Indian smartphone vendor Micromax has launched its Canvas series of smartphones and Bolt series of smart-feature phones in Russia.
Russian launch is important for Micromax, the world’s 11th largest mobile phone player, to enhance market share.
Micromax is currently the second largest smartphone company in India with a market share of 17.1 percent in Q3 of 2013. Samsung is the smartphone market leader.
The Delhi-NCR based Micromax has tied up with Russian distributor VVP Group to enter the Russian mobile phone market.
Micromax, which is known for cost effective phones, has already sold more than 35 million Canvas and Bolt devices across the operating markets in the past one year.
The company will be launching 14 products in the Russian market in the initial phase, as the brand is already looking at gearing up to be among the Top 4 brands in Russia by the end of 2014.
The company is ready with its service infrastructure across Russia with an aim of having more than 60 operational service centers by end of the month.
Micromax will also have its exclusive service centers in strategic cities in Russia as the brand strengthens its presence across the country. The target is to reach retail space across 9000+ sales points in the country backed by an efficient service infrastructure.
Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma said: “Our initial focus in the Russian market is to replicate the success witnessed in our other markets in the last couple of years. We have carved the vision for ourselves to be the 1st Indian hardware brand to be global and set our footprint with Russia as the first developed market to venture into.”
The smartphone vendor will forge partnerships with telecom operators in the region to aim at efficient data consumption on its devices in the coming year. Micromax works with MTS India, a subsidiary of Sistema of Russia, in India.
The company has also tied up with VAS providers in Russia including Odnoklassniki, Russian social network service; IVI.ru, Russia’s first free video & music service; Viber, an instant messaging application; Facebook; Twitter and M!Live giving users access to social connectivity and unlimited free online games.
