WHAT’S ON THE CARDS?

company is gearing up to enter wearables market with India-made smartwatches

BRAND will channel funds towards R&D focused on software for its phones, and brand building operates in price segments up to ₹25,000 where all its models are 5G-enabled.

Lava’s existing capacity will be used for making the ProWatch brand of smartwatches which is planned for retail next month. It is also building its app for the watch, Raina said. The company will follow the same principle of giving a near-stock Android experience to consumers, removing bloatware or pre-downloaded apps that come with the device, across all its smartphones and the new watch models, he added.

“We feel we have a good chance to break into this market because we’ll be competing with Indian brands. And we’ve been the survivor among all Indian mobile phone brands,” he said.

Lava began selling smartphones in 2010, when it competed with Indian brands Micromax, Karbonn, Intex and global brands like Nokia and Samsung. It is the only Indian brand among the lot which continues to sell phones as of today.

LAVA will remove bloatware or predownloaded apps in new watch models and all smartphones

towards research & development (R&D) focused on software for its phones, and brand building to compete with its peers, a majority of which are Chinese.

Lava has a 2% market share as of December 2023 in the smartphone market. It doubled this share over the previous year on the back of Blaze 5G, its 5G device below ₹10,000, targeting the mass market. It