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| Edited By: Ashish K Tiwari |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 22, 2018, 03:53 AM IST
Sudhin Mathur, executive director – Mobile Business Group, India for Lenovo India Pvt Ltd, in conversation with Ashish K Tiwari speaks about the brand’s – Lenovo and Moto – range of smartphones, the newly attained status in the market, upcoming launches and future plans. Here is the excerpt.
We forayed into the smartphone industry in India three years ago. We were at the 39th position at that point in time. The progress has been very encouraging. The latest IDC numbers show we are the number one brand in the online space. We are also the number two brand by value as well as volume and by number of 4G devices being shippped. All this essentially means that in such a large market, some of the things that we have done revolve around offering new innovation and products. Also, giving a complete experience in the past have helped us grow at a good pace. In fact, we think that innovation in this industry has kind of stopped and everyone seems to be focussing on hardware upgrades.
Yes. The first one is the Moto M device, the most stylish smartphone so far at a very attractive price under this brand. Following suit is the Lenovo K6 Note that will be sold through both online and offline channels.
We don’t segregate the numbers because these are just subseries under one company. Both the brands are doing equally well in a combined form and manner. While Moto plays more in the mid to high tier price brand and Lenovo plays in the mid to lower tier price brand where volume opportunities are bigger. Value opportunities are higher on the Moto devices.
We have launched some Lenovo devices at a slightly higher price, like the P Series and the recently launched Z2. But we would want to drive the premium segment with the Moto brand and the Modular products. In fact, we will also be taking Moto offline.
Our devices were being only launched online earlier but all that is set to change. In the coming months you will see these devices in large format retail chains and big multi-brand stores including the likes of Croma, Reliance, Vijay Sales, Sangeeta etc. Consumers typically come to these stores for an experience that we would like to offer them.
While the conversations are still on with all the partners, right now we’re selling exclusively through our online partners viz. Amazon and Flipkart. We are number one in online and the idea is to be among top three brands in offline.
It was a two year contract with Ranbir for the smartphone that has ended. Parineeti was here only for the launch of the Moto M device. At the moment, we are not considering getting anyone on board as brand ambassador. That’s because we have evolved as a company and a brand and our products are now speaking for themselves. I think, the next phase for our brand will be talking about high level of innovation.
