‘We plan to conduct phone compatibility tests with each of our headsets before launch’
Which new areas have you tapped for India?
We are moving our focus towards lifestyle consumers. Hence we have upgraded even our entry-level platform products to have multimedia streaming and HD voice capabilities, offering more value for the customers.
Secondly, we have also taken a step forward with colors. Noting that consumers today want to match devices with their style and color choices, we have launched 4 new colors for Jabra Clipper. They are tangerine tango, new pink, turquoise, and white.
How has been 2011 for Jabra?
2011 has been a good year for the company. We have achieved #1 position in Europe and also #1 cross brand in China, based on GFK data.
What are the new products in the pipeline?
Being the global leader in headsets (Jabra owns 20% market share of headsets globally), we are constantly pushing our R&D specialists for innovation. We are going to have a key product launch by the end of this year to set the platform for 2013, so I will have to keep you in suspense first! But stay tuned to Jabra, we will have more exciting products for the consumers.
What are the new demands of your customers?
Consumers today want devices that can do everything for them. Hence the upgrade of our mono platform (except BT2045) is necessary so that even for early adopters of bluetooth headset buyers, they can use their voice apps with the same headset.
Second is with the personalization trend. More and more consumers want to personalize their headset and match them with their phones, clothes, or style. Hence we are launching Clipper colors to understand how the market responds to this variation. Subsequently, you can expect Jabra to be launching more colors which are in line with the latest color trends.
What is the size of your retail presence in India and how do you plan to strengthen it further?
We are present in all the tier-1 and -2 cities. We are now planning to expand deeper into these cities. We have just launched some schemes for RDs and retail channels.
Bluetooth technology many times faces interoperability issues. How do you handle this?
We have a lot of expertise in handling interoperability issues. As a third party cross brand with 10 years of experience in this field, we will conduct phone compatibility tests with each of our headsets before the launch.