Sunstrike Telecom builds IT channel for tablets

Delhi based Sunstrike Telecom, a subsidiary of Hong-Kong based Sunstrike International, is looking to take the channel route in a bid to tap the burgeoning tablet market in India. The company has recently launched its Optima Smart brand tablet and accessories including power banks and portable speakers for the various market verticals.

Sunstrike International is a renowned global telecom distributor for handset makers like Apple, Motorola and LG, tablets and flash drive providers. Sunstrike International has its operations across the Globe including, India, US, Miami, Hong Kong, London, Shenzen, Toronto.

In India, the company has two of its own brands-Rage mobile phones and recently launched IT product Optima Smart tablets and accessories, which are catering to telecom and IT channels.

The company is already in the field of telecom and selling 1.5 lakh Rage mobile phones per month in rural and semi urban India. With Optima Smart tablet, it will tap India and Sub-Continental market through its IT channel, a channel which has not been yet taken fully by any other tablet players. In the first phase of expansion, the IT products will be majorly driven by IT and shortly it will be available to the telecom channels as well.

With the introduction of tablets, presently, the company is in the process of building its robust IT channel partners, and at the same time it will also be available to telecom channel, when all the models of tablets will be completely launched by end of this month.

The company is headed by Capt Chanpreet Singh, MD. To cater to the IT channel, the company has recently appointed Sanjeev Soni as director, sales, IT. Soni has more than 16 years of solid experience in IT industry. He has worked at various IT distribution houses.

Speaking to The DQ Week, Soni talked about their go-to-market strategy. He said, "We are looking to appoint IT channel partners to distribute our tablets in the market. To begin with we will be taking regional distribution model. We are likely to complete our channel building exercise by end of this quarter. We are in talks with regional distributors to appoint in state like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan followed by southern and western regions by the end of February. As of now nobody is looking at this IT channel, therefore, we want to establish our brand as the most preferred tablet vendor in the IT channel distribution."

Sunstrike has already appointed its regional distributors for eastern region and Delhi and Haryana market. The company has initiated its alliance with Kolkata based Savera Marketing, and for Delhi and Haryana region, it was roped in Delhi based Exclusive Systems and will have a twin tier distribution structure in place to cater IT retailers.

The company will be appointing one-two regional distributors in major A-class cities and looking to have 100-150 IT retailers in each city. The company has recently launched its calling tablet-V tab and W tab. It will also launch its third model of Optima tablet in the coming month. Apart from tablets, the company is planning to roll out other product category like smartphones and hybrid mobile devices. For the distribution of forthcoming products, it may appoint national distributor.

Besides, its own brand, the company does distribution business for Strontium memory and USB, Sandisk, and recently, it has been appointed by Philips as exclusive distributor for micro SD cards and USB. The company has a team of 150 people and has 17 branch offices across India.

"Presently, most of the products which we have launched are at testing level and waiting for market response. The company wants to position its tablet as quality and affordable pricing to the consumer. It will be soon start its marketing activities next month and also in the process of selecting online distributors, who will be focusing at 30-40 portals," Soni explained.

On the service support front, the company has 387 franchises centers and 8 owned repair centers.

According to Singh, "Currently, our mobile phone gets distributed by 150 telecom partners, but for our tablets our plan is to first cover IT channels at the same time we are talking to our existing telceom channel, we may start tapping telecom channels when our entire range of tablets models will be available by end of this quarter."