Former chief executive officer of Apple, John Sculley has announced a new brand of smartphones especially for India, called Obi Mobiles. In a press statement issued by Obi Mobiles, the company said that it will make “affordable smartphones with superior technology”. Mobile handsets by Obi Mobiles are expected to hit the Indian markets by early next month.
Though the press statement talks nothing about the upcoming Obi phones, news reports quoted Sculley saying that they will launch affordable handsets in the Rs 5,000 to 8,000 segment.
Sculley, who was the chief executive officer of Apple from 1983 to 1993, was known to be the person behind Steve Jobs exit from Apple in 1985. Sculley is known to be an expert in marketing strategy, especially for his early success in PepsiCo in the 1970s and in Apple in the 1980s.
But the path for Sculley in the Indian samrtphone market will not be that smooth as the homegrown handset marketeers like Micromax, Karbonn, Lava, Spice etc have a formidable presence in the country. Even MNC companies like Samsung, LG, Nokia, Sony etc have now started targeting the affordable segment (especially the Rs 10,000 – Rs 20,000).
Last year, about 40-44 million handsets are sold in India. As per an IDC report, Samsung was the leader with 19 per cent market share while a CyberMedia research claimed that Nokia was the leader of the Indian mobile phone market with 16.6 per cent share.