John Sculley backed Obi mobiles will be launching its initial smartphones in the Rs 5,000-8,000 price bracket. But as per the latest reports, they will also release Windows Phones and 4G enabled devices. The first smartphones from the company will hit the retail shelves in June with the Windows Phone devices coming in the next quarter of the current fiscal year.
This will be followed by the 4G enabled devices in the last quarter of the fiscal year 2014-15. It will be launching budget Android devices too throughout the year post the first device from the company gets launched. It is aiming to achieve a revenue of Rs 1,000 crores in the current fiscal by selling 1.6-1.7 million devices.
The company’s target is to get a 2 percent market share by 31st March 2015. John Sculley has been a top gun at the world’s most valuable company, Apple which is known for its innovation. Let us see how much innovation he brings in the Rs 5,000-8,000 bracket. The team of Obi mobiles comprises of previous employees of Micromax and HTC India so their knowledge of the Indian market will also come into play.
70 percent of the smartphone market in the country comprises of sub $200 (below Rs 10,000 in India even though the conversion rates translate into sub Rs 12,000 roughly)devices and Obi mobiles wants to concentrate its efforts in that segment primarily. It will also launch sub Rs 15,000 devices for a better brand presence.
"People are migrating from feature phones to smartphones and adoption of small phones is growing. This is a right time to be in strategic market like India. By the time we scale up and close the year, we could be even looking at 4% market share." 4 percent seems a bit optimistic but who knows they might just achieve it as well.
