Honor aims to be among top three smartphone brands in India

Chinese telecom firm Huawei's smartphone brand Honor on Tuesday announced entry into sub-Rs 10,000 handset segment to push up its market share, following its strategy to be among top 3 players in the country in a year.

Huawei India's consumer business group vice president for sales, P Sanjeev said the company has adopted 'India first' strategy to achieve its global target of being among top 3 brands by 2022.

"India is the only market which is growing at very fast speed. This year we expect smartphone users in India to be at least about 340 million. China is declining. If Honor wants to be among top 3 brands by 2022, India strategy is a key for us. If we have to reach top 3 soon, we have to go for sub-Rs 10,000 segment in India," Sanjeev said.

He said that more than 50 per cent of smartphone users in India are in the sub-Rs 10,000 segment.

"It was tough decision to price the smartphones at Rs 8,999 but we wanted to give this big market access to Honor phones as we want to be among top 3 smartphones in India in a year. We have not compromised on design. These phones come with both dual camera, both face unlock and finger print sensor," he added.

Fluctuation in rates of dollar, increase in import duty on mobile phone components have impacted prices of phones, he noted.

"To support Honor be among top 3, our Chennai production capability has been growing at 700 per cent. We are already among top 5 smartphones brands in India as per January-March 2018 sales figure. For both Huawei and Honor, outside China, India production has been most successful. From July-August, we will be making over million units per month," Sanjeev said.

Honor has registered 4 per cent smart share, as per its internal estimates and also survey by Counterpoint Research.

"In online smartphone segment, Honor share is 39 per cent within Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000 price segment. Honor 9 Lite and Honor 7x have received good response in the market. Honor 9 Lite is our first model which recorded sales of over 1 million unit in India," he added.