When Indian mobile phone- makers such as Micromax and Karbonn Mobiles started operations, many industry watchers were sceptical about their success in a market crowded by multinational brands. But in a few years, these companies managed to overtake giants such as Nokia in the Indian mobile phone market.

In an interview with Business Line , Sudhir Hassija, Founder-Chairman of Karbonn, talks about the company's growth, and its strategy in the fast-growing smartphone market.

You started out in 2009 with feature phones as your backbone. How has the journey into the smartphone business been?

When we started out, we were the top distributor with JTM, (a company which Airtel later bought out) distributing Alcatel, HTC, Motorola and even Nokia phones. We were also manufacturing PreeTel range of phones and switching equipment for BSNL. One thing that stuck us while distributing products of multinational phone companies was that they would never understand the value that consumers were looking for in their devices. It would be like you have to take orders and follow it without understanding the fact that the Indian market was different.

That is when we decided to launch our own brand as we knew the pulse of the market much better than any multinational. When we started out, people were asking who is Karbonn or Micromax, and can they even stand up to the likes of Nokia or HTC. We have answered every one of them and the proof is in the pudding. Our Titanium S99, a budget Kitkat phone priced below ₹6,000, was launched last month and is doing well. Overall, in the financial year 2014, we clocked ₹ 4,500 crore in revenue.

How much revenue do you plan to achieve this year?

We are expecting a revenue of ₹8,000 crore in the 2015 fiscal.

Growth of most Indian phone-makers came from tier-II and smaller towns. Will that continue to be the trend?

Our growth from the feature phone days has been led from tier-II and smaller towns. Having said that our products are finding increasing acceptance in metros and larger towns. The success has to do with distribution. That’s the backbone of every product.

While a lot of other companies just expect the distributors to go out and sell for them, it’s not that simple. India is about personal relationships and if you ask me of the thousands of distributors (the company has 85,000 retail counters in the country) we have, I know 60 per cent of them on their first name basis. We also have seen a lot of sales coming from online merchants and the success of Titanium Hexa is a case in point.

How difficult was it to get partners on board?

Initially, it was tough as we had to explain to the likes of Mediatek, Qualcomm and Broadcom. But as they say, people will follow you if you have a successful product. It’s not only the processor makers who are our partners. Even content providers such as WhatsApp, BBM, Gameloft, Saavn and SonyLIV are our partners.

Manufacturing in India is one of the priority areas of the Modi Government. Will you consider manufacturing a viable option?

Of course. We also are given to understand that the Modi Government is making domestic manufacturing an important area. There are existing plants in India that have the latest technology and manpower to support the kind of manufacturing in the country. I can point to plants in Tamil Nadu, where Motorola and Nokia manufacture as some examples. If the conditions are favourable, we may even buy one of them.

What products are in the pipeline this year?

We are among the three companies globally who are a part of the Android One initiative of Google (which would see devices starting from $100 price onwards will be launched in India first). In line with that, we are working on bringing more affordable smartphones and tablets. Also, we will come out with ‘power banks’ and other kinds of accessories for electronics devices, which have a lot of market potential in India.

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