NEW DELHI: New Chinese entrant Coolpad aims to make Dazen
brand of smartphones, one of the top three online-only brands in India, even as
it admits necessity of differentiation required to make the devices locally
relevant.
Li Wang, the company's global chief operating officer, said
Coolpad wants to be a long-term player in India where it plans to begin
manufacturing smartphones in a few years. It will, however, face stiff
competition from the likes of Xiaomi and Motorola that have struck gold by
taking the online-only route.
"We want Coolpad to be a localised brand for the Indian
market, which means taking a number of steps to achieve that," said Wang,
who also heads the Dazen brand globally. On Thursday, the company launched two
dual SIM LTE smartphonesDazen X7 at Rs 17,999 and Dazen 1 at Rs 6,999which will
be available through flash sales on Snapdeal from June 9.
The Shenzen-headquartered company will start with setting up
a local operations team including sales, marketing, customer and after sales
services for the online brand. "Using innovation, we will give the best
user experience through software and apps, through local content such as music
and movies," Wang said. It intends to set up a research and development
centre, likely in Bengaluru.
With plans of being a long-term player, Wang said the
company will make smartphones in India by using factories of local partners
before building its own plant. "If we have enough volume, we would want to
build our own factory."
Before it achieves the volumes, the company will have to
fight a hard battle in the crowded and hyper-competitive market where home-bred
Micromax, Lava and Intex have exclusive models selling online.
The company, which is among the leading 4G LTE device makers
in China, slipped to No. 5 position with a 9.4% market share in China last year
from No. 3 with a 10.7% share in 2013, as per International Data Corporation.
In order to revive sales, especially online, Coolpad tied up
with China's second-biggest search engine Qihoo 360 three months ago and has
set a target of selling 20 million units this year.
Coolpad now wants to replicate the success experienced in
its home market and will also ensure that the upcoming Dazen branded phones are
simultaneously launched in China and India. The company will focus a large
chunk of its global investments of about $400 million in India, which will be
its most important market for 2015.
Source From:- http://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/
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