Micromax Plans To Expand To Europe Starting With Russia By The End Of This Year

After having grown into a giant in the Indian phone manufacturing space, Micromax has announced that it is looking to enter the European market by targeting Russia and Romania by the end of the year. The company is currently the second biggest handset maker in India after Samsung and plans to ride the wave to grow beyond Indian borders.

Micromax’s global ambition showed a few days back when they announced Hollywood actor, Hugh Jackman as a brand ambassador bypassing the usual route of roping in a Bollywood celebrity or cricket star to represent their brand. Jackman will be promoting the company’s upcoming Canvas Turbo phone. The company has consistently made high end smartphone technology very accessible to Indian users by making them available at extremely affordable prices.

Rahul Sharma, Co-Founder of Micromax spoke about the company’s global ambition,

“Our end goal is to go global as an Indian hardware brand. I do not want to be seen as an Indian company anymore. We have tested waters in markets such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and we are among the top three phone brands in both the markets.”

He also spoke of specific Europe related expansion plans,

“We are launching in Russia in December and if I am able to crack Russia, we will also able to capture the whole (of) Europe. We have a couple of products especially for that market, and Google doesn’t work there so we have tied up with Yandex on the application level.”

The company has set up a Russian office with employees and executives coming in from rival phone hardware companies. NextBigWhat raised some questions about whether Micromax going global was actually a good thing. The patent war abroad is ferocious and it is likely that the Indian company may run into problems when it comes to patents. When you think of this the company is rather well protected in India, but venturing outside could be a liability. However, if the company is able to navigate these rough seas, then there could be a lot of potential for the company to become a global brand. Over the last year, we have seen the company upping its quality when it comes to Android based smartphones and steadily increasing the price (which still remains affordable compared to heavyweights like Samsung, Sony and HTC).

What are your thoughts on Micromax’s planned expansion? Share with us.

Source | The Hindu Businessline

Image Source | FoneArena

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