Micromax IN Identity Will Push Make In India Further By Squaring Up To Chinese Phone Brands

In the video message, Rahul Sharma admits that the company made mistakes earlier. It did take a monumental collapse to see Micromax which saw the company become one of the biggest smartphone manufacturers in India in 2010, grow at a steady pace to grab the largest market share in India by 2014 ahead of Samsung and also become the tenth largest smartphone maker in the world. It surely wasn’t a bad start for a company that started selling mobile phones in 2008, with a mix of budget phones, feature phones and smartphones as part of the line-up. It must be considered a positive that the company understands where it went wrong in the past, knowledge and insights that will help them chart a more robust course for the future. “When you have the word India or ‘in’ on you, it gives you a sense of responsibility. The weight of a billion hopes. But bigger than anything is the pride it gives,” says Sharma in an official statement. Responsibility is what the company seems to pride the most, which is a solid foundation to build on.

It was a combination of factors contributed to the slide. The Chinese smartphone makers, including Xiaomi, OnePlus, Oppo and Vivo arrived with an aggressive marketing plan, phones that offered significantly better specs at the same price and in general a more vocal approach to the consumer sentiment about wanting more bang for the buck. They had massive manufacturing facilities in China to rely on, which not only gave them a cost advantage but also the much-needed buffer to set up the manufacturing units in India without any disruption in sales or the aggressive rollout plans. At the same time, Micromax also attempted to diversify into the ecosystem play, which included the likes of smart TVs and appliances including air conditioners and refrigerators. In hindsight, that ecosystem play perhaps came much earlier than it should have. Now would be a good time, after the smartphone market is in the grasp again.

Mind you, it will be very tough though. Xiaomi at this time has a marketshare of 29.4% as per the IDC Quarterly Mobile Tracker from August. In second place is Samsung, with 26.3% market share and Vivo slots into third place with 17.5% share. For all its previous experience in the smartphone market in India, there will still be a steep learning curve for Micromax. That perhaps makes the pursuit even sweeter.