Mobile market in India catching up fast

By Editor on June 25, 2007 · Leave a Comment

India, the world’s fastest growing wireless market, is set to emerge as the second largest hub for global mobile handset leader Nokia.
“The mobile market in India is catching up very fast and will soon surpass the US to become the second largest market for Nokia,” D Shivakumar, Nokia India Managing Director and Vice-President, said.
India is adding about six million mobile users a month, which is a big opportunity for the company, he said.
He said the Indian market was growing at a rate of 20-30 per cent and the company expected this to go up significantly.
“India is at present Nokia’s third largest market and has the potential to become the second largest market after China due to the phenomenal growth in the industry as a whole,” Shivakumar said.
He said India has also emerged as one of the fastest growing market in terms of mobile phone consumption and usage.
Nokia Vice-President (Asia Pacific Sales and Portfolio Management) Alex Lambeek said the company would continue to launch affordable yet stylish handsets.
“We would launch handsets and solutions in line with user needs. We carry out extensive research to ensure we tap every potential market and customer need as we move ahead,” he said.
Lambeek said with global mobile subscribers touching four billion, the company expected half of this to come from China and India.
With rural markets still largely untapped in India and a growing youth population, these areas present huge opportunities for the company, he added.
Nokia has about 42 per cent market share in Asia-Pacific region and expects most of the projected growth to come from emerging markets, including India and China.
“In the next three years, the large part of growth will come from Asia-Pacific, with the region contributing to more than half of subscribers for the company,” Lambeek said.
The company had earlier announced an investment of 150 million dollars for its manufacturing facility in Chennai, which had reached 25 million handset production volume by December 2006.
He said Nokia would continue to invest “heavily” in India in retail, field force, network, marketing and research.
“India is a bipolar emerging market. Mobile penetration in India is going to be driven by affordability and services, like operators, infrastructure and coverage in rural areas,” he added.