Buying Mobile in India....Micromax.. Next Nokia

When I decided to look into some of the options to buy a mobile for myself, I had lots of options that were confusing me with the influx of players like Micromax, Intex, i-mate, Lava, Karbonn, Ray, Videocon, etc. all competing on lower price points, apart from the usuals Nokia, Samsung etc. I am not considering Sony and LG here as I think they have lost out to Indian players over the last few years. Thought there were som many of them I felt Micromax as an exception that seem to have started on the road to a predefined product and market strategy.

During the search for the Micromax product review, I wanted to dig deep to understand what has been happening to the market shares of the leading players in the market. Here are few interesting facts:

- Nokia's market share is now down to 50% from its earlier share of close to 57% in 2008

- LG's Mobile Division (Electronics) CEO has resigned as he has not been able to increase mobile phones market share. The share in India for LG is now as low as 4%

- Most interestingly Micromax now has 10% market share. The search showed this and I wish its true.

I never expected that Micromax could be our Answer to Blackberry. I infact want to try Micromax now to understand the performance difference between Blackberry and Micromax. I was never very happy with BlackBerry Perl which I currently have, except for some attitude that I get to show ;)

They have mobiles for all segments and soon they will make it a habit for Indian Consumers to have dual sim in their mobile. An emerging player has brought in multiple features that a Blackberry and Sony (Business and Multimedia features) combination will have at a price which is one third the price of these products.

Infact there is no compromise on the look and feel of the product. I liked the portfolio in their site http://www.micromaxinfo.com/. Good mix for an emerging player from simple mobiles to very high-end ones and I dont see any of these products priced more that Rs 15000.

But, is it sustainable? Nokia 1100, created a revolution in India and the product stood to the expectations of the people as Consumers were happy to use the product for nearly 3 to 5 years. Can Micromax meet the expectations of Indian Consumers? Will they be able to innovate with new products every year?

I am waiting to see this... All the best Micromax