Micromax connects with 'vernacular' users with 2 new devices

Domestic handset major Micromax will strengthen support for regional languages on its devices and is launching two new smartphones supporting 12 Indian languages.
"We see regional language, 4G and online and mid premium segment as key levers of growth for the smartphone category in India. Regional language support is probably the most overlooked.
"Based on our research, we found that consumers do not upgrade because of lack of convenience and language inhibitions, contrary to the popular belief of price being the biggest barrier for most of the people wanting to upgrade from feature phones to smartphones," Micromax Chief Marketing Officer Shubhajit Sen told PTI.

The two new smartphones - Unite 4 and Unite 4 pro - will come with Indus OS 2.0, which supports 12 Indian regional languages.
"Unite 4 and Unite 4 pro will bring together an ecosystem of device, services, local language and Internet. The launch is ably supported by a powerful 360 degree marketing campaign on the theme of 'Angrezipanti ko Dikhao Angootha'," he said.
For Micromax, the Unite series has seen sales of over 2.5 million units till date.

Sen said about 300 million people in India, who are willing to move to smartphones over the next three years, have not done so because they are uncomfortable using a smartphone in English.

"The Unite 4 and Unite 4 Pro will also target a large cross section of existing smartphone users who are ready to upgrade their smartphone experience to unlock the benefits of the connected world in their preferred regional language," Sen added.
India is the second largest smartphone market in terms of users, but also one of the most under penetrated one with just 23 per cent of the population owning a smartphone.
"This is also partly due to the lack of support for vernacular languages supported by apps and UI in the smartphones. Just one in every 10 Indian mobile phone users can understand or converse fluently in English. That is a market that we are looking at tapping into," Indus OS CEO Rakesh Deshmukh said.

Indus' OS (earlier version) is currently available in 35 other Micromax smartphones.