Local language enabled smartphone ecosystem needed for growth: Karbonn

The mobile handset market in India is a highly competitive one and in a state of continuous flux with new entrants in the market almost every month. With plethora of choices available, the Indian consumer is becoming highly discerning, which has resulted in fast melting brand loyalties. India being home to around 1.3 billion population, around a billion of them use mobile phones, which makes us the second largest country in terms of number of mobile phone users after China (1.2 billion). Growth has escalated, especially with the advent of technology in terms of performance, accessibility and affordability. As a result, unlike many other electric appliances, approximately 80 per cent users change their mobile phones on an average every two years. With this, the handset makers continuously strive to stay tuned to the latest developments and at the same time making it accessible at affordable rates. 

Karbonn Mobiles, one of the leading handset makers, has been focused on making the smartphone experience more simple and relevant. And in one such initiative, it launched a new advertising campaign for its latest smartphone, Karbonn K9 Smart. Capturing, the lives and dreams of the young India beyond the metros, the TVC highlights how access to technology in native Indian languages could bridge the digital divide, giving wings to the dreams and aspirations of these youngsters. The raw, earthy voice of Pankaj Awasthi singing the “Sapnon ne langhi, bhasha ki lakeerien” mellifluously captures the mood and energy of the talented, ambitious and restless Indian youth.

Shashin Devasare, Executive Director, Karbonn Mobiles, explained, “We are looking at targeting the ambitious millennial generation from non-metro cities, who might not be proficient in the English language, but are as talented and aspirational as their metro counterparts.”

The TVC was conceived and developed in-house and shot by Full Circle Production House and was directed by Bappaditya Roy.

Devasare believed that the consumer was now no longer wooed by hefty specs, which might look good on paper but brought little value to the consumer’s life. He further said, “The brand that best understands the needs of the consumers and develops products for that need is going to emerge the winner. India has currently 998 million mobile phone subscribers, covering almost 80 per cent of the population, however, out of the total mobile phone user pool, only a fraction of them are on smartphones. Thus, there is still a huge untapped growth potential for smart telephony in India to bring the next billion users under the smartphone fold. Focus on consumer experience over hardware specs and building local language support are going to be the mainstay of this growth.”

He considers Punjab, Maharashtra, Haryana, UP East & West, East, Jammu and Kashmir, MP, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu as the key contributors. He said, “We started the year with the launch of our own UI - Kandy introduced on our first 4G device, Karbonn Quattro. The UI provides additional advance functionalities over the Android OS, allowing users to control the way they use and experience their smartphones to match their digital proficiency. The UI has been especially developed basis feedback from smartphone users to bring the most user friendly, stable and secure 4G experience to Quattro users. The encouraging user response to Kandy is testimony to the fact that the Indian user has a clear need for a fuss-free yet enhanced smartphone experience. We have designed Kandy as a dynamic user interface and would continue to introduce new features and enhancements in the UI basis feedback from the user community, which we pushed to existing users over the air.”

He noted, “Building a local language enabled smartphone ecosystem is another key element of the Indian smartphone growth story. As per IAMAI, the local language user base grew 47 per cent and touched 127 million in June. The growing consumption of local language content on mobile phones is a clear indicator of the need for ‘vernacularising’ the smartphone ecosystem for bridging the gaping digital divide. Karbonn has been working closely with various language services providers to dissolve the language barrier, which is one of the major impediments inhibiting smartphone adoption amongst non-English speaking population. We recently announced the launch of K9 smart, targeted at entry level smartphone users, which offers users the option to navigate the device in up to 12 Indian languages. It also allows users the flexibility to choose from 21 Indian languages for typing input and search and even add contacts in up to 11 Indian languages. Users can read news and other informative content and access popular apps like Google Maps, YouTube, Facebook and Whatsapp in their native Indian languages.”

As far as market share is considered, Devasare considers market share which is solely based on shipment numbers not to be a true representation of growth and business financials. He said, “Karbonn has always maintained and continues to maintain a healthy topline and bottom-line growth. Till 2014, we maintained our position amongst the top 3 smartphone players in the country. Our bestselling product of 2015, Karbonn Mach Five, launched in August last year at a price point of Rs 5,999, continues to fly off the market shelves with a price erosion of merely 10 per cent over a period of six months. This stands testimony to our healthy business growth. Further, Karbonn’s K9 series of feature phones has the distinction of been one of the longest running mobile phone series in India. Not surprisingly, we were voted the third most trusted Indian smartphone brand in the country by ET Brand Survey 2015.”

 

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