China-based Transsion now eying India smartphone market
New Delhi, June 4: After strengthening its position in the Indian feature phone market, Chinese conglomerate Transsion Holdings is now looking at capturing a bigger pie of the competitive smartphone segment, the company's newly-appointed India CEO has stressed.
In 2017, the company sold approximately 130 million devices and achieved revenue of around 20 billion Yuan (Rs 21,000 crore) globally.
"After seeing tremendous growth for our brand itel in the Indian mobile handset market, we are now focused on creating a bigger space in the Indian smartphone market with a fresh line-up soon," Arijeet Talapatra, CEO of Transsion India, told hereon Monday.
The company is set to launch a series of Next-Gen smartphones aligned with the young consumers' needs in the country.
According to a CyberMedia Research (CMR) report, over the last one year, itel has emerged as the second largest player in the overall mobile phone market in India, capturing more than 9 per cent market share for 2017.
The brand registered an exponential growth of 217 per cent (year-on-year).
"We want to make itel a household name among Indian consumers," said Talapatra.
Transsion today has over 1,000 service touch points in India.
"Since our inception in India, we've been on a mission to provide a superior smartphone experience to all our customers through unique service proposition for all our brands," the CEO reiterated.
As the new CEO, Talapatra will lead the development and execution of the company's long-term strategy with a view to create shareholder value in alignment with the company's identity.
He will be responsible for leading the development and execution of long-term strategies, overall success of the organisation and making top-level managerial decisions.
"India is Transsion's second largest market after Africa. As per recent reports, we have already become the fifth largest mobile handset player in India," Talapatra told IANS.
Transsion Holdings recently launched its second exclusive "company-owned, company-operated (COCO)" service centre in India to provide customer services through its exclusive after-sales service brand called "Carlcare".
Transsion's previous COCO store was inaugurated at Noida in September last year.
"Owing to Carlcare's capabilities and faster repair efficiencies, we have strengthened our service commitment to the Indian customers by launching our second exclusive centre in Mumbai," Talapatra said.
According to the IDC, Transsion Group made its debut in the top 5 in India with more than three-fold annual growth in shipments in Q1 2018.
The China-based group has four brands under its umbrella -- itel, Tecno, Infinix and Spice.
In the first quarter of 2018, itel stood at third position with 13 per cent market share in the global feature phone market, said a Counterpoint report.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
