Six of the top Indian smartphone manufacturers, including Micromax, have forged business alliances with a U.S company in multiple deals that will allow them access to high-end technology without the high research and development costs that companies like Samsung incur.
Cube 26, a smartphone software firm based in the U.S., which recently snapped up former CEO of S Mobility Ltd. Kunal Ahooja as an advisor, will now allow several local OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) such as Celkon, iBerry and Lemon Mobile to incorporate gesture-based capabilities in their offerings.
This is a move, according to industry insiders, that will allow domestic players to compete aggressively with bigger multinational rivals such as Samsung, Apple and the Microsoft-Nokia combine.
At the moment, domestic smartphone OEMs account for nearly 30 – 35 per cent of the country’s smartphone market. Cube 26 is also looking at setting up an Indian operation, and possibly other Asia-Pacific centres due to good demand from Indian clients.
“We licence it to the OEMs… which helps them save the money from having to develop it in-house. It also gives the companies access to technology that is perceived as at the cutting edge of mobile products,” said Saurav Kumar, CEO, Cube 26, in a recent interaction with The Hindu .
“As you know, with so many products flooding the market, differentiation is the only way users can distinguish between the many look-alikes in the market. Several of the companies have started bringing products with our features to market,” he added.
Cube 26 is providing some of the manufacturers with features such as ‘look away to pause’, ‘auto call’ and ‘touch-less’ swipe.
