The wrath of the Chinese continues as yet another brand Tecno enters India with plans to begin local manufacturing, research and development and potentially export phones to markets like Middle East and Africa where it has an over 30 per cent market share.
Transsion Holdings will launch four smartphones – i3, i3 Pro, i5 and i5 Pro – under its second brand Tecno in the world’s fastest growing smartphone market tomorrow, nearly a year after its first brand Itel entered India and took the No 2 spot in the overall mobile phone market.
Tecno will set up a separate team of operational and marketing executives while it launches the India-specific smartphones in Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat in the first phase. The devices priced between Rs 7,990 and Rs 14,990 will be launched in about 10,000 brick-and-mortar stores in these states, through 129 local distributors
The company plans to sell its phones across India by end of the year, and feels it will be able to crack into the top rankings banking on its portfolio created after eight months on research with Indian consumers, retail reach and after sales service with over 144 third party stores and its own services coming in after June.
On the retail side, customers will be given an assured replacement on the full phone within 100 days of purchase and a onetime replacement of the screen.
Techno is also offering 50 per cent buyback to Itel customers when they upgrade to Tecno smartphones within a year of purchase, thus pushing the adoption of smartphones. This can prove to be an effective tool in the market which is set to have flat to marginal smartphone growth in 2017 on-year, as per analysts.
The company is also exploring tie-ups with telecom operators for bundled data offers. All phones, except one entry level model, will support finger print scanner and improved selfie technology with front and back LED flashes.
By Baishakhi Dutta
