South Korean consumer electronics major LG is gearing up for a renewed push for its struggling smartphone business in India after past missteps.
The company’s arm, LG Electronics India, plans to launch a new range of affordable smartphones equipped with features tailored for local requirements around Diwali.
With the vertical accounting for a minuscule part of the total business, LG Electronics India Managing Director Ki Wan Kim said the company will try to understand consumer feedback with the new products without setting any targets.
The company is benchmarking its new smartphones with current market leaders while trying to offer “some different value proposition” to consumers at an “affordable” price range, Kim said.
Rival Samsung has customised features for Indian conditions such as ‘S bike mode’ that allows two-wheeler riders to respond to calls with automated reply and avoid being distracted during their rides.
Kim said only a limited number of new smartphone models will be launched in select regions in India through a limited number of stores to assess market response.
LG Electronics India has 10 models in its smartphone range priced between Rs 8,000 and Rs 55,000.
On the current size of the smartphone business in India, Kim notified that it is too small and even 10 times bigger would be nothing in number. He further said that even 1,000 per cent growth is nothing for it is not the time to talk about what LG’s goal or target is.”
Making a candid admission on mistakes made by LG globally in smartphone business, he said the company assumed that owing to success in washing machine, air-conditioning and refrigerator business, consumers here would pick up any smartphone launched from a global platform.
LG Electronics India now produces smartphones from its plant in Greater Noida. The company has stopped production from its another unit in Pune, which was manufacturing CDMA phones.
By Baishakhi Dutta
