Micromax Mobile, India’s third largest mobile manufacturer, is to introduce a water-proof handset especially for Sri Lankan fisher-folk under the company’s aggressive plan to expand its products and services in the island. This novel handset has been developed for Sri Lanka and products aiming at rural areas in the country are now being developed, said Business Director Micromax Vikas Jain in an interview with the Business Times on the sidelines of the company’s first anniversary of operations in Sri Lanka on Tuesday. He revealed that Micromax is selling 40,000 hand sets monthly in Sri Lanka and the company has positioned itself at the number two position of the highest monthly mobile selling brand in Sri Lanka.
Within a year, Micromax has not only penetrated rural areas in Sri Lanka but has also entered the emerging north-east market. Within a short period of time, Micromax believes it could gain the number one position in mobile sales in the north and east, he added.
“My team tells me that Micromax is second after Nokia in Sri Lanka. I have not got this confirmed with a third party auditor. But, it will be foolhardy for me to say that we are not competing with Nokia, especially as we believe that they are the only one above us,” Mr Jain said. “We started with Nepal, then Bangladesh and finally Sri Lanka. We are looking at ways to improve the sales, but, we have only been around a year or so in these countries. We are still learning the local requirements in terms of customer tastes, etc,” he said.
The company has presently launched 44 different mobile models in India. In Sri Lanka, the company started by introducing eight models and plans to increase it to 14 models.The Micromax company, founded by four engineering college friends — Vikas Jain, Rahul Sharma, Rajesh Agarwal and Sumeet Kumar — used product innovations such as the 30-day battery back-up phones and dual SIM phones to capture the minds of a rural audience, in India which had relatively less brand preference. The company expanded its sales net work in Brazil, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan and ‘you will hear something on Africa shortly’, Mr. Jain noted. |
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