Obi Mobiles is tying up with a Silicon Valley partner in the USA to design the latest mobile phones in the next six months.
The company also plans to target the markets of the Middle East and North Africa soon.
Obi Mobiles was launched in April 2014 by John Sculley, former CEO of Apple and renowned marketing veteran with the aim to target mid-range smartphone ecosystem.
Focusing on affordable smartphones with peppy designs and cutting-edge technology to match the tastes of youth in the 16-35 years group, the company is trying to sell 15 lakh smartphones in India by December 2014 and have a turnover of Rs 1,500 crore, said Ajay Sharma, CEO, here on Wednesday.
He said with an 18 per cent growth, 26 crore mobile phones were sold in India in 2013, including 4.5 crore smartphones. The smartphone market is expected to double this year to about nine crore, compared to 75 crore in China. Obi is focusing on acquiring 5 per cent of India’s emerging smartphone market by this year-end, he said.
Sharma said Obi is primarily focusing on phones priced up to $200 (Rs 12,000), the cheapest in the basket being Rs 2,000. All Obi Mobile’s nine products are 3-G enabled, dual-SIM and with Android operating system (OS). It will also offer automatic service for software upgradation.
In order to accelerate marketing in the coming festive season, the company has launched a 360-degree media campaign to reach out to nearly 80 towns and cities across India by October-end and open hundreds of outlets. In Gujarat, Obi Mobiles will have partnership with 12 major distributors.
He said a smartphone’s normal lifespan is 12 months as the people tend to change their mobile set each year.