Sale of Gionee mobile phones — the only pure-play Chinese mobile brand in the market — is picking up in India. In the first nine months of its launch, nearly five lakh phones have been sold in India with a total value of around Rs 250 crore. In the next three months, the company hopes to sell mobiles worth another Rs 200 crore, according to Arvind R. Vohra, Head of Gionee Smartphones in India. Vohra said Chinese companies like Lenovo sell mobile phones and personal computers.

“We are selling nearly 4,000 phones every day,” he told newspersons. The average selling price of Gionee mobile is Rs 6,000, which was double the price of competing products. Samsung is its nearest competitor, he said.

Gionee is the world’s eleventh largest mobile phone manufacturer. Its manufacturing unit has a production capacity of over 40 million phones a year and employs nearly 1,500 in the research and development division, he said.

Marketing spend Vohra said the company plans to spend nearly Rs 90 crore on marketing during financial year 2014-15. It will launch its first brand store in Chennai in March and will inaugurate 50 more stores in the South. It plans to double its sales force to 4,000 and open 250 brand stores across India along with 2,500 shop-in-shops in 2014, he said.

According to T.C. Sudhir, CEO, United Telecoms Ltd, a partner of Gionee in India, the mobile phone company has already achieved a market share of 10 per cent. The mobiles are priced between Rs 1,850 and Rs 30,000 with four feature phones and nine smartphones available in the market.

raja.simhan@thehindu.co.in

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