Gionee invests $50 mn to contract manufacture handsets

Chinese handset-maker Gionee on Friday said that it is investing $50 million to contract manufacture handsets in association with Taiwan-based electronics assembly manufacturer Foxconn and Noida-based electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider Dixon.

"Gionee will be investing 50 million US$ in the next three years on manufacturing in India. While Foxconn will make Gionee handsets out of Andhra Pradesh, Dixon will use its Delhi-based facility to manufacture Gionee phones," the company said.

Foxconn will start this association by manufacturing F Series and P Series of Gionee phones while Dixon will be making feature phones and other smartphones for Gionee in India.

"India market is second home market to Gionee after China and the investment in India manufacturing is just another step in a line up of much more to come for the Indian market and customers," William Lu, president of Gionee global, said.

Both the EMS partners will start the production in the month of October and they have a capacity of more than 1.2 million handset per month between them.

Gionee will also increase the investment in the research and development team in India which will work on the software to give better consumer experience. This team will work on the Gionee's user interface (UI) called Amigo to make it much more customised for Indian consumers.

"Make in India as an initiative gives an opportunity to not only take Gionee as brand ahead but also to be actively able to participate in the growth of our economy through various touch points," Arvind Vohra, India chief executive at Gionee, said.

According to Gionee, the company sells over 23 million handsets per year worldwide and ranks tenth in the world by smartphone market share.