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.
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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.
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Cube 26 is providing some of the manufacturers with features such as ‘look away to pause’, ‘auto call’ and ‘touch-less’ swipe.