Motorola to beef up presence in India

New Delhi, Aug 22: Faced with the falling market share, US-based handset maker Motorola is all set to increase its vendor base in the country, one of the largest growing markets in the world, by acquiring space in 400 retail stores by this year-end.

''We are coming up with space in 400 retail stores before this Christmas to improve our market share which has been low for last couple of years. But, in the past six months there has been ups and downs,'' Mr Jeremy Dale, Vice President (Marketing), Motorola, told reporters here.

He, however, refused to divulge the details of investment plans and said that the company was in talks with the leading retail brands for the space.

Motorola will not only eye top cities but also expand to smaller cities, Mr Dale said during the launch of its new motostore in the national capital.

Recently, Tata Teleservices and Motorola launched their Moto Q smart phone in the Indian market.

The company registered a 13 per cent market share in the second quarter of this fiscal, against 22.1 per cent over the corresponding quarter last year.

The ultra low-cost handset (ULCH) marketplace is currently dominated by Motorola and Nokia, but Samsung, LG Electronics, and Sony Ericsson are showing increasing interest and other smaller vendors, including ZTE, Kyocera, Huawei, Haier, Sagem, Ningbo Bird, Philips, and Rose Telecom, are also beginning to address the market.

The mobile handset sales continue to grow worldwide. Mobile handsets with innovative features have gained a lot of popularity in the developed nations. But the developing markets, which are not yet saturated, like India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, and China, will mainly carry on the global handset sales.

UNI