The South-Korean electronic giant LG, which is popular in the Indian heavy electronics domain is planning to ramp up smartphone sales in the country, observing the anti-China sentiments in India as an opportunity. According to the Advait Vaidya, the business head of mobile communications at LG Electronics, the company has seen around 9 to 10 times increase the smartphone sales in the last two months since the raging against China has begun, especially due to the tension at the Indo-China border. The smartphones below 15k are the best-selling smartphones in India and that said, LG is planning to target the sub-10k price segment in India. After the initial foothold, the company will also introduce smartphones in India at higher prices up to the flagship price range.
As per LG, the company will try to ramp up manufacturing in India up to 10 times by the month of August, and the production will be close to around 15 times till Diwali. The company will use the Product Linked Incentive or PLI scheme that will offer 4 to 6% incentives over incremental sales to gain a stable foothold and manufacture in India. LG Electronics is also exploring the local supply and distribution chains in the country to offer products to the end-users, and the company will mainly emphasize online sales in the tier 1 cities, and offline sales in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. The company will also build a product portfolio keeping the demands of the Indian in mind to cater to the consumer demands in India. LG will not keep itself limited to just smartphones as, by the year-end, the company will also explore the tablet market.
The market share of LG smartphones soared to around 7% in 2011, however, it declined gradually, and now it is around 0.5% in 2020. Talking about the popularity of smartphones in India, the top two players are Xiaomi and Vivo, both Chinese, have a market share of 30%, and 17% respectively with 16% belonging to Samsung, and Realme and Oppo having 14% and 12% respectively. So, LG is nowhere in the picture. If LG really makes it in the Indian smartphone market, it is going to be a plausible alternative to Chinese smartphones for offering better quality and great value for money. I am really excited to see LG smartphones back in the market. What LG needs to do is, offer great value for money products, and that’s indeed the only way to get fair market penetration, through proper promotion.
Indian smartphone consumers should really be happy if LG comes back with a bang. Are you happy about LG coming back to the Indian market? Feel free to comment on the same below.
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