Nokia Eyes 50 Percent Market Share in India by 2012

Friday, 28 October 2011, 16:33 IST
Printer Print Email Email
LONDON: Finnish mobile handset maker Nokia said it is targeting over 50 per cent market share in India on the back of innovative products, services and content within 2012. The company is banking on its newly unveiled mid-end phones from the 'Asha' series priced between Rs 4,100 and Rs 8,000 and other smartphones, including the new two Lumia models with Windows Operating System tagged at about Rs 29,000 and Rs 19,000 respectively, to drive up sales in India. "Our target share should always be more than half of the total market...I think we would be able to get there in 2012 by focusing on great innovative products, great delivery and experience at retail points, services and content integration," Nokia India Vice-President and Managing Director D Shivakumar told reporters here. When asked about the company's current market share in India he said: "I won't be able to say that but I can say that we are well on our way." Nokia is eyeing a majority share across categories within the total mobile and smartphones segment. According to industry journal 'Voice & Data', in the fiscal 2010-11, the Indian mobile handset market touched Rs 33,171 crore and Nokia's share was Rs 12,929 crore. "India is not the right market for anybody to just do a value play in any one category. If you want to be meaningful, you have to be a full line player," he added. Nokia has unveiled four new mid-end phones from the 'Asha' series priced between 60 Euro and 115 euro, along with two new Lumia smartphones with Windows Operating System tagged at 420 euro and 270 euro respectively. "The Asha range will be a huge boon in a market like India, where the total Internet penetration is under seventy million and the total mobile population is over 800 million," he said. To support the launch of Lumia phones in India, the company has plans to give demonstrations and let consumers experience the new phones at over 5,000 retail points. Nokia and Microsoft are training about 12,000 people for this. On the day of the launch, all the employees of Nokia's corporate office in India will be selling phones at stores, Shivakumar said. "It is the most important launch for us and the benchmark that we have set for ourselves is that it must be the most impactful consumer products launch in the country," he added. For the Lumia Windows phones, the company is set to launch a new global marketing campaign, including in India. Nokia says its retail partners and operators have committed to invest three times more on he marketing and promotion of the new phones, compared to earlier launches.
Source: PTI