Huawei expects to corner a quarter of the mid range smartphone market in India

Smartphone maker Huawei expects to corner 20-25 per cent share in smartphones priced between Rs 28,000 and Rs 35,000 sold online during 2017. Globally, as per company officials, Huawei has achieved around 13 per cent market share in smartphones and is making efforts to achieve the same in Indian market. “Our prime focus is to achieve 10 per cent market share in India. It may take some more time than desired earlier but it will happen. This year, we expect to get 20-25 per cent share in Rs 28,000-Rs 35,000 range smartphones sold online,” Huawei India-Consumer Business Group, Vice President Sales, P Sanjeev said after the company launched Honor 8 Pro for Rs 29,999. Huawei has customised **Honor 8 Pro** with 6GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage for India with option to expand it further by up to 128 GB using memory card. It has 4,000 mAh battery which the company official said will work for 1.44 days on heavy usage and up to 2 days on normal usage. “Honor 8 Pro will start selling for prime users of Amazon from 6 pm of July 10. For others, it will start selling from July 13. This year, we expect to launch one more model in the mid-range phones for online sale. We are yet to decide on date to start sale of Honor 8 Pro across retail stores,” Sanjeev said. Honor 8 Pro comes with 12 megapixel dual-lens camera. The camera has wide aperture range adjustment feature for capturing moving objects. Sanjeev said that the company can achieve 10 per cent market share easily by tweaking prices but will not prefer a short cut as it is good only for temporary business. “Huawei smartphones are being sold on recommendations. Seventy per cent of our smartphone buyers have purchased based on word of mouth piblicity. We are investing on after-sales service to push growth in India. Our 250 service centres are now open throughout the week,” Sanjeev said. He added that goods and services tax (GST) will further help the company in expanding presence in offline market. “With GST coming in, we have no boundaries. Now we are expanding distribution network for offline sales,” Sanjeev said.