn needs to develop local language-based applications to cater to the market segment and successfully establish its ecosystem in the country. According to the census, in India, 30 different languages are used by more than a million people and at least 120 languages are used by 10,000 people.

“People would like to experience smart telephony in a language they are more comfortable with,” said Devsare. According to him, conversion to smart phones will increase if companies can provide apps and mobiles that run on local languages as “it would be easier for the consumers”.

Devsare expects the overall sales of Karbonn to increase by up to 20 per cent in the next quarter. “In any app store, 20 per cent of the apps drive 80 per cent of the traffic. So, we are focusing on these popular apps now,” he explained.

Karbonn is working to localise its business by setting up three manufacturing facilities in India with an investment of Rs 800 crore by 2018. “We plan to get the money from internal accruals”, Devsare said.

The competitive environment in the industry led the company to focus on ‘simplifying’ smart telephony to grab a bigger share of the low- and mid-price segment. “Seventy per cent of our devices already support various Indian languages,” he noted.