Foxconn hires other Chinese firms to make InFocus phones

With its existing two factories in Chennai and Sri City running at near capacity, Taiwan-based Foxconn has partnered with other Chinese contract manufacturers to make its own InFocus mobile phones in India.

American smartphone brand InFocus, which is licensed to Foxconn, launched its first smartphone in India on Wednesday as it re-entered the market after failing in India two years ago.

Luo Zhongsheng, who is the Global CEO for Sharp and InFocus Mobile brands globally and Senior Vice-President at Foxconn, told BusinessLine that InFocus is adopting a mix of online-offline strategy to make sure it is among top five smartphone players in India in the next three years.

Foxconn, which is makes Apple’s iPhones among other products in China, manufactures Xiaomi and Oppo mobiles in India from its factories in Chennai and Sri City. The company is about to start a new factory in Navi Mumbai in the next couple of months to cater to increasing demand. Zhongsheng declined to comment on the investment the company will make in expanding its manufacturing capabilities.

“For InFocus, all products will be manufactured in Foxconn factory starting August,” Zhongsheng said. “Currently, we are using a Chinese partner’s manufacturing facility in India but in future we will use Foxconn factory for manufacturing all InFocus phones.”

InFocus is working with partners like Dixon (for smartphones) and MCM (for feature phones) to manufacture its devices phones in India. From August end, they will start manufacturing from the Foxconn facilities in India.

With government making import of fully built mobile phones more expensive, almost every mobile phone company in India has started assembling its phones locally, giving opportunity to contract manufacturers like Foxconn to invest in India. Apple, which is Foxconn’s largest customer, has partnered with Taiwan-based Winstron to make iPhone SE in India.

“India market is very important market. It is important to everyone. Also, India is a large market. We launched InFocus brand two years ago in India. However, it could not become strong here. Therefore, we are now changing our strategy and hiring new channel partners, bringing in more products for Indian market and will also look at offline retail along with just online,” Zhongsheng said.

InFocus will spend $10 million over the year on marketing activities in the country and plans to launch 16 models, including eight feature phones, Zhongsheng said.

InFocus expects to sell 6 million phones in the first year, with 60 per cent sales coming from feature phones in volume terms.

InFocus currently has a team of about 50 people, which will be ramped up to 200 by the year-end.

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