Motorola, owned by Lenovo, is increasing its manufacturing-related investments in India to help achieve its goal of doubling smartphone exports as well as the handset business in the country.
The investments will be made to expand production capacity with its domestic contract manufacturing partner, Dixon Technologies.
“We are exporting predominantly to the US. Manufacturing is one of the main pillars of our strategy. We are increasing our production capacity, and we will ramp up production from India to predominantly to the US along with neighbouring countries,” Prashant Mani, executive director of Asia Pacific, Motorola, told Moneycontrol.
“We are investing with Dixon to add capacity to meet domestic and export needs. We plan to double exports this year and further double every year.”
Motorola exported more than a million smartphones from India in 2023. Around 20-25 percent of the India-made phones are exported to the US, the company said.
According to market trackers, Apple and Samsung dominate India’s smartphone exports with a 90 percent share.
The handset maker is betting on its mid-premium and premium Edge and Razr smartphone series to double its sales in 2024. The growth for both handset series has grown four times in 2023 over 2022.
“In the last five quarters, we've seen every quarter sell-out growth, and last calendar year’s Q4, we have doubled the growth from a sell-in perspective,” said T M Narasimhan, Managing Director for Mobile Business Group, India at Motorola.
He said globally, India was a critical market for Moto, driving significant volume for the Edge series, which was why the Edge 50 Pro was first launched in the country.
India is the third largest country for Motorola’s global business in terms of volumes behind the US and Brazil.
Mani said Motorola would double its business in India despite a flat market this year. “We will be in the top six brands this year. The 4G to 5G transition along with GenAI features will drive smartphone growth for Motorola this year,” he said.
Motorola Mobility aims to be among India's top three smartphone makers globally in the next three years.
Other than smartphones, Motorola is also focusing on growing its smart TV and tablet sales in the country. The company was exploring local tablet manufacturing and was in talks with contract manufacturers, Mani said.
It is looking to increase component sourcing from India and has devised a plan to double the localisation content for its smartphones in the next few years.
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