Micromax goes international, launches 14 Canvas, Bolt series smartphones in Russia

Micromax, announced, that it was launching operations in Russia, it’s first market in Europe. In an official press release the company said, that it “aims to have an aggressive plan to make its mark in the Russian mobile handset market and plans to offer innovative products customised to the needs of consumers in Russia.” Micromax, is partnering with VVP Group in Russia for distribution and the Canvas and Bolt smartphones will be launched in the country. Micromax said that it will launch 14 products in the Russian market in the initial phase, and aims to be among the Top 4 brands in Russia by the end of 2014. It also plans to have 60 operational service centers by end of the month in important cities in Russia. Commenting on the launch, Mr Rahul Sharma, Co-Founder, Micromax said in a press statement, “Our initial focus in the Russian market is to replicate the success witnessed in our other markets in the last couple of years. We have carved the vision for ourselves to be the 1st Indian hardware brand to be global and set our footprint with Russia as the first developed market to venture into.” He added, “We see a growing trend of data consumption through mobile devices in Russia, and we would be initiating partnerships with the leading operators in the region to aim at efficient data consumption on our devices in the coming year." Speaking on the occasion, Mr Vasily Sibirtsev, Chairman VVP Group said, “We are very excited to work with Micromax, one of the world’s leading mobile phone brands. We will be working aggressively to strengthen our presence in the retail space across 9000+ sales points in the country backed by an efficient service infrastructure.” Micromax has with other service providers in Russia including Odnoklassniki which is Russia’s popular social network service; IVI.ru, which is Russia’s first free video & music service, and Viber as part of the launch. Micromax plans to support the launch with a heavy-duty branding exercise, similar to the one we have seen in India.