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The Indian handset market is the new battleground with about thirty handset players battling it out in the estimated Rs 20,000 crore cellphone market. A number of new handset makers like Micromax, Fly Mobile, Universal, Movil Mobile, Karbonn Mobile, etc, have joined the fray, especially in the lower and mid market segments. However, this crowded segment is dominated by few international brands like Nokia, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, and RIM. In this scenario, it would be extremely difficult for new entrants to grab a share of the pie.

But new regional handset players seem very optimistic about their growth prospects. They have aggressive expansion and growth plans, coupled with marketing and brand building initiatives lined up for the coming year. New players are also expected to join the fray. However, it remains to be seen how many of these will survive in the long run.

Ready to Compete
The competition is undoubtedly high, but with ground breaking mobile solutions and technologies, these new handset players are completely primed to bring about a paradigm shift in the perception of personal mobile devices. They have also introduced entry level handsets for price sensitive Indian consumers, but other major players too are joining this low-cost handsets bandwagon, making it tougher for new players.

"The Indian mobile market is expanding rapidly with the entry of new brands. With a lot of firsts to our credit, like thirty days battery back-up mobile phones, dual SIM/dual standby mobile phones, network changing capability using gravitational force mobile phones, Aspirational Qwerty mobile phones and many more, we have become one of the preferred choice of customers. We are also tying up with major telecom operators to further increase our penetration in the Indian market," says Vikas Jain, business director, Micromax.

Today, the consumer trend is clearly towards those devices which are easy to use and which consumers can directly connect with their lifestyle and day-to-day use. A paradigm shift in consumer behavior has helped a lot to establish these new brands.

Talking about the competition, Sashin Devsare, executive director, Jaina Group says, "It is true that some big brands are already present in India. We believe that the kind of distribution set up in place and the wide range of devices with rich multimedia and dual SIM features at competitive prices and a strong marketing and branding initiatives undertaken, will serve to be the key drivers for us to gain a significant pie of the market share."

The price of handsets is heading south month after month. All that one needs to do is work out the right channel strategy, identify right selling partners and create a formidable support infrastructure such that the customers get benefited when it comes to sales and service. This essentially means there's enough room despite the fact that some brands enjoy a lion's share of the market.

According to Prem Kumar, CEO, India operations, Meridian Mobile, "The market growth shall accommodate brands other than the more established names."

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