Smartphone, feature phone ratio 60:40

India’s sixth-largest mobile handsets company Celkon based in Hyderabad believes in creating offerings for every person. In developing countries such as East and West Africa, and Srilanka, this model has worked for them. Company provides the best-in-class quality to all customers. Little innovations like local language support developed in tandem with customer insights give the edge over international brands. Celkon currently have own R&D and design centre in Shenzen China.

The state-of-the-art facility has the capacity to design high technology and feature rich products. Celkon is currently present in 12 countries, including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya, Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey. Company will be strengthening their focus in the existing international markets and North Indian states like Rajasthan and Punjab.They also look at expanding to countries like Rwanda, Bangladesh and Europe.

“In my opinion the shift is more towards budget phones. Ultra premium category has its set of loyal customers. But with brands launching phones at extremely competitive prices, the market is shifting towards a budget phone. Majority of the customers today do not believe in the mid-range. Moreover, even after buying a premium phone, one would prefer to have a budget phone as a secondary device. In the coming years, only the ultra-premium category will prevail, rest all will merge into the budget category” said Murali Retineni, Executive Director, Celkon Mobiles.

Supporting the initiative of ‘Make In India’, Celkon will benefit tremendously as the scale of smartphone consumption will grow exponentially. According to the company, the Government has shown its intent to create a business friendly environment and boost the ’Make in India’ initiative. However, what is needed is investor friendly policies and initiatives to promote the manufacturing eco-system in India. Reduction in customs duty and subsidies on materials imported for assembling can improve affordability to consumers by manufacturing in India.

“We have the capabilities to scale up to that extent. In fact, the trend has already started setting. We are expecting our smartphone to feature phone ratio to be 60:40 this year” he added.