Asus has made further inroads into the Indian market, selling 40,000 handsets of its latest ZenFone in the four days since the smartphone went on sale in the country, thanks to the appeal of its high performance/price ratio.
Xiaomi is slated to roll out its Mi 3 model in the market soon and HTC aims to boost its share of the market to 15% in two years.
Peter Chang, regional head of South Asia and managing director for Asus India, said that the company aims to muscle into the top-five for smartphones, notebook PCs and tablet PCs in the Indian market next year.
Asus is pushing its products in India through both physical and virtual channels, at a ratio of 6:4, the latter via a colaboration with Flipkart, India's largest e-commerce site.
Flipkart statistics put ZenFone sales at 40,000 units in the first four days after its rollout, ranking sixth place on the market in July.
Xiaomi has also set up a firm foothold in India, the world third-largest smartphone market, and the company is ready to kick off sales of the Mi 3 there soon, at an expected retail-price tag of 13,999 rupees (US$233). Xiaomi is also selling its products via Flipkart.
HTC debuted its high-end model the E8 and medium-end model the Desire 616 in India in the first half of July, eliciting a positive reception from Indian consumers, who favor the appearances of the firm's products, according to Chang Chia-lin, president for global sales and chief financial officer. The company garnered 4% in the high-end sector of the market in the first quarter by selling mainly models priced over 20,000 rupees (US$331), double the average price tag of 10,000 rupees (US$165) or lower for the low-end sector.
With functional models priced at 10,000 rupees or lower still boasting 70%-80% of India's mobile-phone market, demand for smartphones is surging, scoring 175% growth last year. The substantial demand has attracted the participation of all major brands worldwide. By comparison, with its penetration rate already hitting 66%, China's smartphone market has become increasingly saturated.
For the moment, the capacity of India's smartphone market is still rather limited, due to low per capita income, but the potential is large, as Indians favor renowned brands. Apple and Samsung now dominate the high-end sector of the local mobile-phone market, which now accounts for 6%-7% of the entire market.
References:
Peter Chang 張旗浚
Chang Chia-lin 張嘉臨
