Having doubled phone sales in the country in 2023, specifically in the ₹10,000-30,000 price bracket, Motorola is looking at taking market share away from competitors to become the third-largest player by volumes by the end of 2024.
“In 2022, we grew 100% by volumes, the same in 2023, and in 2024 we intend to double over last year. Value wise, the growth will be even higher. Exports will also double and so will our manufacturing capacities. We had a 5% share in 2023, we’re looking to double that, to an 8-10% market share,” said Prashanth Mani, executive director, mobile business group at Lenovo Asia Pacific.
Lenovo completed the $2.91-billion acquisition of Motorola from Google in 2014.
According to Counterpoint data, Motorola had a 2.7% share of the overall smartphone market as of December 2023, but a 2.5% share of the ₹10,000-30,000 price category, which is referred to as the mid-range smartphone segment. As of January, this share has increased to 5%. Motorola is yet to break into the top five smartphone players rankings in India. As of December 2023, Samsung, Vivo, Xiaomi, Realme and Oppo were the top five smartphone players in the Indian market with 18%, 17%, 16.5%, 12% and 10.5% market shares, respectively.
The brand may, however, get tailwinds from an uptick seen in the overall smartphone market in the first quarter of 2024, which is an indicator of a revival in volume growth this year, versus flat growth in 2023. Exports will remain about 25-30% of its local production, even as production scale will increase, the executives said.
The company makes all the phones it sells in India through a partnership with Padget Electronics, a subsidiary of Dixon Technologies, which will be doubling its capacities dedicated to Motorola. Investments towards the same will be done by the India arm from internal accruals, Motorola executives said.
Motorola is also in discussions with suppliers to source local components so that chargers can be produced in India as well, a step up from simple assembly which is already being done here. Mani added that Motorola would continue to raise the local value addition through its manufacturing partner.
Currently, 90% of its portfolio consists of 5G phones, priced above ₹9,999. However, the brand feels it will be difficult to bring an entry level sub-$100 5G smartphone.
“At the ₹6,499 price point, which is our entry level Moto E13, we don’t see a 5G phone coming in for at least another six to nine months,” Mani said.
TM Narasimha, managing director at Motorola Mobility India, added that finance options offered to consumers that enable them to buy smartphones in monthly installments, in many cases interest free, have helped boost sales of more premium-priced devices. This trend, he said, was likely to continue and hence there may not be a large demand for 5G smartphones at entry-level prices.
The company on Wednesday launched Motorola Edge 50 Pro, which is priced at ₹30,000 and powered by its native artificial intelligence model, Moto AI. The native AI will enable features including AI generative theming, AI photo enhancement engine and AI adaptive stabilization, on the phone, which will go on sale from 8 April.
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Published: 03 Apr 2024, 08:52 PM IST