Lenovo Group has doubled its manufacturing capacity to 12 million units a year for both Lenovo and Motorola brands, as the company deepens its focus in one of its top three markets by revenue, and plans to regain its position among the top three smartphone players in the market.
According to media reports, Aymar de Lencquesaing, executive vice president at Lenovo Group and chairman & president at Motorola, expects double-digit growth for Lenovo and Motorola phones in India, and was willing to scale up manufacturing capacities if the need arose.
When asked whether the company was looking to re-open its now defunct Motorola plant – located in the Nokia SEZ – for production of devices, Lenovo India mobile business group country head Sudhin Mathur said the company was keeping its options open and evaluating them.
Lenovo, which sells Motorola phones after it acquired the company in 2014, was the No 2 player in the Indian market in the July-September 2016 with 9.6 percent market share, as per IDC India data. However, it slipped to the fifth spot with 7 percent market share in April-June 2017, with Xiaomi rising up the ranks to take the No 2 position.
Lencquesaing, however, said he was not worried about slipping on the pecking order in the hyper-competitive Indian smartphone market, as it was aiming to win in the long haul. Having launched 13 models since June this year, and experienced a 100 percent sequential growth in volume in the just ended quarter, the company said it was on the right track to regain market share, despite headwinds being seen by other players.
