Foxconn’s handset brand, InFocus, is planning to hire 5,000 employees in India next year and invest $20 million (Rs 128 crore) in marketing and branding, as it aims to expand operations by covering more small cities and towns.
The handset brand of the world’s largest contract manufacturer is looking to sell 10 million feature and smartphones by the end of next fiscal year to grab an around 5% market share. It is hopeful of selling 6 million devices by the end of this fiscal year through March 2018, backed up by a $10 million investment. The company claims to have an around 2 percent share in the overall handset market.
According to ETTelecom, Luo Zhongsheng, the global CEO for Sharp and InFocus Mobile said “We have brought big changes and we have a new team in place. The plan is to be more aggressive in the market.” He is also a senior vice president at FIH Mobile, the mobile phone arm of Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group.
Outlining the ‘InFocus 2.0’ strategy, Zhongsheng said the brand will hire people to support its handset manufacturing with Foxconn and expand the sales and marketing team. InFocus will also hire brand promoters who will be deployed at retail outlets.
InFocus-branded handsets are currently being made through third-party companies in India. Piyush Puri, its vice president of sales and marketing in India, said manufacturing of InFocus handsets through Foxconn would start later next year.
“Our factory team is working on the same,” Zhongsheng said, who added that Foxconn would launch smartphones from Sharp — the Japanese company’s business it acquired last year — by next quarter. It is currently in talks with ecommerce major Amazon to sell the phones online.
Sharp-branded smartphones will be positioned in the Rs 20,000 price category in India, while InFocus smartphones will be priced Rs 8,000-15,000.
Most of the fresh investment will be made towards the online segment in the country, Puri said. Smartphones currently make around 75 percent of its overall handset sales in value terms.
InFocus brand had entered the Indian mobile phone market through Snapdeal in March 2015, but saw limited success amid hyper competition — it sold only 2 million phones until December 2016. claims to have around 2 percent handset market share.
