Home-grown mobile handset seller Micromax is planning to increase its product portfolio across segments that include higher-end smartphones and a new tablet PC range.

The company will launch nearly four new handsets every quarter.

According to Deepak Mehrotra, CEO, Micromax will come out with around four smartphones priced between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 in the next four to six weeks. Currently, Micromax has 12 smartphone models.

Two new budget handsets – priced between Rs 5,000 and Rs 8,000 – will also be launched in this period. The existing tablet PC range of three models will be increased to four with one expected to be launched by this month-end.

“Our idea is to be a player across all price points and be the No.2 company in the Indian market,” Mehrotra told Business Line .

He did not rule out the possibility of introducing higher-end models priced at above Rs 18,000 in the future.

Micromax is currently the third largest handset brand in India after Nokia and Samsung. Globally, it is the 12{+t}{+h} largest mobile company. Micromax, however, does not have a manufacturing facility in the country and is primarily dependent on contract manufacturing for supply of its handsets.

New phone Operating system

According to Mehrotra, the company is open to explore new operating system (OS) for its future smartphone range provided the apps ecosystem existed on such a platform.

Currently, all its smartphones operate on Google’s Android ecosystem.

The company’s only Windows-enabled phone (W-900) has currently been discontinued.

Asked if they were in discussion with Windows for using their OS, Mehrotra said: “It’s not that we are new to the Windows OS. We earlier had a phone based on the Windows but it has now been discontinued. We might look at alternatives in the future.”

> abhishek.l@thehindu.co.in

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