Micromax coming back to India; first phone set to launch next month

Micromax, the Indian handset company, is planning to come back to the smartphone market. Micromax is planning to launch a minimum 20 new handsets by the end of next financial year. For this period, It has also set aside ₹500 crores for R&D and manufacturing. As per reports, one of the first smartphones will arrive by the end of next month.

Rahul Sharma Micromax co-founder said that the company was looking to regain its position in the smartphone market with its multiple handsets it has planned to launch in the future. He also promised that the phones would seek to "disrupt the market."

Sharma also rejected the opinion that Micromax made a comeback plan amid anti-China sentiments. He told the company had been working on a comeback to the smartphone market for "much longer."

"We actually sensed an opportunity on a global scale when the US-China trade war began over a year ago. This anti-China feeling in India is recent, and you cannot plan on launching smartphones overnight," Sharma further added.

Micromax was one of the leading smartphone players in India before Chinese brands were in the market. There was one time (Q4 2014) when Micromax overtook Samsung in terms of market share. Micromax and several Indian handset companies hastily lost ground to the Chinese companies which offered superior products at a very lower price. Chinese brands also made an entry with great marketing and advertising budgets.

Micromax and other Indian companies are now betting big on the Indian government's PLI schemes that look forward to helping the domestic companies. As per the industry body ICEA, Lava, Dixon, Micromax, Padget Electronics, Sojo, UTL and Optiemus have queued up to avail benefits under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.