Focusing largely on the entry-level handsets, Nokia’s Chennai facility has already manufactured over 29 million pieces since its launch in early 2006.
NEW DELHI: Nokia India is looking at increasing exports from its Indian manufacturing facility. About 20% of the entire production from the newly set up Chennai facility are exported. Though majority of Nokia India’s current exports currently are to the South East Asian region, it is aggressively pursuing a few international destinations, besides China, especially for the entry-level handsets.
Urpo Karjalainen, senior vice-president, Nokia customer and market operations, said: “We believe that markets like Latin America and Africa offer great potential for competitively priced entry-level handsets. While there are no immediate plans of changing the domestic to export ratio of 80:20, going forward we can expect some changes in it.”
Focusing largely on the entry-level handsets, Nokia’s Chennai facility has already manufactured over 29 million pieces since its launch in early 2006. Karjalainen said the company aims to touch $4 billion in sales by 2010, of which a major chunk is expected to be from India and China.
Nokia India plans to introduce seven new models designed especially for the first-time users with features that are more than just basic functions.
Though targeted at the entry-level Nokia India, is not using pricing as a strategy to lure in the first time users. In fact, even the new handsets that are expected to hit the market beginning second and third quarter of 2007 are being priced between €35 and €90 (excluding taxes and subsidies).
“A price war situation is something we do not intend to get into because we believe that Nokia as a brand is very well received in the country. Our intentions are to promote more efficient use of the handset with added features and functionality,” said Soren Petersen, Nokia’s senior vice-president. Putting an end to all the rumours about Nokia’s sub $ 20 handset, Petersen said that the company has already gone on record in the past that there are no plans of introducing any Nokia products priced below €30-35.
Growing on par with the Indian handset industry at 20-30% annually, the handset maker enjoys over 70% market share in India in the GSM category. Its share in the CDMA category though is a decent 20%. While the company currently retails through 1,10,000 stores, there are plans to almost double the number in another two years to 210,000 stores.
“Our comprehensive study indicates huge potential in the Indian market, almost to the tune of 80 million people. The entry-level products have been especially designed keeping this target audience in mind,” asserted Petersen.
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