South Korean consumer electronics major lG is gearing up for a renewed push for its struggling smartphone business in India after past missteps.
The company’s arm, lG India, plans to launch a new range of affordable smartphones equipped with features tailored for local requirements around Diwali.
With the vertical accounting for a minuscule part of the total business, lG Electronics India Managing Director Ki Wan Kim said the company will try to understand consumer feedback with the new products without setting any targets.
“We are preparing some new products, which will be very different from any existing available old phones. These will be very Indian like... I am eager to know Indian consumer feedback to these new products,” Kim told the news agency.
Asked when these new smartphones will hit the Indian market, he put it around Diwali.
The company is benchmarking its new smartphones with current market leaders while trying to offer “some different value proposition” to consumers at an “affordable” price range, he said.
“Unless we do not differentiate our products, we can not catch up,” Kim stressed.
Rival Samsung has customised features for Indian conditions such as ‘S bike mode’ that allows two-wheeler riders to respond to calls with automated reply and avoid being distracted during their rides.
Kim said only a limited number of new smartphone models will be launched in select regions in India through a limited number of stores to assess market response.
“By doing so, we would check and when we see some positive feedback, then strategically we would invest,” he explained.