50 percent of phones to be made in India by end FY17

Lenovo, which along with its arm Motorola is now the third largest player in the Indian smartphone market, according to IDC, believes that more than half the phones being sold by the two brands in India by the next fiscal will be locally manufactured.

 Sudhin Mathur, director, Smartphones, Lenovo Group said together Lenovo and Moto account for 11.6 per cent of the smartphones sold last quarter, a jump of over 2 per cent compared to Q3 and a year-on-year growth of 97 per cent as per the IDC figures.

We are already the No 1 player online,? he said, highlighting the fact the online sales account for 37 per cent in India now. For Lenovo, the popular K3 Note and A6000+ smartphones are raking in the numbers, while Moto G3 along with Moto X Play and Moto X Style have been very successful for Motorola. The brand strategy is now to promote to the Moto brand in the $200+ and $300+ categories while Lenovo tries to grip the sub-$200 segment with its budget phones.

Asked how the company was reacting to the entry of new Chinese brands like Le Eco which want to tap into the same price points, Mathur said the Indian market was pretty big and growing. ?IDC has forecast over 150 million smartphones will be sold in India by end of 2016, and we are already the second largest in subscriber base. So there is a huge opportunity here and many new players will come. What is more important is what consumers want to buy and they are getting a good choice now. But trust and reliability will matter in the end,? he explained.

Mathur says India now accounts for more that 10 per cent of Lenovo?s Groups numbers and the company?s commitment to the country was clear from the start of manufacturing in India. ?In US, the Moto brand is much strong and in Asia Pacific the Lenovo brand is stronger. However, both the brands are equally popular and accepted in India and we will continue with the dual brand strategy,? he said.

Most of the Moto G and E series phones as well as entry level phones from Lenovo including the K3 Note are now made in India. ?The intention is to continue to make more and more phones within the country. Next fiscal year, more than 50 per cent of our phones will be made in India,? he said. Mathur added that the plan was to add more exclusive Lenovo-Moto service centres by end of calendar here, of which there were about 60 now, as ?volumes have not reached a significant level?. ?There will be 100 by end of the year and they will be only for Lenovo-Moto customers.?