InFocus, the United States of America based handset player which gets its smartphones manufactured in China at Foxconn’s factory, entered the Indian market a few months back. It is relatively a new kid in the smartphone space in India but have a big plan for the consumers over here. Just to give the background, InFocus was established in the year 1986 in the USA. Globally it is a leading player in projection and display technologies.
Roadmap
Till now InFocus has been studying the Indian market with soft launches and has partnered with Snapdeal to sell its devices in the country. Nitin Garg, director Marketing, InFocus said to The Mobile Indian, “We don’t want to rush into the Indian market with sub-standard devices, our long term goal is to offer Indian consumers value for money smartphones which have good design and deliver great performance.”
He further said, “We are not here to grab 1-2 percent market share in smartphones but to be among the top players in the country. In the next three months, we will be launching a couple of devices in the market through which we aim to provide disruptive technology in the hands of the consumers.”
InFocus plans to officially launch its services in India in a month’s time and plans to sell 1.5 million smartphones by year-end. As of now it has sold around 0.2 million devices in the country in five months.
Product portfolio
Since its debut in the Indian market InFocus has launched five smartphones – InFocus M810 for Rs 14,999; InFocus M350 for Rs 7,999; InFocus M530 for Rs 10999; and InFocus M330 for Rs 9,999. The company plans to expand its portfolio to about 10-15 smartphones in the next three months, including the above mentioned four devices.
Nitin said, “All the devices that we are planning to launch will have something unique in them like design, features and functionality. And they will have a price tag between Rs 5,000 and Rs 30,000.”
Here is quick snapshot of the devices which the company has launched and we have reviewed
InFocus M330 Review: There are several phones in the market, some with good performance while few others have good cameras while many others have a good design. But there are only a handful of smartphones in the budget segment which are truly all rounders. The InFocus M330 truly belongs to that segment. Infact, it is a bit better than just an all-rounder. It impresses in almost all segments. Barring the lack of 4G, it has everything that its competitors offer. To read the detailed review here.
InFocus M2 review: In Focus M2 is an entry-level smartphone and is definitely worth considering. There are no major hiccups in it and the performance is also quite smooth. As a matter of fact, it is at par with some of the smartphones are that are priced around Rs 2,000 more than it. To read the detailed review click here.
InFocus M350 Review: At Rs 7,999 it impresses with its 5 inch HD display, 1.5 GHz 64 bit quad core processor, 2 GB RAM, 16 GB internal memory, 8 megapixel auto focus rear camera, flash light, 8 megapixel auto focus front camera, 2500 mAh battery (non-removable), dual SIM, and LTE connectivity. To read the full review click here.
After sale service
After sales services is the biggest pain point that all the handset brands face today. InFocus realizes this and thus wants to make it a pleasurable experience for its customers. Nitin said, “Today we have service centers in 85 cities and in few months we plan to have more than 200 service centers.”
He further added, “We have still not finalized what all add-ons we will be providing, but we are exploring a couple of new elements in our sales service like when a user submits his phone for repair, we want to give him a temporary phone which is of the same or higher quality which has been deposited with us.” He didn’t divulge any further details as InFocus wants to announce the same at the time of the launch of their smartphones.
Distribution and manufacturing
Currently, InFocus is selling its smartphones through an online shopping portal, Snapdeal, but in the long run they don’t want to be an online specific brand. The company has plans to enter the physical stores space as well. Also, InFocus along with its partner Foxconnn plans to start its manufacturing unit in India pretty soon. Nitin said, “We are just waiting for Foxconn to shortlist the city where they plant to establish their manufacturing unit and it may happen within a month or two.”
Outlook
InFocus is a new player in the already crowded handset space in India, but globally it is a well-established brand in a couple of other segments. The company seems to be not in a hurry to introduce a new segment without due diligence because they don’t want to risk their reputation.
What we feel is that InFocus’s current approach of slow and steady seems to be in the right direction and consumers should not form any opinion about the company at this stage. The company should be given a couple of months to prove themselves because as of now they have not even entered the Indian market in a proper way.
In about next two months it will be clear where does InFocus stands in terms of uniqueness of design which they claim to be their USP, after sale services which they are looking at improving drastically and will they be able to give consumers value for money smartphones in true sense.
To know about all the announcements that InFocus has so far made, click here.