With OEMs like Oppo and Vivo running rampant on the offline market, that Micromax took a big hit. However, the company today said that it exited 2016 as the number 2 seller of smartphones in India, with 11% market share. Micromax, though is working on changing its brand image of sorts, and the first in these efforts is a tie-up with Flipkart. The company has signed a long term agreement with the e-commerce portal, and will launch its new Evok series on Flipkart exclusively, said Shubhajit Sen, CMO, Micromax.
The company says it wants to try its hand at the online market, having largely been involved in the offline space for so long. However, Micromax already has the Yu brand for this market. To clarify, Sen says the Micromax brand will still be offline first, while Yu will be online first. So, while the Evok series will remain online only, Micromax’s other brands, like the Canvas series, will sell offline.
Further, Micromax’s initial focus is on the 6-12k segment, which both Flipkart and Micromax say is amongst the most lucrative price points in India. According to Micromax, 19% of all smartphone sales are accounted for by the 10-15k segment in India. The company claims it currently has a 10.6% share in the 6-10k segment overall.
Sen clarified that the tie-up with Flipkart is for the long term, and that the company is going to launch more online focused smartphones. Micromax wants to use Flipkart’s big data tools to gain insights on online consumers, and target devices at them.