Chinese Smartphone Brand HOMTOM Forays in India, Launches India Office

After launch of world's biggest mobile factory by Samsung in Noida near Delhi on Monday, HOMTOM, a leading smartphone brand of Shenzhen, China has now announced its foray in India with the inauguration of its India office at Noida. HOMTOM has further appointed Nikhil Bhutani as the Director for Product & Operations for their India business [in Picture above].

Nikhil Bhutani has a varied and rich experience of more than a decade in the field of business development, distribution management and product development. Prior to HOMTOM, he worked as the Regional Head of Ziox Mobile and, before that, as Regional Manager at Ingram Micro. Besides this, he was also associated with leading organizations like Hyve Mobiles, and The Princeton Review in the past. His diverse exposure to multiple aspects of businesses and his brief stint with Indian Army have instilled in him a “Never Say Die” approach towards his goals, qualifying him as a smart leader for any organization.

Commenting on the appointment, Gary Zhang - CEO, HOMTOM, said, “We are elated to have Nikhil on board with HOMTOM. He brings in a wealth of experience and we hope to reap the benefits with his expertise.”

“India is a promising market for Mobile industry and we will be investing heavily in the region to achieve robust growth. With our new office now operational in Noida, we are planning to launch mid to high-end segment of Smarterphones. We aim to capture a formidable market share within a year”, quoted Zhang.

Incepted in the year 2013, HOMTOM, is a part of SHENZHEN ZHOUJI HENGTONG TECHNOLOGY CO. LTD. from Shenzhen, China, which offers ODM services to various Smartphone companies across the globe. HOMTOM has a huge focus on R&D and holds more than 100 patents. The company is about to manufacture in India in order to endorse ‘Make in India’ and ensure superior quality products being delivered to the Indian customers by understanding local needs and usage pattern. In order to reach out to the masses, the company will roll out an aggressive partner program to recruit, train, certify and support a wider base of partners in India.

Speaking at the occasion, Nikhil said, “With the advent of Brand HOMTOM in India, we emphasize upon bringing superior quality devices, loaded with latest features, at affordable prices to the Indian market. It falls in line with the brand’s vision of offering Smarterphones for a Smarter India. Concomitantly, we are eying to deliver a robust yet smooth distribution network with transparent policies, which will offer win-win propositions for the brand as well as resellers and partners.”

SHENZHEN ZHOUJI HENGTONG TECHNOLOGY CO. LTD., known by the brand name HOMTOM, was conceived in the year 2013, in Shenzhen, China. It is present in more than 100 countries and sells its renowned line of HOMTOM smartphones through various channels. HOMTOM also offers ODM services to various Smartphone companies across the globe.The company has invested heavily on R&D and into the production and sales of communication equipment and accessories. Over the years, the company has established itself as one of the largest ODM/OEM companies across the globe. HOMTOM has numerous patents and has been awarded the National High-tech Enterprise Award Certificate.

Chinese Cos Outcast Indian Smartphone Companies, Startups in Innovation

A recent report churned out by India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra), a Mumbai-based agency that provides ratings, research and rigorous analytics of market in India, has spelled a period of worry for Indian mobile phone manufacturers. According to the report, Chinese smartphone manufacturers have been successful in capturing a whopping 51 percent of the mobile phone handset market share in India leaving their Indian counterparts much behind in their very own country.

The Ind-Ra report also threw light on the major movement that took place in the list of market position of the top five smartphone players in India in FY17. Micromax Informatics, Lava International Ltd. and Karbonn Mobiles Pvt Ltd had to let go of their positions on the list and their positions were occupied by Xiaomi Inc., Vivo Mobile India Pvt Ltd. and Oppo Mobiles India Pvt Ltd.

Lenovo succeeded in retaining its last year's position as it enjoyed the advantage of having established products in diversified segments and a brand name that Indian people have began to trust. Oppo and Vivo India broke into the top five list as they succeeded in recording sales increases of seven to nine times over FY17 respectively. According to Ind-Ra, Vivo and Oppo will continue their good run even in FY18 and will be successful in increasing their sales by a whopping 40-50 per cent.

The report also revealed that although global vendor Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. still remains the undefeated king of the market with a 28 per cent share, the share of Indian vendors fell tragically from 40 per cent last year to a slim 14 per cent this year. This is when the Chinese mobile phone manufacturers saw a 3.4 times year over year growth in their market share in the country.

According to Ind-Ra, this major movement in the Indian mobile phone market was fuelled by the launch of Reliance Jio as the telecom's lucrative free data and voice services offer skyrocketed the demand for 4G Volte enabled smartphone in the country. As the average data prices saw a downward trend, it ended up providing a stimulus to smartphone sales in the Indian subcontinent. In fact, in order to stand their ground against Jio, other incumbent telcos also ended up providing their users with something to celebrate and offered them differentiated data offerings for 4G smartphone users. This further resulted in driving a higher smartphone replacement demand in the country as well as a faster migration rate from feature phones to smartphones. The Chinese phone companies realised the big opportunity that existed in the market and pounced on it with all their might with competitive pricing strategies and aggressive marketing/advertising, which ultimately resulted in them becoming the leaders in the budget and the mid-price segment and earning major market share gains.

In addition to this, the major success that Chinese manufacturers witnessed last year in the Indian subcontinent can be attributed to the strong brand building strategy exercised by the Chinese players through fat advertising budgets and sales channel building funded by their sponsors. Further, a majority of Chinese smartphone players have a debt-light capital structure at place and enjoy healthy liquidity due to the long payable period being extended by their suppliers. And, yes, it is not all about advertising and marketing. Chinese smartphone players have better technological capabilities than their Indian counterparts and their superior product offerings seems to have caught the attention of the Indians.

The Ind-Ra report also warns the Indian smartphone makers to tighten their seat belts if they wish to have a long haul in the Indian smartphone market. According to it, since Chinese players like Xiaomi have invested big bucks in brand building and manufacturing facilities in India, it shows that they're committed to stay. Indian smartphone makers slow innovation rate and limited marketing budgets are acting as major constraints on their future in the Indian smartphone market.

[Top Image: Android Headlines]

Xiomi called 'Apple of China' to launch in India soon

Xiaomi, the Chinese Smartphone manufacturer also famously known as China’s Apple is soon going to make its way into the Indian market. The company recently announced this by launching its website - www.mi.com/in/ in India.

The Chinese manufacturer is famous for providing the same quality as provided by manufacturers like HTC and Samsung but at almost half the cost. This feature of the company has made it a worldwide sensation.

The company is trying to find its foothold in India by promoting itself heavily on Facebook through its page. Xiaomi recently also hired Manu Jain, who is the co-founder of Jabong.com as the company’s GM for India.

Xiaomi is headquartered in Beijing and was founded by serial entrepreneur Lei Jun in 2010. The company has apparently already sold about 17 million handsets in China. Oppo, Huawei, Lenovo and Gionee are some of the other handsets manufactured by Chinese firms that are already being sold in India.

Xiaomi’s plans of venturing into the million dollar Indian Smartphone market were first indicated by Huga Barra. He is the VP for International Relations at Xiaomi.  Bara was previously a high ranking executive with Google’s Android team. He recently joined Xiaomi in late 2013.

The company launches its products in batches. In China, these batches are sold out within hours of launching. Xiaomi is also popular for selling its products directly through its own online store.

The company sells its products at almost cost. High-end components are provided by vendors like LG, Qualcomm, JDI and Sony. The Chinese based manufacturer makes profit by providing a lot of services like an app store, a cloud based service and cutting out all the middle men involved in the retail channel.

How this strategy of the company works out for the Indian market will be interesting to see as the Google Play store which is blocked in China is very much available in India. Will or will not the company be able to sustain itself from the competition it will face from the Google services is yet to be seen.

Xiaomi may start its operations in India by September or October by launching its first product around Diwali according to BGR India.

Top Image - SCMP

Xiomi called 'Apple of China' to launch in India soon

Xiaomi, the Chinese Smartphone manufacturer also famously known as China’s Apple is soon going to make its way into the Indian market. The company recently announced this by launching its website - www.mi.com/in/ in India.

The Chinese manufacturer is famous for providing the same quality as provided by manufacturers like HTC and Samsung but at almost half the cost. This feature of the company has made it a worldwide sensation.

The company is trying to find its foothold in India by promoting itself heavily on Facebook through its page. Xiaomi recently also hired Manu Jain, who is the co-founder of Jabong.com as the company’s GM for India.

Xiaomi is headquartered in Beijing and was founded by serial entrepreneur Lei Jun in 2010. The company has apparently already sold about 17 million handsets in China. Oppo, Huawei, Lenovo and Gionee are some of the other handsets manufactured by Chinese firms that are already being sold in India.

Xiaomi’s plans of venturing into the million dollar Indian Smartphone market were first indicated by Huga Barra. He is the VP for International Relations at Xiaomi.  Bara was previously a high ranking executive with Google’s Android team. He recently joined Xiaomi in late 2013.

The company launches its products in batches. In China, these batches are sold out within hours of launching. Xiaomi is also popular for selling its products directly through its own online store.

The company sells its products at almost cost. High-end components are provided by vendors like LG, Qualcomm, JDI and Sony. The Chinese based manufacturer makes profit by providing a lot of services like an app store, a cloud based service and cutting out all the middle men involved in the retail channel.

How this strategy of the company works out for the Indian market will be interesting to see as the Google Play store which is blocked in China is very much available in India. Will or will not the company be able to sustain itself from the competition it will face from the Google services is yet to be seen.

Xiaomi may start its operations in India by September or October by launching its first product around Diwali according to BGR India.

Top Image - SCMP