Mods let Lenovo fight the features battle with premium players like Apple and Samsung and keep the price of the phone low, thereby drawing in aspirational customers who can't afford high-priced feature-rich handsets.
Most India brands have started offering 3G-enabled phones with a starting price of about Rs 4,000.
A peek into the industry that is mobile apps and its future in India.
Delhi high court had last week stayed BSNL to award the contract till the next hearing, but had allowed the public sector company to continue with the evaluation process.
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.
However, the firm continued with its operation in the Indian market.
India doubled its exports of smartphones to $11.1 billion (about Rs 91,000 crore) in 2022-23 (FY23) over the previous year's figure of $5.48 billion (Rs 45,000 crore), thanks largely to the Apple juggernaut, according to data from the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA). Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said: "With the doubling of exports of smartphones to over Rs 90,000 crore, India is well on its way to becoming a leader in the global mobile device market." On the flip side, despite the government prodding Chinese companies to export more, their smartphone shipments fell steeply by 26 per cent from $214 million in FY22 to $157 million in FY23.
Amazon signed up Motorola as an exclusive brand partner for its new devices, which in turn helped it grow
Can the launch of smartphones under its own brand name by Finnish company HMD Global - despite having a licence to use the Nokia brand which it bought from Microsoft - help it regain its once dominant position in the mobile phone sweepstakes in India, where it was once routed? In 2009, Nokia was the country's largest MNC with revenues of $4 billion and a market share touching 80 per cent in 2010. After this, its fortunes fell. Although it had been the first global player to set up an assembly plant, not only to assemble phones for the local market but for exports, it had to shut down operations in 2014.
Motorola today launched its first flagship smartphone Moto X, after being taken over by Google, to take on competition from Apple and Samsung.
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.
Keeping this in view, the company is aiming to launch mobile devices with Wi-Fi and near field communication capabilities, touch-screen facility and location based services in the Indian market.
Except the battery that charges faster, the Moto G Turbo, at Rs 14,500, doesn't make up for a compelling upgrade, if you already own a Moto G device, says Himanshu Juenja
It was expected that supplies from China will be back to normal by end-June as their factories are now operating at nearly 90 per cent of normal capacity. But the recent issue with shipments has placed an obstacle that manufacturers can't bypass.
They are both electronic manufacturing services (EMS) companies, also known as contract manufacturers. One is Taiwan's Foxconn group, the undisputed global number one in this business with revenues of $223 billion. The other is Dixon Technologies, the biggest domestic player with revenues of over Rs 10,500 crore.
India is one of the world's hottest mobile phone markets, but Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung must deliver cool handsets at very thin profit margins.
Global mobile phone majors Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and others are offering a slew of products including touchscreen and music capable handsets in India to counter the might of Apple's iPhone, which is expected to hit the markets in September.
While the outbreak has forced most leading brands like Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Realme to rework their launch dates and pricing strategies, Samsung, which struggled to maintain its hold over the market last year, has taken the lead.
Samsung retains top slot in smartphones but Motorola pips Nokia for 4th position.
India is the world's third largest smartphone market.
The new handset --MOTORAZR 2 V9 Ferrari would be available exclusively at the Mobile Store for the first week of its launch. However, the phone would not be a limited edition device. The phone comes with a unique racing interface, 2-mega pixel camera and has expandable memory up to 2 GB.
A lot of hype has been generated ahead of the launch of iPhone, which would be available at Rs 31,000 a piece for the 8Gb memory model and Rs 36,100 for 16GB from the stroke of midnight on Thursday. Leading service providers Vodafone-Essar and Bharti Airtel, who have been accepting bookings from customers, have said the response has been extremely good.
Sony Ericsson, a leading Japanese-Swedish mobile handset maker, is all set to produce its mobile handsets in Sriperumbudur through manufacturing agreements with Flextronics and Foxconn.
The company is planning to invest Rs 1,100 crore in the new mobile phone manufacturing facility.
Following the footsteps of Motorola, Chinese handset maker Xiaomi is also teaming up with e-Commerce major Flipkart to launch its handsets in India.
The Chinese phone maker has ensured its two brands - Lenovo and Motorola - do not cannibalise into each other's share.
While Nokia remains the clear number one, the number two and three positions are seeing the real strategising.
Motorola's latest budget offering, Moto G Turbo edition, goes on sale in India, on Flipkart, December 10. Himanshu Juneja tells you what to expect from this Rs 15k, 4G-enabled smartphone.
With young people and others using their phones for texting, e-mail, and Web surfing, it's an increasingly wireless way of life on the Subcontinent.
If the Delhi HC order stays effective, Xiaomi would lose the fastest growing smartphone market.
Mobile devices are now enabling people to network on the move. Users are logging on to popular social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut and Twitter using the general packet radio service technology on their mobile phones to stay in touch with their friends and acquaintances.
Tax problems and unfavourable WTO agreements are making Tamil Nadu's electronics corridor less attractive to companies.
Airtel starts 4G trial in Mumbai; partners Flipkart, Samsung.
CanvasM said that within the next 6 months it will launch Colored Notes, a mobile phone messaging application, in India. Colored Notes will enable users to animate their text messages via emoticons.
It seems like 2012 will end up as the year of the tablet PC consumer as the action is just hotting up and hopefully by the time the year ends there'd more consumers with tablet PCs than mobile phones in India.
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