Intex eyeing Rs 1,200 crore from 4G smartphones, to boost portfolio

Domestic mobile handset vendor Intex expects to garner up to Rs. 1,200 crores in revenues from 4G smartphones as demand for devices compatible with the high speed Internet service grows in the country.

At present, the New Delhi-based firm has five 4G devices in its portfolio, which will be expanded to 10 by the fiscal end.

"This year, we are aiming for revenues of Rs. 8,000 crores. We expect the percentage share of 4G to reach around 40 percent by the last quarter of the fiscal," Intex Head Mobile Business Sanjay Kalirona told PTI.

For the entire year, an estimate from 4G handsets sale would be Rs. 1,000-1,200 crores, he added. Kalirona said the number of 4G devices in the company's portfolio (Aqua 4G+, Aqua Turbo 4G, Aqua Trend, Aqua Ace, and Cloud 4G Star) will be expanded to 10 by March 2016.

"Devices priced above Rs. 6,000 in this quarter will be on 4G. The effort is to make phones priced above Rs. 5,000 4G compatible," he added.

Intex has already tied up with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm to supply 4G handsets enabled with voice over LTE (VoLTE) feature.

The company has got order for 100,000 phones from Reliance Jio, of which 20,000 will be delivered soon. The handsets are priced under Rs. 10,000 and Reliance Retail will distribute the devices, which will also bear Intex branding.

India, which is among the fastest growing smartphone markets globally, is poised to overtake the US as the second-largest market in the next few years. Shipments to India grew 44 percent to 26.5 million units in April-June, as per research firm IDC.

Samsung was the market leader with 23 percent share, followed by Micromax (17 percent) and Intex (11 percent).

-PTI