Alcatel One Touch’s major focus is on teenagers and youths

Steven Zhao
Country Manager, India Business Unit,
Alcatel One Touch

Every company has their own specialities and carve out a niche for themselves. Alcatel One Touch strives towards giving innovative products at an affordable price for a specific price segment. At the same time, it lays emphasis on being user friendly. Having taken to the smartphone industry in the recent years, ALCATEL ONE TOUCH is continuously expanding its portfolio of mobile and Internet products in India. The company’s aim is to provide innovative products at an affordable price for a precise price segment and be user friendly.

Indian smart device market
India is a price-conscious market. Keeping in mind the customer’s preference, the product should be affordable together with quality, design and style. The Indian mobile phone market grew at a modest 2% annually, but the smartphone segment grew at a handsome 68% annually as the demand for feature phones fell 16% annually in Q2 2014. Overall, 58.9 million mobile handsets were shipped during Q1 2014, a year-on-year growth of 8.9%, but witnessed a q-o-q decline of 16.4% (70.4 million mobile phones were shipped in Q4 2013). There being a huge demand for smartphones in India, Alcatel One Touch’s major focus is on teenagers and youths. ALACTEL ONE TOUCH aims to sell 5,00,000 pieces of smartphones by December 2014.
As far as India’s tablet market is concerned, the country is experiencing a revolution and will have the second-largest market after China very soon. According to the IDC report, the tablet shipment from India had touched 4.14 million units in 2013 and this number is going to rise in the coming years. This market is expected to grow 9% YOY basis giving enough space for local manufactures to compete. Steven Zhao, Country Manager, India Business Unit, Alcatel One Touch, opines, “Tablets are also specified as edutainment, which explains that it is a device which is helpful in education and can be used as an entertainment device as well. We would be coming up with four models in tablet by the end of 2014. Alcatel One Touch in India is currently focussing on the smartphone vertical solely.”

Alcatel One Touch’s plans for Indian mobile device market
Alcatel One Touch would be coming out with models specifically developed to suit the Indian user requirements designed at global standards and quality at a competitive pricing.

Alcatel One Touch’s strategy around support
Alcatel One Touch has a network of highly equipped after-sales service support centres across India and call centre with a toll-free number to provide personalized support. Steven Zhao, Country Manager, India Business Unit, Alcatel One Touch, exerts, “We have also kept our array of products limited to a few currently in order to do justice to the holistic service provided. The company will heavily push entry-level phones at mid-price range to tap maximum customers across regions.”

Alcatel One Touch’s Channel and Retail Strategy for India
Alcatel’s business is planned according to the different business models, i.e. e-commerce, retail and tradition channel. There is no overlapping of models offered to e-commerce and open market business. This encourages the channels to focus on Alcatel’s mobile phone business as their revenue is ensured.

satinder@varindia.com