In a bid to regain foothold in the highly-competitive Indian smartphone market, Micromax plans to introduce 4-5 devices every quarter, including an ‘aggressively- priced’ 5G device this year, company’s co-founder Rahul Sharma said on Friday.
Micromax, which made a comeback in the smartphone market late last year with two smartphones under the ‘in’ brand, will be bringing in models in the price band of ₹7,000-₹25,000.
“We currently have two products, and the response to them has been dreamy,” said Mr. Sharma.
“We will launch another product in March, around Holi and April onwards, the plan is to bring in 4-5 products every quarter and refresh the portfolio every 6-8 months,” Mr. Sharma said.
Asked about company’s plans to introduce a 5G device, he added that the work on the model was already in advanced stages and it would be launched in the second half of the year.
“Even though 5G is expected to be available only next year, there is still a demand for 5G phones. People want to buy 5G-ready devices, we are getting queries as well for this. Our product will be aggressively priced,” he added.
Mr. Sharma said Micromax would also be selling its smartphones via offline channels and ramp up presence to over 15 States and 18,000 retail counters by next week.
Micromax manufactures devices in India via a partnership with Bhagwati Pvt. Ltd., which has three facilities in Bhiwadi (Rajasthan), Rudrapur (Uttarakhand) and Hyderabad (Telangana). “The total smartphone capacity currently is two million a month, and we are scaling this up to three million units gradually,” Mr. Sharma said.
Asked about supply-chain issues, he added the semiconductor shortage was affecting all industries and this year would be tough.
“If you look at semiconductors, whether it is for phones or laptops or even electric cars, the demand has zoomed amid the pandemic while the supply has remained the same,” said Mr. Sharma.
“Semiconductor is a critical component and its short supply is a challenge for the industry,” he added while stating the company was exploring supply alternatives to tackle the situation.
The company would also soon introduce TWS (True Wireless Stereo or ear buds). “We will soon launch our TWS and that is a category that is growing at a huge pace. We want to have an ecosystem of smart devices,” said Mr. Sharma.
