DIALING CLICKS: The W series with three models, launched on Wednesday, has been manufactured and designed in India for the domestic market
The action in the Indian mobile market never seems to end.
LG, a Korean firm, has launched a new smartphone series priced between Rs 8,999 and 15,000 in a bid to revive the brand in the fastest growing mobile market.
The W series with three models, launched on Wednesday, has been manufactured and designed in India for the Indian market and this has happened for the first time, Advait Vaidya, LG's business head mobiles, told DNA Money.
AMAZON RIDE
|
- The first two models from the W series will be available from July and the third one will be available in August
- For the first time, LG will sell these phones through an online medium – Amazon – and aims to sell one million phones in W series
|
LG has a negligible market share in the Indian mobile market, which is dominated by Chinese players Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo and Korea's Samsung. LG mainly offers high-end premium smartphones in the Indian market.
The company aims to sell one million phones in W series in next one year, he said. For the first time, LG will sell these phones through an online medium -- Amazon.
The first two models from the W series will be available from July and the third one will be available in August. It also plans to launch more models this year, taking the total number of launches to at least 9.
"We aim is to sell one million units of the W series by the end of the calendar year. In the next 18-24 months we are aiming for a double-digit market share in India," Vaidya said.
The mid-segment mobile market constitutes the maximum about 90 % to the total mobile sales where Xiaomi and Samsung are the dominant players, experts said.
Faisal Kawoosa, founder, consultancy firm, techARC said, "Rather than entering the smartphone segment, LG should have taken a smart home positioning and leveraged from its strong market standing in consumer electronics products like washing machines, refrigerators and TVs. The brands which are exclusively focused on smartphones are finding it difficult to survive in present market conditions."
Samsung, Mi, Vivo, Realme and Oppo would be the major five brands in this segment and have over 90% sales, so it would be very difficult for a new entrant to displace any of these strong brands, he said.
LG just has 0.47% share in the total smartphone users of 485 million in India, while sales are not more than 0.05% of the total smartphone sales, according to data from techARC.
Online medium contributes 40% of total sales. Players like Xiaomi and Oppo which started as online-only mobile players have now started focusing on offline medium to target the next level of growth. Recently, Samsung did launch a series only for online, which was quite successful.
The potential in the Indian mobile market is huge. With a mobile user base of over 1 billion, there are only 450 million smartphone users. With uptake in 4G mobile services following the entry of Reliance Jio, the smartphone industry has seen tremendous growth.
There has been an invasion of Chinese mobile firms in the Indian market and they together have been steadily gaining market share. The Indian brands, including Mircomax, Intex, Lava, which had a significant presence till a few years back, are now into oblivion.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "LG W-Series smartphone")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}