Nokia is planning to launch at least 20 new models of cellular phones in the next six months in India. The company has already launched 20 new models in the first half of 2006.
The company is targeting its products at the youth and the enterprises in India for volume sales.
"The company announced investment plans of $ 150 million in India in November 2004, a considerable part of which has gone into the manufacturing unit in Chennai, which began operations in January this year. Till March 2006, the unit has manufactured one million handsets", said Devinder Kishore, director, marketing, at a youth-oriented football event sponsored by the company.
The mobile handset market in India is growing at a rate of approximately 50 per cent. Approximately 4.5 million handsets are being added to the existing market of 100 million, he said.
"There is great potential of volume sales in the entry-level and upgrade level handsets. We are looking at penetrating
the rural markets. Our penetration level in the metros is between 35 to 40 per cent, while our penetration levels in the whole of India is less than 15 per cent.
Still, India is our fourth largest market in the world, which, by 2010 is expected to become the second largest", said the marketing director.
The teledensity of global system for mobile communication phones in India is between 12 to 15 per cent.
Nokia has phones in this category for which prices begin at Rs 2,000 and go upward of Rs 30,000. The company employs 1600 personnel at its Chennai plant and has a 2000 workforce in India. Its research centres at Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bangalore are major centres of research for the company's global operations.
"Phones manufactured at the Chennai plant are also exported worldwide," Kishore says. The company is also considering ancillaries a growing business in India.
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