Jivi Mobiles, one of the leading players in the feature phones with a global footprint has touched the 2 lakh units per month mark in terms of sales owing to a considerable price slash in prices. The brand has received phenomenal response post the price cut. It has introduced full multimedia phones for as low as Rs 699 to further boost the business volumes.
“Though the research firms may suggest that the feature phones are gradually losing out to the smartphones, feature phones still comprise of around two-third of the mobile market in India. According to statistics as recent as OND 2014 quarter from one of the leading market research firms, Greyhound, in India, only less than 10% population has access to smartphones. This essentially means that the percentage share of feature phones in the tier II, tier III and rural markets would be as high as 90% or even more. They are here to stay for some more years and the volumes are sizably high for a mobile brand to ignore,” says Pankaj Anand, Chief Executive Officer, Jivi Mobiles.
“Even before we launched the lowest priced Android smartphone and the lowest priced Quad Core phone lately, we were one of the leading players in the feature phones business and our new offerings available for Rs 699 onwards will further consolidate our position in the market. Our channel partners are quite excited about the business potential. Besides, we are one of the few brands that sells affordable CDMA feature phones for as low as Rs 999 onwards as well for the benefit of customers onMTS, Reliance and Tata IndicomCDMA networks,” adds Mr. Anand.
According to Mr. Harsh Vardhan, Head – Marketing, Jivi Mobiles, “Our feature phones have a high market acceptance because they are a perfect value for money proposition – loaded with features at a price that masses can easily afford. In fact, it is a matter of immense pride for us that one of our fastest selling models JV X9300 has bagged the Mobility Excellence Award for the best feature phone recently. It is one of the slimmest phones that has a mighty 3000 mAh battery and also the most affordable in its category priced at Rs 1199 only. The 3.5” touch phones are available for as low as Rs 1799. In CDMA range, we have two models – one for Rs 999 and the other which is a CDMA+GSM phone for Rs 1899 only.”
“However, it’s not just the low price. Jivi phone modelsare rich in design and has quite many features that users in India’s hinterlands really want like the boom sound speaker, wireless FM, high battery life besides the superior build quality and feel. There are about 40 feature phone models that we have in our product portfolio. This signifies that that we have a phone in every price bracket – starting from a common man’s need to as much a user wishes to spend – and every screen size category,” informs Mr. Vardhan.
