Lava Emerges As The Largest Company In Feature Phones In India

Lava International, a fast growing company in the mobile handset industry with an overall market share of 8% as per IDC estimates, has become No. 1 feature phone company in the Quarter ending September 2014 and No. 2 company in the overall category (combining feature phones & smartphones) amongst the Indian handset companies as per the imports volume tracked by a leading independent market research firm Cybex Exim Solutions Pvt. Ltd., as per press statement issued by the company.

Lava International Limited as per Cybex Exim data imported a total of 5.3 million feature phones in this time frame putting it at No. 1 slot as compared to other Indian handset manufactures including Karbonn with 4.6 mn & Micromax at 5 mn shipments. The data also highlights that in the second Quarter of 2014, Lava International Limited (Lava & Xolo combined) imported a total of 7.27 mn handsets in India, 13% more than the 3rd largest player.

Commenting on this development, Mr. Hari Om Rai, Chairman & Managing Director, Lava International said, “India is one of the fastest growing mobile handset markets in the world, we are going through an exciting time. The market offers huge potential to players who aim to consistently add value to consumer’s lives through good products. Our strong investment in a single-layered distribution network of over 1,200 distributors with focus in product engineering and R&D has helped us scale such a growth.”

Lava International Limited further aims to grab a stronger grip in the overall Indian mobile phone market and is investing approximately Rs 500 crore in a phased manner to set up its own manufacturing unit in India over the next couple of years. At present, the company carries out R&D and product engineering at Bangalore (India) and Shenzen (China). The proposed plant will have a monthly capacity of approximately 5 million units. Moreover, the company has partnered with Google and shall launch Android One devices, designed & developed in house, in Q1 of next year, adds the statement.

Cybex Exim’s data is an extensive import/export database report that provides information based on the combination of multiple product keywords and harmonized codes or any pre-defined parameters. The players taken into consideration in the database includes handset manufacturers such as Micromax, Lava, Motorola, Karbonn, Gionee, Lenovo, Spice, Intex, Xolo, Panasonic, Zen, Maxx, Videocon, Xiaomi and Lemon.