Micromax casts eyes abroad as home market brawl worsens

Bangalore: Micromax Informatics Ltd. has become the latest Asian smartphone company to broadcast its global ambitions. The Indian company known for cut-rate phones and a frenetic pace of new-model launches is evaluating an entry into several overseas markets including China, en route to becoming a top-five player internationally.

While India’s smartphone market remains relatively under-penetrated, Micromax co-founder Vikas Jain said prices were “headed south” because of an influx of foreign competition. But it’s sticking to its plan of becoming one of the world’s five biggest sellers — a goal that would entail a presence in major markets like China.

Smartphone sales are sputtering even as Asia’s largest brands, from Huawei Technologies Co. to Xiaomi Corp., narrow the gap with Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Just this week, Huawei said it hoped to unseat the dominant players within five years. Micromax, No. 3 in Russia currently, has considered markets like Indonesia and even the United States in the past but hasn’t made that much headway beyond India.

“We do keep evaluating about two to three international markets. Not to say we’re definitely going to launch in any of the three,” Jain, one of Micromax’s four founders, told Bloomberg Television. “If we have a vision of being in the top five, we can’t be ignoring the China market.”

“Sooner or later, we should see a presence in the China market.”