Fast-growing mobile handset brand Karbonn Mobiles on Monday said it would invest Rs. 100 crore in the current fiscal to strengthen its all-India presence and launch three to four handsets every quarter to capture the market in covering various segments. It expanded its portfolio by launching a new range of multimedia devices, priced between Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 5,000.
A joint venture initiative of Delhi-based Jaina group and Bangalore’s UTL Group, Karbonn Mobiles, which started its operations about six months ago, at present, has around two dozen handsets in the market with a price range of Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 6,000. “We plan to grab about 10 per cent market share in the multimedia phone segment in the current fiscal,” Jaina Group Managing Director Pradeep Jain said here at a press conference.
Karbonn Mobiles had already invested $5 million for product development and sales operations, and had over 50,000 outlets selling its mobile handsets, covering 80 per cent of the districts across India. “We have already started selling 10-lakh handsets every month. We plan to start manufacturing handsets from our Bangalore centre, which at present makes chargers and batteries,” said UTL Group Managing Director Sudhir Hasija.
About their overseas plans, Mr. Hasija said Karbonn Mobiles had already covered Bangladesh as the first country in its launch initiative for South Asia and would shortly cover Sri Lanka and Nepal. “We plan to launch our handsets in the Middle East and Africa by mid-2010,” he added.
