Most Chinese smartphone players lack quality: Hyve Mobility

Over 50 Chinese smartphone manufacturers have bombarded the Indian market with budget- and mid-to-upper segment devices -- but most of them still lack quality and after-sales support, a top company executive from homegrown start-up Hyve Mobility has said.

"Chinese smartphone players sell their products mainly through huge marketing spend, lack Android certification and most of the smaller players even have unlicensed software installed," Aditya Agarwal, Managing Director and Chairman, Hyve Mobility, told IANS.

"I strongly believe that the Indian customer is now more aware about his or her choices and hence it will only positively affect the market," Agarwal added.

Hyve Mobility entered the market in June this year and launched two smartphones -- Buzz and Storm -- priced at Rs 13,999 and Rs 8,499, respectively.

"As per our experience over the past two months, speed, stability and simple user-interface have clicked with our consumers," the Hyve executive noted.

Hyve has a complete research and development team based out of Delhi.

"We are the only company in India offering stock Android flavour and optimisations that came with over 200,000 tests from Google, collectively known as CTS," Agarwal said.

With customer experience as priority, the company, via HyveCare, offers free insurance and pick-and-drop for service at all locations in India.

Agarwal is excited by the opportunities under the "Make in India" programme.

"It will change the landscape towards better indigenous products which match international standards," he said, adding, "We would like the government to help domestic brands like us who have made investments for either manufacturing or R&D in the country, by providing tax benefits, better IT infrastructure support and faster Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) process."

Earlier this month, Hyve, in collaboration with MediaTek, launched a new smartphone "Pryme" at Rs 17,999. The device features 5.7-inch full-HD display with a 2.5D arc glass. It sports 13MP f/2 rear camera with dual flash and 8MP selfie camera with front flash. The smartphone is powered by 2.3GHz MediaTek Helio X20 SoC paired up with 4GB of RAM.

"Hyve is growing and we plan to be present in the sub-10,000, 15,000 and 20,000 price category markets. We have an exciting pipeline for 2017 and are working closely with Google and Mediatek to deliver path-breaking products. We are just getting started," Agarwal said.

(Anuj Sharma can be contacted at anuj.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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