Microsoft to shift focus to mass smartphone market

'Affordable' handsets to be priced between $100 and $200

US software major Microsoft plans to enter the mass smart phone market with Windows-based handsets priced between $100 and $200. The company says its strategy is to build scale and share in the mobile phone market.

According to the software firm, Windows-based phones have become No 2 in India, ahead of Apple and BlackBerry.

Speaking on the sidelines of Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) annual mobile conference here on Friday, Chakrapani Gollapali, country general manager (consumer channels group) at Microsoft Corporation India, said the market share of Windows-based mobile phones has increased from 1.5 per cent to five per cent. He added that over the past one-and-a-half years, Windows-based phones, which were No 4 in India, have moved up the ladder to be No 2 player, after Google's Android.

“We have beaten Apple (iOS) continuously in the past 14 months, and in the past seven-to-eight quarters, Windows phones were ahead of Blackberry,” said Gollapali.

On the way forward for the company, he said: “There is no future if you don't have share. We will build scale and share. We will unlock more products in the $100-200 price range to address the mass market.” The ‘affordable’ smart phones will hit the market in the next three-to-four months. Currently, the company has one product in this category - Nokia Lumia 520.

In a move to attract customers, the firm is also planning to give contents related to film, sports, music, mapping and others. “Apps will be one of our major bets,” said Gollapali.

The global software major has also reduced the licence fee for its Windows phone operating system (OS). While Gollapali did not share any number, media reports said the company would give away the OS to the phone makers for almost free.

At the recently-concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft had announced that more phone makers, including two from India - Lava and Karbonn - would produce Windows Phone devices in the coming months. Both the Indian companies already make Android devices using Google's mobile OS, which is free to use.

On Microsoft's tablet business, he said the company would strengthen its offering by launching Microsoft Surface series of tablets before the next peak season (the second half of the year).

Currently, there are about 20 different Windows-based tablets in India on offer from seven of Microsoft’s original equipment manufacturing partners - Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Panasonic and Lava.

Since its introduction in mid-2010, the tablet category has witnessed huge growth in demand and shipments. Currently, the hand-held segment leads with an impressive annual growth of 629 per cent.

Apps make the experience of using a tablet rich and useful. There are about 140,000 apps in the Windows Store and over 200,000 apps in the Windows Phone Store to choose from.

“Our customers have already downloaded Windows and Windows Phone apps over 250,000 million times. We are adding new apps every day, many of which are specially for Indian customers,” he added.