Aggressive pricing by brands have made the 5g mobile phone affordable; you can get good options around Rs 10,000.
The Delhi high court has granted bail to Hari Om Rai, the former MD of Lava International mobile company, in a money laundering case involving smartphone-maker Vivo. Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri granted relief to the ex-Lava official, who was in custody since his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in October last year.
Expansion of distribution network, venturing into new markets, supplementing production capacity, and ramping up workforce are all on the cards. Instead of trying to fight with brands having massive war chests, it will pass on the benefits to consumers by offering them phones at lower prices.
Apple's iPhone supplies in India grew 25 per cent year-on-year in March quarter 2025, capturing 8 per cent market share, a CyberMedia Research report said on Monday.
The Uttar Pradesh government and iPhone maker Foxconn have started discussions to set up an electronics manufacturing unit in the state, sources aware of the development said. The investment pitch was made by Invest UP to Foxconn at the time of the final land allocation for the HCL-Foxconn chip joint venture Vama Sundari.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni's special message to all Indians this Independence Day.
Home-grown mobile phone company Lava International has become the first Indian brand to launch 5G smartphones for domestic consumers. The smartphone launched under the brand name 'Agni' has been developed by Lava in India and is getting manufactured at its plant in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. "The purpose of launching Agni is to give Indian consumers the choice of a made in India 5G smartphone for Indians by an Indian company. "We wanted to establish before people that there can be an Indian brand which is technology oriented. "We are second in the world to launch a 5G smartphone on Mediatek Dimensity 810 chipset," Sunil Raina, president & business head, Lava International told PTI on the sidelines of the launch.
Home-grown companies, including electronics manufacturing services (EMS) firm Dixon Technologies and mobile device maker Lava International, have started exploratory talks with Chinese sub-assemblies and component players for setting up joint ventures (JVs) in the country. Sources in the industry say many domestic companies have also had preliminary discussions with original design manufacturers (ODMs) in China to look at a JV model for manufacturing smartphones. Key ODM players in mobile devices in China include Longcheer, Huaqin, and Wingtech, which has already set up a plant in Tirupati.
Indian phone company Lava reveals a new strategy, reports Arnab Dutta.
Come July, mobile phone prices are expected to be dearer by up to 10 per cent due to the steep depreciation in the value of rupee against dollar.
Apple's iconic iPad2 and Samsung's Galaxy Tab are set to face a local challenge.
The government is busy strategising ways to revive the domestic mobile device industry as Chinese firms have grabbed a large chunk of the handset market. The idea is to minimise competition from Chinese mobile players in the entry level or sub-Rs 10,000 category, according to a senior government official familiar with the plans. While discussions on the strategy are on, there's a growing consensus within the government that the lower end of the market should be reserved only for the domestic players, the official said.
Qualcomm launched its new affordable, India-designed chipset, the Snapdragon 4s Gen 2, on Tuesday. This chipset will enable mobile device makers to sell 5G smartphones operating on a standalone (SA) network for Rs 8,300 or less.
Finnish phone manufacturer Human Mobile Devices (HMD Global), which acquired the Nokia brand name from Microsoft, is planning to make India a key manufacturing hub for its phone exports. The company only began exporting late last year with the Nokia 105 Classic. What started mainly with feature phones will now extend to smartphones - it announced the global launch of models under the HMD brand for the first time a few days ago and these will be available in India too.
The government gave clearance to five global and five Indian players that have made a commitment to a production value of 12.5-trillion phones in five years under the Production Linked Incentive scheme.
The government on Monday extended the period of production-linked incentive scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing with a focus on mobile phones by a year until 2025-26. The base year of the scheme 2019-20 remains the same but the companies will have the option to choose their five-year period either from the base year or the year 2020-21 for calculation of the incentives under the scheme. "Now we have extended the tenure of the scheme from 2020-21 to 2025-26. "Earlier, it would have ended in 2024-25.
In a communication to the empowered committee on PLI recently, the Indian Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) has stated that except one player (Samsung), all the other eight players (which include vendors of Apple Inc) selected under the scheme were facing numerous challenges in fulfilling the qualification criteria.
Players such as Micromax and Olive have already launched tablets for the Indian market at a price point ranging between Rs 5,000 and Rs 7,000.
Fintech major PhonePe on Wednesday announced the launch of its homegrown Indus Appstore specifically for the Indian market, in a bid to compete with global incumbents like Google Play Store and Apple's App Store. The Indus Appstore is PhonePe's attempt at creating a more competitive and localised mobile app store economy for India, which is already the world's largest market for mobile apps.
Handset firms Karbonn and Lava International launched their smartphones, while Maxx Mobiles introduced its feature phone targetted at the rural market.
The Enforcement Directorate has filed its first charge sheet in connection with its money laundering probe against Chinese smartphone maker Vivo-India and some others, official sources said on Thursday. The prosecution complaint was filed before the court of Special Judge Kiran Gupta in New Delhi on Wednesday under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and Vivo-India has been named an accused apart from those arrested in this case, the sources told PTI. The judge posted the matter for consideration on December 13.
The price range of these mobile phones is between Rs 1,750 and Rs 7,000. After Bharti, others have followed the cue. Tata Indicom recently announced a QWERTY phone, which is a co-branded product with Alcatel.
Most India brands have started offering 3G-enabled phones with a starting price of about Rs 4,000.
With the government's crackdown on Chinese handsets, Indian brands like Karbonn, Lava, Micromax and Movil have usurped the vacated space and increased their share of the market to 15 per cent.
The Indian mobile handset market saw a drop of 5 per cent in revenues in FY 2011-12.
Shipment of 5G smartphones in the country continues to gain traction and such devices accounted for 22 per cent market share in the third quarter of 2021, according to CMR. As per CMR's India Mobile Handset Market Review Report for Q3 2021, more than 20 5G-capable smartphones were launched over the course of the quarter.
Only one in five handsets sold in India this year is likely to be made locally.
The Enforcement Directorate has arrested four persons including the MD of the Lava International mobile company and a Chinese national as part of its ongoing money-laundering probe against Chinese smartphone-maker Vivo, official sources said on Tuesday. They identified the four as Hari Om Rai, the MD of Lava International company, Chinese national Guangwen Kyang, chartered accountant Nitin Garg and a person called Rajan Malik. They have been taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
iPhone maker Apple led India market with highest revenue in 2023 for the first time while Samsung topped the chart in terms of sales volume, market research firm Counterpoint Research said on Wednesday. While India's smartphone shipments remained flat in 2023 at 152 million units, Samsung and Chinese mobile phone makers Vivo and Oppo were able to grow their shares, according to Counterpoint's Monthly India Smartphone Tracker report. "Apple's focus on India is also aiding the trend, with the brand surpassing the 10-million-unit mark in shipments and capturing the top position in revenue in a calendar year for the first time, propelled by robust demand for both its latest and older iPhones.
Samsung has been facing competition from local mobile handset makers like Micromax, Lava and Karbonn but it has maintained its lead in smartphones.
The onslaught of Chinese mobile brands is virtually obliterating Indian brands, especially in terms of value. According to industry estimates based on excise and Custom duty trends, the value share of Indian brands (across smartphones and feature phones, operator phone sales - which is mostly Jio phones - and the value of phones smuggled into the country) has dropped to a mere 1.2 per cent in January-October 2021 compared to 25.4 per cent in the calendar year 2015. In the same period, the Chinese have established their domination, hitting a value share of 64.5 per cent, up from 17.8 per cent.
A court in New Delhi on Friday extended by three days the ED custody of four people arrested in a money laundering case against Chinese smart phone maker Vivo, including the managing director of Lava International mobile company and a Chinese national. The four accused were produced before Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala on completion of their three-day ED custody. On Friday, the agency moved four separate applications seeking extension of their custody by 10 days but the court granted it only three more days for custodial interrogation of the accused.
According to research firm IDC, a slowdown in smartphone shipments began showing up as early as late February, though companies insist that the March quarter was fine, albeit on a low base.
The government has asked industry to provide a list of Chinese suppliers that would like to shift some capacity to India provided they are willing to set up JVs with Indian companies.
Making the Pixel 8 in India will not necessarily bring the price down -- witness iPhones made in India that are more expensive than those in the US and Dubai.
Samsung may be the leader in the burgeoning Indian mobile market.
The government will set up expert groups to explore the adoption of common chargers for mobile and all portable electronic devices, and submit a detailed report in two months, Consumer Affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said. The department of consumer affairs on Wednesday called a meeting with industry stakeholders. After the meeting, Singh said India can initially think of exploring shifting to two types of chargers, including a C-Type port.
Carbonated soft drinks, bottled water and mobile handsets could become costlier soon.
How dominant are Chinese firms in India's sub-Rs 10,000 mobile device market? The question has become relevant as the government has been thinking of reserving this price segment for domestic players who have not been able to battle the Chinese onslaught. However, telecom firms and others are concerned that such a move could stymie the effort to build affordable 5G phones in the sub-Rs 10,000 category.
The chipset accounts for over 25%-30% of the cost of an average smart phone. Hence, a reduction in its price, device makers say, will make a huge difference to the cost of a phone.
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