itel Parent Aims To Double Sales Of Its Budget Smartphones In India

Transsion Holdings, a Chinese mobile handset maker that is yet to sell even a single smartphone in China, plans to double the sales of its affordable brand itel in India.

itel, the phone maker’s most popular brand, has garnered 50 million users in the country in about three years, Arijeet Talapatra, chief executive officer at Transsion India, told BloombergQuint in an interview. India’s feature phone market, according to International Data Corporation, accounts for 43 percent of total mobile shipments.

Currently, the company sells about 15 million feature phones and about 6.5 million smartphones every month, Talapatra said, adding that the company now wants to increase the sales of smartphones to about 10-12 million, and nearly 20 million for feature phones by next year.

“We are doing big volumes with features phones but as 2G base is moving towards 4G and with technology coming at an affordable pricing, it is helping the feature phone customers move towards smartphones. So our entire focus in 2020 is also towards smartphones,” he said.

The phone maker, which sells handsets in around 60 countries, said it aims to make India its largest manufacturing base and make it an export hub.

According to a report by Counterpoint Research, the market for under-Rs 5,000 mobile phones is getting crowded with players such as Xiaomi and Nokia, among others. However, there are still close to 400 million feature phone users in India and the transition to smartphones will happen over a period of time, the report said.