South Korean electronics giant LG has commenced manufacturing smartphones in India at its Noida unit. It launched two new models – the K10 and K7 – which will be manufactured in India and targets to manufacture 1 million phones in India annually. The manufacturing line has a staff of about 300.
The company’s Managing Director Kim Ki-Wan said that they are optimistic over the new models to drive its growth in the smartphone segment in India. Around 6-8 models of smartphones will be made in the new facility in the next six months.
Meanwhile, India’s second largest mobile phone seller Micromax opened its second mobile manufacturing facility at Hyderabad. It will have the capacity to manufacture 1 million mobile phones per month. The unit, spread over 19 acres, currently employs 700 people and will increase the number to 1,000 in next two months. The company already has a manufacturing unit at Uttarakhand.
In December 2015, Micromax had announced that it will manufacture all its phones in India by 2018, as it shifts production from China. According to Vikas Jain, co-founder, Micromax Informatics, the company was looking at adding units in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan by 2017, which would create job opportunities for over 10,000 people.
Globally, this is a time when the smartphone market is at the crossroads. The double-digit growth seen earlier has ended and an overall 7% growth is projected for 2016. While sales in China and North America are expected to be flat, India is likely to continue to show double digit growth for the next two years. Hence, device makers are keen to set up manufacturing units here to cater to the burgeoning demand. This is expected to give a boost to the Make in India initiative launched by the Government of India.