Karbonn aiming at Rs. 8,000 crore revenue in FY 2015

Domestic handset maker Karbonn aims to clock a revenue of Rs. 8,000 crores in 2014-15, growing close to 80 percent, as it expands its smartphone portfolio.

Karbonn, which is the country's third largest smartphone maker, expects to close the current fiscal with Rs. 4,500 crores in revenues.

"About 80 percent of our handsets sold are feature phones and the remaining are smartphones. We expect the ratio to change to 50-50 in the next fiscal," Karbonn Managing Director Pardeep Jain told PTI.

Smartphones account for 40 percent of Karbonn's revenues and that is expected to grow to 65 percent, he said.

Also, Karbonn plans to spend Rs. 300 crores on marketing and sales and about Rs. 400 crores on R&D during the next fiscal, Jain said, adding that the spend will focus on smartphones.

The company on Wednesday launched three new smartphones, based on the latest Android KitKat operating system and hexa and octa-core processors, in partnership with mobile chipmaker MediaTek.

The three phones - Titanium Hexa, Titanium Octane and Titanium Octane Plus - are priced at Rs. 16,990, Rs. 14,490 and Rs. 17,990, respectively. The devices will start shipping from the last week of April.

"We are the first Indian brand to offer KitKat OS to the Indian consumers. The smartphone market in India grew by nearly 229 percent in 2013 and the partnership with MediaTek will allow us to further consolidate our position in the domestic market," he said.

According to research firm IDC, smartphone sales surpassed 44 million units in 2013, up from 16.2 million in 2012.

This surge has been mainly powered by home grown vendors which have shown a tremendous and consistent growth over the past four quarters of 2013.

Samsung led the Indian smartphone market (37 percent), followed by Micromax (16 percent), Karbonn (10 percent) and Sony (5 percent) in the October-December 2013 period.

The overall phone market in India stood at close to 257 million units in 2013, an 18 percent increase from 218 million units in 2012, with a remarkable migration from feature phones to smartphones primarily due to the narrowing price gaps between the two product categories

Micromax expects to hit $1 billion revenue this fiscal

Helped by growing sales of its affordable and entry-level smartphones, domestic handset maker Micromax expects to hit $1 billion (over Rs. 6,100 crores) in revenues this fiscal, ending March 31.

The New Delhi-headquartered company's revenues were Rs. 3,168 crores for the financial year 2012-13.

Micromax, which is the second largest smartphone player in India, held about 16 percent market share in Q4 2013. Some of the top selling models were the entry level smartphones like A35 Bolt and A67, IDC data showed.

The Canvas range of devices has also done well in terms of volume contribution owing to the marketing campaigns launched around them.

"We have seen huge growth in business, especially in the smartphone category (mid and entry-level). We expect to close this fiscal will a billion in revenues," Micromax co-founder Vikas Jain told PTI.

The firm will continue to launch innovative and affordable products for the market across platforms, he added.

"We will introduce a product based on Android Kitkat within the next 60 days," Jain said.

Asked if the company would introduce a device with Windows Phone OS, he said the company is in discussions with Microsoft on bringing out "products relevant to the Indian market".

Micromax on Thursday announced a strategic partnership with chipset maker MediaTek and telecom services provider Aircel.

"This is aimed at offering the best out-of-the-box experiences for the Indian users and the partnership will see a unique amalgamation of the expertise of the three companies," Jain said.

While, Aircel will offer one stop solutions to address the increasing data demands, MediaTek along-with Micromax's expertise in product design and performance will redefine the user experience creating a win-win ecosystem for the Indian users, he added.

Under this alliance, Aircel will team up with Micromax to introduce a range of offers for the consumers which will be almost equivalent to cost of the device.

Powered by MediaTek chipsets, the devices promise to deliver a seamless and a powerful user experience, while the bundled Aircel offers will drive data growth in the country.

The offers initially will be available across 4 Micromax devices - MMX 377G, Funbook Mini 410i, A090 and X070 - to be available next month.

The co-developed smart devices by the three pioneers will deliver seamless experience for consumers, driving enhanced performance and data experience for customers across the country