Lenovo turns aggressive with its smartphones

After becoming the top 2 smartphone player in China in just a gap of 2 years, Lenovo has now set an aggressive expansion plan for emerging markets. It already did a soft launch in the month of November 2012, now it is in the process of building telecom channel in the Indian market.

Currently, the smartphones are available in 5 states including that of South India and Gujarat. In the second phase of expansion it will bring its smartphones in West and North market as well, and it plans to have a pan-India presence by June 2013.

Lenovo launched five smartphones in India in November, priced between Rs 6,499 and Rs 28,499.

Amar Babu, MD, Lenovo India, on the sideline of announcement of its Q3 results told /The DQ Week/, "We are not looking at having bold targets for our smartphones, since the Indian smartphone market is very new for us and competitive. Having said that, with our protect and attack marketing strategy, smartphone is now our next major focus area to grow."

"We are now focused on the PC-plus era as the future belongs to devices like smartphones and tablets. In a short period, we have seen strong sales (of smartphones) in China and we hope to see similar traction in emerging markets like Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and India, where we launched these devices," said Milko Van Duijl, senior VP and president (Asia Pacific and Latin America) at Lenovo.

The company has roped in HCL Infosystem and Advance Mobile as their distributors, and it is looking to build its telecom channel to push the smartphones. Moreover, it has partnered with Reliance Communications as a carrier provider.

Before setting out ambitious plan for their smartphone, the company's prime focus is to expand the reach. They have created a focused division, and the smartphone will be part of the mobile internet and digital home (MIDH) segment. Besides building telecom channel, it is also positioning its smartphones at national retail stores and its own 1,200 exclusive stores.

The company is banking on four key pillars including protect and attack strategy, execution structure, innovation and culture.