Samsung
Samsung Electronics inaugurated its mobile phone plant in Manesar, Haryana in early March 2006. The company sees its unit as a critical aspect of its strategy to offer “made in India” mobile handsets, which would further consolidate its presence in the Indian market and improve its speed to market phones in India. The company plans to invest about $15 million by the end of the current financial year.
Initially, the company plans to manufacture mid-range phones in India and gradually introduce other ranges of handsets. All these models will be customised with the help of the Samsung India Software Operations Unit, developed at its R&D centre in Bangalore. The plant has an initial capacity of producing 1 million units per annum, which will be stepped up to 20 million units per annum by 2010.
Nokia
Nokia recently inaugurated its manufacturing facility in Chennai. The unit is Nokia’s fifteenth manufacturing facility globally. However, it is unique in the sense that it is the only one of its kind that will manufacture both mobile devices and network infrastructure equipment as the facility also includes a tie-up with the Aspocomp Group to put up a printed circuit board facility worth $70 million in India. Nokia commenced commercial production of mobile handsets at its India factory on January 2, 2006 and has achieved the milestone of manufacturing over 1 million handsets in India to date. The Chennai manufacturing facility currently employs 1,100 people and expects to significantly expand its workforce in India over time. Nokia has invested roughly $150 million in its India manufacturing plant, which will support the growing demand for mobile handsets and network infrastructure in the AsiaPacific region. Says Chief Executive Jorma Ollila: “I am confident that our manufacturing facility in Chennai will enable us to reduce our time to market and better respond to customer requirements in this market and around the region. To bring the benefits of mobility to first-time subscribers, Nokia is working closely with operators to lower the total cost of ownership with affordable handsets and cost-efficient network solutions.”
LG ElectronicsIndia Limited
LG Electronics India Limited (LGEIL) has set up its second manufacturing plant at Ranjangaon, Pune. The new plant is in addition to the company’s current manufacturing facility at Greater Noida. It will enable the company to expand its consumer reach and ensure better supply chain management. A leading manufacturer of CDMA phones, the plant commenced operations in October 2004 and is looking at an overall investment of about Rs 5 billion over the next five years.
In 2005, it also set up India’s first GSM mobile manufacturing unit. The plant is currently churning out the B2050 handset, a basic 64 K colour bar phone; the B2070 handset; the B-2150 VGA camera handset; and the C-3400 clamshell MP3 handset.
In view of forecasted manufacturing growth of 100 per cent every year, the company’s main initiative is to develop the capability of local vendors and encourage investment of specialist component/subassemblies around Pune for better supply chain management.
Elcoteq
Finland’s Elcoteq Network Corporation set up a 6 million capacity manufacturing unit in Bangalore in April 2005. The company plans to invest up to $100 million more and expand its workforce gradually. By end 2006, the unit expects to churn out 10 million handsets and networking equipment a year.
The company plans to sell 80 per cent of the handsets produced here in the domestic market and eventually use India as a base to export phones and base stations to Pakistan, Bangladesh, West Asia and East Africa. Elcoteq would work on design, fabrication and packaging of mobile units and other products in the telecom space while it is already outsourcing design and software work to several software firms in India.
Motorola
Motorola, the second leading handset manufacturer in the world, after setting up a global R&D hub in India, launched its first “made in India” handset, the C115. Built on the C11x platform, the C115 is a mass market phone based on the sub-$40 handset category for emerging markets. At the moment, Motorola is the only big player that has yet to establish a manufacturing base in the country. There are reported plans of the company doing so but no formal announcement has been made.
