S Mobility plans expansion in state

S Mobility to soon expand their retail chain of Spice HotSpot in Maharashtra. It will be strengthening its distribution network across the state. In order to increase its retail penetration in the rest of the state, S Mobility would open Spice HotSpot retail outlets in each of the districts in Maharashtra by 2013.

The company already has four Spice HotSpot outlets operational in Pune and plans to add another one outlet by end of 2011.

S Mobility, which entered the Pune Market in 2005, has a market share of 6 per cent. Currently there are 50,000 retail points including the 750 plus Spice HotSpot retail network across India and more than 5,000 stores in Maharashtra alone.

Speaking on this, Zulfi Ali Bhutto, associate vice-president, operations, Mumbai cluster, S Mobility said, "We see the future of telephony in what we have termed ‘Mobile Internet’. It is a revolutionary phenomenon, which will help bridge the digital divide and give users an ‘always on’ access. And we see Mobile Internet devices like Mi-350 to be the 1st pc for many Indians."

He added, "We are planing to open more stores in maharashtra and hired a team of 400 people for this purpose. We will expand upto 5000 outlets from the existing 3500 outlets. We see Pune as a critical market for our products. Our strength is in our product & value proposition & with providing customer delight in after sales as well. Pune presents us with the opportunity to move up in the value ladder & along volumes as well."

Spice Mobile has tied up with Malaysia based Blueberry hand set makers for 3G services and has launched its 3G & 2G dual sim Android phone Mi-350 priced at Rs 9999.