Indians shun craving for bigger brands

Hyderabad:There was a time people used to look for bigger brands be it Nokia or Blackberry to firm up their decisions about buying a mobile. But not anymore, suggests brand experts.

Recently, Micromax has overtaken Samsung in terms of marketshare in the Indian mobile handset market, despite lacking a matching global brand recall.

Commenting on this, Murali Retineni, executive director of Hyderabad-based homegrown brand Celkon Mobiles, claims that people, mostly young, are looking for features, not essentially bigger brands.

“Today, people are not brand frenzy, rather they look for features. They want the latest and innovative technologies, but the price of cellphones offered by bigger brands (such as Samsung, Sony, or Apple) deters them. That’s where, we step in to provide latest products at affordable rates.” he added.

Earlier, people were sceptical about China-made mobile phones. But the turning point for these handsets came after Indian mobile firms such as Micromax, Celkon, Spice, etc (which get their handsets made in China) backed them with after-sale services.

The perception for Chinese products had changed so drastically that a Chinese firm Xiaomi touted as the ‘Apple of China’ managed to sell its entire first lot in five seconds and the second lot in half an hour.

Similar is the case with other mobile manufacturers like ZTE, where their latest smart phones and tablets have received tremendous responses from the customers. Gartner principal resea-rch analyst Anshul Gupta says “Indian consumers were always price conscious and they wanted value for their money.”

“It will be incorrect to say that people no longer prefer branded mobile phones which assure them quality and after sales service. Micromax is not the top company though it did surpass the sales figures of Samsung. But it must be noted that Micromax has grown and has a wide distribution channel in India as large as Samsung’s and also provides after sales services,” he added.