Longcheer plans to invest over Rs 20 crore in India

Longcheer, a mobile design firm based in Singapore, has commenced operating in India to cater to the mobile handset design needs of domestic brands here.
“The design services,” said Michael Fu, vice president, Longcheer Technology, Shanghai, “would be based on the needs and requirements of Indian handset manufacturers and it would be our priority to help establish (each of) our customers as a brand with unique product identity so that it is easily distinguishable from other products available in the market.”
He also revealed that the company has planned an investment of around $5 million (over Rs 22 crore) in India for the next three years.
Manu Nagar, chief executive officer, Longcheer Technology, India, added that the company’s Indian unit is eyeing revenue of $6 million (close to Rs 27 crore) in the next three years from its design services alone.
Talking about mobile design, Nagar said, “We would be focusing on localising the product and catering to India specific demand. For example, the phone should be sturdy as people keep dropping them, plus with the climate of India, they need to be heat and dust resistant, and also sweat resistant. We would also focus on phones with good loudspeaker volume, plus the ability for noise cancellation.”
The company will charge handset manufactures different rates for designing particular models, while the price point for the end user will be decided by the handset manufacturer. Though the company refused to reveal the names of its present clients, it did confirm that it is already working with six of the top domestic handset manufacturers in India. Longcheer recently tied up with Wynncom, the mobile handset brand launched by Luminous. Under this tie up, Longcheer has designed a mid level multimedia device which comes in a candy bar form. This will soon be available in the market.
Talking about the scope of the handset design market in India, Manu pointed out that the size of the domestic handset market is around seven million units per month, and that hence there is tremendous opportunity for a company such as Longcheer.
Although the area of preference for Longcheer India is industrial and mechanical design, it also plans to focus on user interface. Eight to nine months from now, the company plans to gradually move into the applications space as well. It believes that people would want to focus more on applications with office or enterprise abilities, rather than those that are useful for personal purposes. Longcheer also specialises in developing products and services in wireless communication, data communication and mobile Broadband technology.
Longcheer has a range of mobile handsets and applications based on GSM and CDMA with inbuilt GPRS, EDGE and WiFi, and sells its products in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Japan, India and Vietnam. It also has mobile telecommunication laboratories in Shanghai which specialise in mobile related environmental issues, fatigue testing, LCD optics, audio, testing etc.