According to Indian media reports, Peter Zhai, president of Huawei's Indian consumer affairs department, recently stated in Huawei's P9 India release that Huawei has obtained a manufacturing license in India. Within a month, they will announce local manufacturing plans in India.
Peter Zhai also mentioned that Huawei wants to become a leader in the Indian mobile phone market. The immediate goal is to obtain a 10% share of the entire mobile phone market in India by the end of next year. The Indian consumer business department is directly responsible for the Chinese headquarters, which shows its importance. Huawei's handheld products sold in India will all be locally assembled and will be produced in cooperation with India's own research and development center.
Huawei’s share in the European market ranks second in Android’s market share. However, in the Indian market, according to the Times of India, Samsung, Lenovo, and Xiaomi are among the top three, while the share of oppo and vivo continues to expand. Vivo is the first Chinese mobile phone company to build a factory in India. Only Huawei’s market share in India has shrunk to a tenth.
Huawei lags behind other brands for two reasons. On the one hand, Huawei’s initial overseas strategic focus is more focused on developing the European market. Second is the limited consumption of Indian residents. Surveys show that the most popular smartphones in India are priced between US$100 and US$200, and Huawei is implementing high-priced strategies in addition to glory, which puts most Indian consumers out of the market. IDC market analysts believe that Huawei's brand in the high-end market in India may be difficult to sell, but the glory brand can replicate domestic myths. According to external analysis, Huawei is very likely to launch a low-end model specifically targeting the Indian market.
As of 2016, the proportion of feature phone users in India is still as high as 60%. This not only indicates that the smart phone market has great potential, but also reveals that the low cost and smart phone market will be more popular with consumers. Xiaomi Red 3S and Red Rice 3S Prime, launched in India this year, are priced at 695 yuan and 993 yuan respectively, and the low-priced products have enabled Xiaomi mobile phone to achieve quarterly shipments of over 1 million units in India.
It is reported that Xiaomi will also newly build two factories in India. The factory will be owned by Foxconn and Xiaomi will be responsible for operations.
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