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Microsoft has said that it would enter the mass smartphone market aggressively with Windows based mobiles priced at around $100-200 a handset.
The company said its strategy would be to build a scale and share in the mobile phone market. Microsoft also claimed that Windows based phones have become No 2 in India, overtaking Apple and BlackBerry.
Speaking in the sidelines of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII's) Third Edition of Annual Mobile Conference 2014, Chakrapani Gollapali, country general manager, consumer channels group, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd said that the market share of Windows based mobile phones has increased to 5% from 1.5% and Windows based phones which were number 4 in India has moved up in the ladder to be No 2 player, after Google's Android, in the last 1.5 years.
"gWe have beaten Apple (iOS) continuously in the last 14 months, and in the last 7-8 quarters Windows phone were ahead of Blackberry,” claimed Gollapali.
On the way forward for the company, he said, “their 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” smartphones will hit the market in the next 3-4 months. Currently the company has one product in this category which is Nokia Lumia 520
In a move to attract the customers, the company 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 also reduced the licence fee. While Gollapali did not share any number, reports stated that the company is offering almost free for the Indian phone makers.
Recently at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft announced that more phone makers, including two from India ? Lava and Karbonn ? will produce Windows Phone devices in the coming months. Both companies already make Android devices using Google's mobile OS which is free to use. Micromax is also expected to join the two companies.
Speaking about the tablet business, he said the company will strengthen its offering by bringing Microsoft Surface, a series of tablets created by the company, before next peak season, which would be second half of the year.
Currently there are 20 different Windows-based tablets in India which are on offer from seven of Microsoft’s original equipment manufacturing partners like 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%.
A big part of using a tablet for work and play are the apps. The apps make the experience rich and useful. With Windows customers can choose from 1,40,000 apps in the Windows Store and over 200,000 apps in the Windows Phone Store.
"Our customers have already downloaded Windows and Windows Phone apps over 250,000 million times! What more, we are adding new apps every day many of which are specially for Indian customers,” he added.
