Chinese smartphone maker Gionee plans to set a manufacturing unit in northern India, the company will invest approximately INR 500 crore to fulfill India, East Asia, and Africa market demands. The plant operations will start in about 2 years.
Gionee India MD and CEO Arvind Vohra told PTI, "We are in procedure of receiving land in northern India. The 50-acre unit is capable of manufacturing 30 million units. It should be equipped in about two years. The actual location of the plant is not known yet and CEO rebuffed to share insight details.
The CEO also said that, “the plant will be an end to end mechanized unit; it will support us to supply devices in India and close by regions. The company will pump in Rs. 500 crore in development of the plant”. Third parties such as Foxconn and Dixon assemble Gionee India smartphones, its 60% devices are accumulated by local parties.
As per IDC research firm, in second quarter overall smartphone consignment in India increased from 17.1 percent to 27.5 percent. The Chinese manufacturers such as Gionee, Lenovo, Xiaomi, and Vivo pouring the growth. After two consecutive quarters of decline, go in front with 25.1 market share, Micromax secured 12.9 percent, and Lenovo has 7.7 percent share.
Vohra stated that, Gionee India has sold over half million units per month and by the end of the year, the company expects to double the numbers. The company has seen 100 percent growth last year and expecting a vigorous growth this year too.
In the upcoming months the company plans to spend over 400 crore in marketing and promotional activities. By this October the company will launch four novel smartphone between USD $100-$250 price ranges.
Today the company released Gionee S6 in India for $267 against Lenovo Vibe K5 and Redmi Note 3. It features a 5.5-inch 1080p display and powered by MediaTek MT6753 processor. The Gionee has a 3GB RAM, 32GB expandable storage, a 13 megapixel primary camera, and supports a fingerprint scanner.