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Micromaxed

The company has shown a remarkable ability to take on mobile and tablet giants. Now for the TV ones.

At a time when the global tablet market is dominated by the likes of Samsung and Apple, a very different picture is emerging in India. Though these two companies come in second and third in terms of tablet market share in India, an unlikely contender has displaced them as the market leader. Micromax, a report by CyberMedia Research says, garnered an 18.3% market share between April and June this year, compared to Samsung?s 13.3% and Apple?s 12.3% in the same period. An obvious advantage Micromax has over the larger players is its pricing structure?Micromax?s Funbook series of tablets sells for between R6,000 and R10,000, compared to the much higher price band of R19,000-38,000 offered by Samsung and Apple. But the fact of the matter is that Micromax has been able to bolster its price advantage with a relatively high level of product quality. The Android advantage apart, the company?s tablet hardware is in the same league as Apple and Samsung. The remarkable story of Micromax started in 2008, when it launched its first mobile handset; research firm IDC says it is already the third-largest GSM mobile phone vendor in India, with a market share of 6%. Apart from pricing and hardware, Micromax?s keen eye for what the market needs has stood it in good stead?it?s first phone, the X1i, boasted a battery life of one month and delivered on its promise, winning the company a large rural user base. Similarly, seeing that Apple?s voice recognition software Siri was a big hit, the company released its own version, called Aisha, for the Indian market earlier this year.

As the company now enters the LED TV market, though, it must be careful. Market analysts are wary of the move as Micromax had a particularly bad time last year, with falling revenues and a cancelled IPO, coupled with the fact that the Indian TV market is reportedly saturated. But it is in a saturated market that the slightest product/price difference can shift fortunes. Keeping that in mind, an LED TV at just R15,990 seems a great first entry.

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First published on: 11-10-2012 at 20:58 IST
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