With rising costs on import duties, it was only a matter of time before more companies joined the Make In India mantra and set base in India. Chinese-based Gionee are the latest brand to tie up with well-known Foxconn and Noida-headquartered Dixon to assemble their mid-range and high-end phones.
Gionee is all set to invest $50 million (that’s just over INR 300 crores) across the next three years on manufacturing in India and also plans on scaling up their R&D center here which includes their UI division, tasked with enhancing their Amigo UI for Indian users.
Taiwanese multinational Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, are not new to the Indian market and manufactures for a host of global brands like Apple, BlackBerry, Amazon, Motorola, Xiaomi and Sony to name a few. Recently, Foxconn signed a $5 billion deal (you do the conversion!) to set up R&D and hi-tech manufacturing facilities in Maharashtra within the next five years. The $5 billion pledge is the largest foreign investment into India’s tech manufacturing sector and a boost for the government’s “Make in India” program designed to spur domestic manufacturing.
Headquartered in Noida, Dixon is the largest Indian Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider focused on consumer electronics, home appliances and lighting electronics products having an established track record with consumer electronics majors like LG Electronics (largest EMS provider) and Philips Electronics India (sole EMS provider) and also as a preferred contract manufacturer for other principals like Panasonic, Toshiba India to name a few.
With this recent announcement by Gionee, we can not only expect better-priced products but other major players will be given a run for their money and hopefully, prices will drop across the board which means good news for consumers. At the rate the Indian market is growing, it is expected to overtake the US as the second largest market for Smartphones by 2017 finishing behind China.
Exciting news for Gionee!
