Bling Telecom bullish about domestic mobile market

With the country all set to achieve a billion-plus mobile users by 2015, domestic hand-set maker Bling Telecom says there is enough room for local players in the about Rs 29,000 crore market.

The domestic handset manufacturers like Spice Mobile, Micromax, Bling Telecom, Maxx, Fly, and Videocon among others have flooded the market with latest and hi-tech smartphones at a price much cheaper than what Nokia, Samsung or LG offer for their basic models, said Chief Executive of the one-year-old startup Bling Telecom Rajiv Khanna.

The New Delhi-based company has come out with gen-next Qwerty keypad phones with dual SIMs and innovative features like voice chat, answering machine, and multimedia features among others.
    
"We are the latest entrant into this segment and already have garnered 1 per cent market share. Currently, we are doing a business of Rs 10 crore per month and expect a total turnover of Rs 100 crore this fiscal," Khanna told PTI here.
    
The company, set up with private funding of Rs two crore in 2009, is targeting Rs 200 crore sales revenue by FY12 and sells currently two brands -- Movil (Rs 4,000 onwards) and Bling (below 4,000). It has a plant in China and has so far put in Rs 40 crore into this plant.
    
"Our ambition is to take on the foreign brands. There are several other local brands in the market, which are doing well. However, our present competitors are local brands that sell smartphones at affordable prices," Khanna said.

Khanna further said the buying pattern has changed of late in the country and consumers are now preferring local brands, helping the newcomers.
    
"All the buying decisions are ending at the mobile shop. People are considering every factor right from features to price and this is what we are banking on. People are preferring Indian brands, which currently form 50 per cent of the total market," Khanna, whose products target the youth, said.
    
According to IDC data, another leading local player Micromax is selling about one million units a month and enjoys six per cent of the around Rs 29,000 crore market, while the market share of Nokia fell to 52 per cent by the end of last year from 64 per cent in 2008.
    
Khanna further said the company has lined up its expansion plans and will invest around Rs 60 crore this year. It also plans to launched 22 models of Movil and five from the Bling brand this year.