Karbonn Mobiles reveals its ambitious plans, should rivals be worried?

Despite facing fierce competition from domestic as well as Chinese smartphone companies, Karbonn Mobiles seems all set with plans to increase its market foothold in the country, as per the company's executives.

The company hopes to gain some more market share by launching a slew of products over the next few months, now that its new manufacturing facility in the state of Haryana is up and running. Plans of expansion in other countries are also in the pipeline.

When asked about the increasing threat Chinese smartphone companies are posing to local manufacturers by launching cheap, 4G-enabled devices, the company's executive director Shashin Devsare said that "the success is going to be for that particular brand which understands the pulse of the consumer and not the one which brings the cheapest phone."

According to Devsare, Karbonn's customization for Indian users in its devices along with local manufacturing would give the company the required edge over Chinese smartphone brands. In addition, to increase presence in the country, the firm is also planning to introduce more accessories.

TOI Tech has learned that Karbonn will also be launching TVs in the next few months. The TVs will be manufactured in its Noida facility.

Furthermore, the company's managing director Pradeep Jain added that they will launch 8-9 smartphones in the next 4 months as well.

Besides concentrating on hardware, Jain said the firm will be looking into the field of artificial intelligence. Karbonn might incorporate its AI technology in future devices, the integration of which will bring better e-commerce experience for users. Also confirmed is that the tie up will be an exclusive one between the company and the e-commerce website. Jain however, did not reveal much details.

As for virtual reality, Karbonn has already launched a VR headset that comes bundled with its Quattro L52 handset. However, the executives also said the company will bring exclusive VR content in the future and the same will be customized for Indian users. This year, Karbonn is looking at 15-20% market share in India. For now, the firm says it has only 10.5% market share. Not only in India, but the global market share will also see some growth as the firm will enter two new countries - Africa and Russia, in January and March of next year respectively. It plans to launch both existing and new models in these regions. These handsets will be customized based on the countries they will be launching in. As for India, the company confirmed that it would launch Android One smartphone(s) in Q1 of next year as well.
Source: Karbonn Mobiles reveals its ambitious plans, should rivals be worried?