Micromax launches Canvas 4 smartphone, eyes No.1 slot

We have 24.3% market share in smartphone category as on April 2013 as per Cybermedia Media Research, says Micromax Co-Founder Rahul Sharma

Eyeing the number one slot in the smartphone category in the country, domestic handset maker Micromax today launched Canvas 4 for Rs 17,999, which will be available in the market by this weekend.

"We have 24.3% market share in smartphone category as on April 2013 as per Cybermedia Media Research. We want to go on top," Micromax Co-Founder Rahul Sharma said here.

The company is expecting massive demand for its best-selling smartphone series - Canvas. The Canvas 4 has received pre-order for 11,500 units.

Sharma said the company has sold over a million devices of Canvas series in the last three months. The Canvas series has 10 devices in the range of Rs 6,000 to Rs 18,000.

Overall, the company sales stood at 2.2 million a month.

"Our consumers have yet again reposed their faith in Micromax with the overwhelming response to the unprecedented pre-booking for Canvas 4 without revealing price or specifications," Sharma said.

The company, which clocked a turnover of Rs 3,100 crore last fiscal, is looking to grow 2.5 times by the end of this financial year.

Elaborating about the company's growth rate, Micromax CEO Deepak Mehrotra said as per CMR (Cyber Media Research), the company has 17.1% smartphone market share in Q1 of 2013, positioning it as number two in the category and it has already moved to 24.3% in April 2013.

"As we move forward in our pursuit of being the number one smartphone player in India, we are looking to further strengthen our product innovations and service offerings," he said.

As per CMR data, Samsung has 37%, Micromax 24.3% and Karbonn 9.1% market share in smartphone category as April 2013.

Overall, Nokia is the leader with 19.8%, followed by Samsung with 13.1% and Micromax 11.84% in the country's mobile phone market.

The company is planning to launch 6-8 new devices every quarter.

The Canvas 4 sports a aluminium body and the phone comes with a 13MP camera rear camera with image sensor along with a 5MP front camera.

The phone has a 5-inch screen with 720p resolution and it has 16GB internal storage and 1GB RAM. It is powered by Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) and has battery capacity of 2,000mAh.

In a bid to improve its after sales service, the company has come out with a new scheme wherein the customers will get response for Canvas 4 within seven days. "We would be offering new replacemnet device for any customer issue which is not resolved within 7 days of registering the complaint."

Asked about the IPO plans of the company, Sharma said it will be done when the market conditions improve.