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HandSet
Jivi mobiles forays into smartphone space; to invest Rs 5200 crores
TT Correspondent |  |  10 Sep 2018

Home-grown mobile phone brand Jivi mobiles which was operating as a feature phone player in India will now be foraying into the smartphone space in the Rs 5000 to Rs 7000 price segment.

The company will be investing Rs 5200 crores in the next six months for establishing its own smartphone manufacturing unit in Maharashtra, creating a stronger distribution ecosystem and pushing the brand in the market.

Jivi is assembling feature phones in Delhi presently and its smartphone manufacturing facility will be up and running in next 6 months.

“In the feature phone segment, we're targeting 5-8% market share in a year's time and for smartphone we will first try to gain 2% market share in the Rs 5000- Rs 7000 segment that we're operating in. Two years down the line, we would target 5% smartphone share across the country,” Murthy Bjas, group director and global head of operations told ETTelecom.

In the last six months, the handset-maker has also entered into the Southeast Asia market. “We've now entered Bangladesh, we've been in Nepal for long. We're getting into Myanmar, Sri Lanka as well. In next 6 months we would be present in about 6-10 countries,” added Bjas.

The domestic player which has close to 2% share in the feature phone market in India saw a turnover of Rs 350 crores in FY17-18. The company is now targeting to double its revenues in this fiscal to Rs 650-700 crores banking on its current 10-15% month-on-month growth.

The company is focussing on the tier 2 and tier 3 cities and claims to have strong presence across northern and eastern parts of the country. It was only in the last six months that the company expanded in the southern and western regions as well.

Bjas who earlier worked Vodafone further told that Jivi has plans of launching 5 smartphones till mid-October. “..as we gain momentum, every month we'll be coming up with one or two smartphones. Therefore, by end of the year we'll have at least another 5 smartphones coming into the market.”

“India's penetration in smartphones is going to be 35-37% by 2022 suggesting that more than 60% of mobile users are still going to be feature phone users. Less than Rs 10000 smartphone price segment is going to open up further and this is the space where we would love to participate in,” said Bjas.

    
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10 Sep 2018(IST)  
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