Spice to launch Rs 6,000 Android One smartphone before Diwali

Earlier this month reports claimed that Android One range will be launched in time for Diwali and the holiday season around India’s largest festival this October. Now news has it that Spice would be the first to bring the much-awaited Rs 1,500-Firefox and Rs 6,000-Android One smartphones to India before Diwali.

Earlier this year, Mozilla (developer of Firefox web browser) had tied up with Indian firms - Intex and Spice - to bring smartphones priced at USD 25 (about Rs 1,500) to India.

Spice is aiming to grow its revenues in the country by over 40 percent to Rs 2,000 crore this fiscal, buoyed by the strong growth in its smartphone business. ”Last year, our revenues were Rs 1,400 crore and this year, we expect it to grow Rs 2,000 crore (fiscal ending June 2015). We expect to grow our market share to over 4 percent from about 2.2 percent now,” he said. Ramakrishnan added that the numbers could change depending on the response to the new devices coming in.

Smartphone sales in the country grew almost three-fold to over 44 million in 2013, buoyed by affordable devices made by local firms such as Micromax and Karbonn, according to research firm IDC. In the first quarter of 2014, 17.59 million smartphones were shipped in India compared with 6.14 million in the same period of 2013. While Samsung is the category leader with a 35 per cent market share, Micromax had 15 percent, Karbonn 10 percent, LAVA 6 per cent and Nokia 4 percent in Q1, IDC said. Low-cost handsets prices less than Rs 5,000 and smartphones not costing more than Rs 7,000 from Asian handset makers including Huawei, ZTE, Micromax and Karbonn have been driving growth in the emerging markets of Asia and Africa.

Spice will also invest Rs 160 crore during the fiscal (July 2014-June 2015) for various advertising and marketing campaigns. ”About 85 percent of our portfolio is priced under Rs 8,000. We are focussed on tier II and III cities and towns. Though we have higher priced models as well, but we are seeing very high growth rates between 250-300 per cent in the smaller markets,” he said.

A recent report suggested Google is going beyond just  working with manufacturers before and during production . It will reportedly spend more than Rs 100 crore on advertising and marketing, in what is called an unprecedented push into the Indian market.

With a focus on sub-$100 smartphones, Google is hoping to bring more people into the Android fold. Google is working with at least three Indian manufacturers to develop a sub-$100 smartphone for the Indian market this fall, getting Android software into one of the fastest-growing major mobile markets. Besides Spice,  Micromax and Karbonn  are said to be among its partners. All will work closely with Google for new phones, which will feature Google-provided software and not software provided by the companies’ production partners as has been the norm so far.

With input from PTI