Iqoo aims to double online market share in mid-premium range this year

Smartphone company Iqoo is planning to double its market in the mid to premium range of mobile phones in the online segment, a top company official said on Tuesday.

Iqoo chief executive office Nipun Marya told PTI that the firm will focus on high-performance phones to differentiate itself from the offerings of its parent firm Vivo.

''Right now, the only target that we have kept for ourselves is that we will like to double our market share in the mid (priced about Rs 20,000) to premium segment (priced above Rs 40,000) from the current 5 per cent to 10 per cent by the end of this year,'' Marya said. The company has earlier launched the Iqoo 9 series that is being sold online in the price range of Rs 34,990 to Rs 63,990 a unit.

It also launched Z series smartphones in the budget segment that are available in the price range of Rs 12,499 to Rs 26,990 apiece. Iqoo is now going to launch the Iqoo Neo series by the end of this month, which will be in between these two series, Marya said.

''We are now launching the Neo series, which will cater to people between the two portfolios that we already have. These are young customers who want high-performance phones. They don't want to go flagship, and they can certainly afford better than budget,'' Marya said. He noted that the company's growth strategy will be around bringing the right product to the right set of consumers.

''There are different kinds of consumer segments. There is a consumer segment, which is inclined towards good design and cameras, and tends to purchase offline because they want to have look and feel. That is Vivo's consumer segment.

''Iqoo is for people who care more about performance and performance of the device comes from hardware, processor, flash memory. Also, we have seen that the Iqoo consumer is a younger consumer,'' Marya added. He also said that the share of the student population buying Iqoo is higher.

''There is a kind of complete complementarity between both the brands (Iqoo and Vivo). Both the brands can very well co-exist, and in their respective price segment both brands can get good market share,'' Marya said.