Lava eyes 10% smartphone market share in 2 years with investment of Rs 600 cr in R&D, marketing
Lava International expects to capture 10 per cent market share in under Rs 30,000-priced smartphone segment on account of up to Rs 600 crore investment in product development and marketing in the next two years, a senior company official said. Lava International President Sunil Raina told PTI that at a time when several Indian mobile phone companies succumbed to the pressure of aggressive pricing of foreign players around 2016-17 coupled with challenges posed by demonetisation and GST implementation, Lava focussed on its core strength and re-worked on the growth strategy.
The company relaunched its smartphone business with a small pause with focus on customer experience around devices and providing repair service at home, Raina said.
He said that the company has realised that technology has to be competitive for growth along with visibility.
«With branding and product development, we will invest Rs 500-600 crore in the next two years with a large part of it will go in product development,» Raina said.
He said that the company has decided not to load smartphones with bloatware — which are pre-loaded apps on mobile phones.
«We have decided we will not put out any bloatware in the phone. We have taken some hit on what could have been earned from bloatware only because we don't want to compromise on consumer experience. I also believe that bloatware is going to be short-lived because consumers don't like it and what consumers don't like doesn't last long,» Raina said.
