The mobile phone market seems
to be again on fire, with the players who had initially missed the bus, in
terms of the shift to the smartphone making most of the noise. Today Nokia is
seriously looking at making a comeback with its Lumia Series and even
blackberry is trying its best. For a market observer this a pattern which keeps
repeating, the market leaders sticking to their old way of doing things and
more nimble competitor identifying the next shift early and capitalizing on it.
The more interesting part is what is happening with the Local
brands of the likes of Micromax, Karbonn and others. These Desi Brands had an initial
dream run in the value segment, with companies like Micromax becoming overnight
success stories and started being counted among the world's top 10-15 handset
manufacturer. Again expected, that the local players would fill up the
gaps in the lower end of the market…
But when the shift occurred and
consumer started moving towards smartphones, with their own app ecosystems in
place, many expected the local players to roll over and die, because the smart
phone domain is expected to be more technology driven and not a price-only but
feature rich market place. And this did apparently happen for atleast a couple
of year with not much noise or activity from their end. But they have made their
comeback (for more read, http://goo.gl/DLwUc), with Micromax in the second
position in the market and Karbonn in the fifth place. I find this both
interesting as well as heartening that these firms have been able to make a
comeback, as they are supposedly the ones who are able to customize more...
I think the learning is that a value conscious segment exist in
all markets, especially in the Indian market.
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