Sony Ericsson, the world's sixth-biggest mobile phone maker, has asked its vendors to look at manufacturing phones in India, the world's fastest growing major mobile market, a company official said on March 16. It will join Nokia, the No 1 handset maker, that has announced it and its partners will invest $100 million to $150 million over four years to set up a handset plant in India. Fifth ranked LG Electronics Inc already makes mobile phones in India.
Swedish-Japanese Sony Ericsson, which sold more than 42 million phones globally in 2004, outsources most of its handset manufacturing to contract electronics makers such as Flextronics.
"We have provided them with the details of the kind of opportunities that exist in India," Sudhin Mathur, general manager for the Indian operations of Sony Ericsson, told reporters.
"We are evaluating that proposition in terms of manufacturing ... it is for them (vendors) to decide."
India expects to attract about $800 million in foreign direct investment in telecoms manufacturing in the business year that starts from April 1. A vast majority of the telecoms gear used by carriers and handsets sold in the country are imported.
About 2 million new users are entering India's galloping mobile industry each month, and analysts expect the number to surge in the coming months as carriers such as Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd expand networks in rural areas.
There is heavy demand for wireless connectivity as only five in 100 Indians use mobile services. The fast maturing sector is widely expected to have more than 80 million users by December.
Mathur estimated up to 24 million handsets would be sold in the $3 billion Indian handset market during 2005 and "more than 50 percent would be colour phones". About 17 million handsets were sold last year.
He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of the launch of six new phones, including one with a Walkman-branded portable music player. The phones are priced between $160 and $800.
With this phone, the three-year-old company is using Sony's 26-year-old Walkman brand to crack the nascent mobile music market, a top growth area for 2005.
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