We aspire to be one of the top three Indian mobile handset marketeers

What makes power and energy storage companies like
Luminous enter an overcrowded market of handset manufacturing?

I agree that there is a stiff competition in the mobile handset market in
India as many players already exist, but at the same time there is a huge scope
for new players as well. According to Trai data, the number of telecom
subscribers has crossed the 600 mn mark with the overall teledensity of 51%.
This means that till date, only half of the population has either a mobile or
telephone connection. Here lies a huge opportunity as the remaining population
is mostly situated in the rural areas. Thus, we decided to roll out our mobile
handsets through the brand 'Wynncom' under the separate entity named Wynn
Telecom. This move is a part of the company's strategy to offer more consumer
products under the umbrella of convergence and the company aims to capture a
place among the top brands.

What are your investment plans for the project? Will you
be setting up manufacturing units in India?

We will invest over $25 mn as the initial capital investment. There is a
huge scope in the Indian market. In the coming months, we do have a plan to set
up a manufacturing unit in India. The location is not yet decided, but we may
look at Himachal Pradesh.

How have you planned your distribution strategy?

Wynn Telecom will roll out a distributor network of 500 distributors in the
next six months. In order to achieve that, we should have a 300+ strong
salesforce on a pan-India basis.

What targets have you set?

We have set a target to be among the top three Indian mobile handset
marketeers by the end of this financial year. The company is committed to
provide the customer the best mobile handset options in terms of appearance,
features, price, and services. The company also wants to achieve a monthly sale
of 500,000 units per month by the upcoming festive season.

Will these handsets be initially only for the Indian
market?

Initially, we are launching the handsets for the Indian market only. In the
future, we may look towards the Asia Pacific market, excluding China.

What do you think will differentiate your brand from the
rest?

We have set up a separate entity, WORLD ACE to take care of our customers'
service requirements. Also, our mobile handsets will have some fabulous VAS
services backed up by social networking options. The mobile offering will be a
mix of utility phones, upgrade phones and youth phones. Utility phones will be a
series of phones with a heavy-duty battery, attractive looks, multiple language
support and would be priced smartly. The upgrade series phones will have options
like camera, multimedia features like video player and other exciting features.
The youth series will be fully loaded phones with features such as a QWERTY
keypad, pre-loaded AIO messenger, social networking applications, multimedia,
etc.

Heena Jhingan

heenaj@cybermedia.co.in