COMIO India, launched in the Indian market in mid-2017, is the sister concern of Topwise Communication, one of the leading original device manufacturers (ODM) and is amongst the top three printed circuit board (PCBA) manufacturers. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Topwise Communication specializes in manufacturing all categories of smartphones, PC tablets and POS machines worldwide, including for the leading Indian smartphone brands. In an interaction with Mobility magazine, Mr. Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, CEO & Director, COMIO India, shares their company’s vision, mission, strategy and channel plan.
“Though we have launched COMIO in 2017 in India, we have 12 years experience while supplying as ODM to the Indian brands and also to the other global brands, so we are well associated with the needs of Indian customers. We launched three models in the Rs 6000 to Rs 12,000 range all across the north and west Indian states. We launched COMIO in China in 2015 and now in India in 2017. In north and west India, we are getting very good response for COMIO. Currently, we launched 3 models in North India: models P1, S1 and C1 for the different segments of consumers. P1’s main strength is high power back up (5000 mAh battery). S1 stands for style which has attractive, slim, metal body and overall very good looking. C1’s special feature is music, besides coming with slim, metal body and 32 GB internal memory. Our focus is on mid-segment Rs 6000 to Rs 12000 and offline is our main strength and focus. We have already appointed 4000 channel partners and 15,000 retail partners all across north India and west India. The idea is to establish first in the north and west India which constitutes nearly 60% of the smartphone market in India. In early 2018, we will expand to south east India regions and to LFR chains. Besides offline, our products are also available on all the important online portals, but at the MOP of offline market.”
COMIO India’s smartphones have been designed keeping the Indian consumer in mind. Headquartered in New Delhi, the brand caters to the mid-level segment which is the fastest growing in India, through a range of innovative, technologically-advanced and user-friendly products. COMIO has a mission to provide high quality, reasonable and innovative products to consumers in India. The company is backed by a complete ecosystem including top class R&D, design, manufacturing, software development and marketing.
Talking about their special schemes for the festive season, Sanjay Kalirona comments, “Our models launched recently are here right before the festive season. In our models, we are not only giving something different in terms of software and hardware, but also in terms of good after-sales-support offers, including giving screen breakage guarantee (of 6 months), according to which we replace the damaged screen free of cost in first 6 months of purchase; giving 100 days extra warranty; . buyback of old devices at certain value; and if someone has a COMIO device and he wants to take a new model, we are paying back 40% back of the old device cost. We want to give the best value-propositions for mid-segment. For example, if consumers get a smartphone with good features for Rs 15k in market, they get a similar devices from us for Rs 10k. Our objective is to capture good market share in the mid-market segment of Rs 6-12k in India.”
Talking about future plans and Make in India, Sanjay Kalirona comments, “In FY 2017-18, we are aiming to sell 1 million handsets and in FY 2018-19, our goal is to sell 4 to 5 million handsets in India. In China, we have 3 state-of-the-art manufacturing units. We are planning to start our Indian manufacturing unit next year. For this we in talks with a third party in India. We see a good scope for COMIO in India and we want to establish COMIO as one of the top brands in the Indian market.”
