Gionee aims at 5-fold jump in India biz in FY'15

Targeting the youth in the 12-25 age bracket, Chinese handset maker Gionee is aiming to achieve 5-fold jump in business to Rs 2,500 crore in India by the end of next financial year.
"We started our operations in March 2013 in India and have done business of over Rs 500 crore till now. We are looking to grow over five times in our second year of operations to clock Rs 2,500 crore by the end of 2014-15 financial year," Gionee India Head Arvind R Vohra told PTI at the Mobile World Congress here.
The company has so far launched 14 devices in the country, of which 11 are smartphones. The handsets are available in over 10,000 outlets across the country with 400 after sales service centres already in place.

"We will increase the service centres to 750 by 2015 fiscal end and also set up 250 exclusive stores and over 2,500 shop-in-shops," Vohra said.
The company has earmarked Rs 125 crore marketing budget for the year.
Gionee, which considers India the second priority market after China, plans to launch about 20 models every year, majority of which will be smartphones.

"We will launch anywhere between 18-20 models every year, with a new flagship device every quarter," he said.
Asked if the company would come out with a LTE or 4G smartphone under USD 100 (about Rs 6,200), Vohra said it is very much possible by the end of this year.

The company displayed a 4G smartphone during the Mobile World Congress and it could be launched in India soon.
He said Rajasthan, West Bengal, Gujarat, MP, Chattisgarh and Punjab are the leading markets for the company and it will now try to strengthen its position in the metros as well.
"Having achieved a critical mass in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, we are now in a position to fund our expansion in the metro cities as well," Vohra said.
Enthused by the good response to its devices, the company is targeting to get 10 per cent market share in smartphone segment in third year of its operations.

"We are likely get 5-6 per cent smartphone market share by the end of March 15 and 10 per cent by next year," Vohra added.
Gionee, which closed last year with revenues of USD 2.5 billion globally, sells over 23 million handsets per year worldwide and is ranked number 10 in the world in smartphone market share.
The company launched its own brand in India in Q1 of 2013. It used to be an original device manufacturer (ODM) for many Indian brands earlier.