Tag: India smartphones

Indian mobile phone market share belonging to LG set to rise

| June 25, 2015

The South Korean electronics company is expecting to double its share in the country in 2015.

LG Electronics has announced that it now expects that its mobile phone market share will double in size by the end of the year when it comes to the penetration that it has achieved within India.

This will allow the company’s share of the smartphone market to reach 10 percent by the close of the year.

According to Deepak Jasrotia, the head of LG Electronics’ India business, “Our target is to double the market share in the mobile phone segment to 10 percent from the current four to five percent.” This, following the launch of the LG G4 high end smartphone in Mumbai, last week. At that time, it also said that it has every expectation that it will be able to meet those projected targets, particularly upon examining the rapid rise of smartphone adoption within India, at the moment.

India is the only mobile phone market where smartphone shipments are expected to increase over the next few years.

Mobile Phone Market - India & LG ElectronicsThis, according to the Worldwide Quarterly mobile Phone Tracker results from the International Data Corporation (IDC). Clearly, India is an extremely important marketplace for this type of mobile technology, at the moment, as the rest of the world is expecting its smartphone shipments to level off or even reduce in their growth figures.

At the moment, it is estimated that the smartphone shipments in India will be rising to 13.29 percent by 2019. This, in comparison with the 2015 figures, which is forecasted to be 7.61 percent.

On LG’s side of things, the company believes that it will be selling more than 100,000 units of its LG G4 in India alone, this year, said Jasrotia. The launch price of that particular device is Rs. 51,000 (approx US $800). That said, the electronics manufacturer offers devices that start at a much lower rate of Rs 10,000 (about US $155), which will be an important factor in growing its mobile phone market share. Of all of the devices that LG sells in India, Jasrotia pointed out that mobile is currently making up about 10 percent of its total revenues, there.

Mobile technology startups from Xiaomi to pop up in India

| January 15, 2015

The company has now built up a massive amount of funding for its efforts to fund its next steps.

Xiaomi recently announced that its latest round of funding had closed at about $1 billion, and now it is going to take that money and pour it into efforts to open up mobile technology startups in India, as well as companies focused on connected devices and content aggregation.

The company is working on launching its own startup environment in India, comparable to what it accomplished in China.

In fact, mobile technology startups in India are included among the top priorities for Xiaomi in 2015. According to the head of Xiaomi India, Manu Jain, “We may co-develop, invest or launch their products. We have discussed with a few startups so far.” At the same time that these statements were released, the company declined to make any specific mention of the names of some of the startups that would be launched, or the size of the investment that it would specifically be making.

The company already labels itself as being a mobile technology and e-commerce business, not just a handset manufacturer.

Mobile Technology - Xiaomi and IndiaXiaomi has previously poured investments into Chinese startups that are focused on parts of the tech industry including wearable technology (such as in its fitness band), a video website, and in a smart light bulbs effort.

According to a Convergence Catalyst partner, Jayant Kolla, “Startups would find it lucrative to work with Xiaomi versus other corporates, as it is agile and has been able to grow, coupling the scale brought forward by both the internet and mobile era.” That firm is the Indian branch of one of Xiaomi’s most valuable startups on the globe and which managed to sell a million devices in the country in well under half of a year.

At the time that this article was written, Xiaomi was being valued at about $45 billion, and it has every intention to grow this year through its mobile technology and other startup investments in India. Though its past has been greatly based on smartphones, those are clearly only the beginning of what it has up its sleeves as it progresses into the future.