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Taiwan-based mobile handset manufacturer HTC is expanding its reach in India, as it eyes 10 per cent market share by 2015. Faisal Siddiqui, vice-president and country head, India HTC, said India is among the top five fastest growing regions for the company, and he plans to put India among the top three countries for HTC.
“In the last six months we have seen significant growth in India. We had launched five devices in the same period, and they have seen phenomenal response from Indian user. This gives us the confidence of doubling our market share in the next 12-18 months,” said Siddiqui.
In the last six months the company has launched products in the low- to mid-range category, and this has allowed the company gain market share. Siddiqui said the low-cost handset segment is a tough genre and sees real competition. “We launched the Desire 210 earlier this year and the product has done really very well. At Rs 8,500, the user gets a full spec product. We have to be in this segment for strategic reasons. But the challenge in this segment is that the lifecycle for a product is not very long,” added Siddiqui.
India is the fastest growing market for smartphones globally. The volume growth in the smartphone is in the sub-Rs 10,000 category and the Rs 20,000 range products. According to IDC, the smartphone market in India has maintained its growth impetus with smartphone shipments touching year-on-year growth of 84 per cent in second quarter of 2014 and a quarterly growth of 11 per cent. The potential for growth in the smartphone market is very high, as 71 per cent of the market continues to be feature phones.
To be able to capture this growth, HTC is also increasing its retail reach. From having presence in 7,000 outlets, it now plans to increase this to 10,000 outlets by the end of this year. “At present. we have presence in 100 cities, and we intend to get that number to 300. But more crucial is the reach of our service centres. From 200 service points we will touch 400 in the next two to three quarters,” Siddiqui said.
HTC also plans to launch its exclusive stores in select cities of India. “These stores will be more of experience centre for buyers. At present, we have just one in Delhi. In the next six months we will have one each in Mumbai and Bangalore,” said Siddiqui.
With mid-range smartphones doing well in the Indian market, HTC recently launched Desire 820, 820q and 816G. The Desire 816G is a dual SIM GSM smartphone priced at Rs 18,999 and comes with a 5.5” screen. The Desire 820, for which the price is yet to be announced, will be launched only in November.
When asked if the company will see pressure from competition as the festival season will see several launches, Siddiqui said, “We have always maintained that you will not see our product portfolio having 30-40 products. At any given time we will have a product portfolio of 10-15 products. We are in the process of revamping our product line and the recent announcements were in that line. What matters to us is the product quality and what we can offer to the customers rather than look at competitors,” he said.
