Motorola to replicate its ‘disruptive’ India business model in other markets

Flush with the successful sales of smartphones in India through its exclusive partnership with the country’s leading e-commerce firm Flipkart, Motorola is looking to replicate its “disruptive” India business model in other markets around the world.

India is among the company’s top 3 markets for smartphones globally, after the US and Latin America.

Motorola Mobility has notched up sales of 3 million smartphones in India in 2014 from a zero base after it first launched the Moto G in February last year. For a little over a year before that, the company had not launched any new product in the India market as it was re-looking at its product strategy. Motorola Mobility was acquired by Chinese PC and mobile device maker Lenovo, late last year to scale its global presence. Today, both Lenovo and Motorola smartphones have a 7-8 per cent share of the Indian market of which Motorola owns two-thirds.

“We are the No. 3 smartphone vendor globally and have registered a 118 per cent year-on-year growth in smartphone shipments last year. In India, which is one of our most successful markets, we will continue to maintain the momentum of growth that was possible because of our disruptive approach to the market here. We want to replicate this successful model in other markets around the world,” Colin Giles, head of worldwide sales at Motorola, told BusinessLine .

Pointing out that the first disruption was to introduce e-commerce as a new channel for Indian consumers to buy a smartphone, much before competition caught on to it, Giles said, “We were the first to come up with e-commerce as a go-to-market model, changing the way the Indian consumer buys smartphones. We have a full range of cutting edge smartphones at very affordable prices catering to all price segments ranging from ₹6,999 to ₹48,999.”

Motorola’s India sales volumes are led by the Moto E (₹6,999) and Moto G (₹12,999) smartphones, both of which are category leaders in the mid-tier price range. At the top end, the company sells the Nexus 6 at ₹48,999 and the MotoTurbo at ₹ 41,999.

“An interesting point to note is that, our flagship product, the Moto Turbo smartphone was launched in India much ahead of plan because of customer clamour for it,” said Amit Boni, General Manager, Motorola Mobility, India.

“When the Turbo was launched in the US in December last year, our team found that the largest search volume for the Turbo outside of the US came from India and, therefore, we launched it here much ahead of plan,” added Boni. The Turbo now sells in the US, Brazil and India markets.

Motorola has launched its first customer care, service and experience centre in Bengaluru recently, spread across 3,000 sq ft. “Moto Care is our first service, support and experience centre, another example of the importance and priority we give to the Indian market,” said Giles. The company has no plans to sell through mobile retail store chains, or set up its own stores in the near future.

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