The Chinese manufacturer will start manufacturing some of its popular smartphones including the Lenovo K3 Note and the Moto E in India.
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Chinese tech major Lenovo on Tuesday announced that it will start locally manufacturing smartphones in India.
The A2010, the cheapest smartphone in Lenovo’s portfolio with 4G connectivity, was launched with a 1,690 Vietnamese Dong price tag in Vietnam earlier this month, and the company is likely to launch the same device in India soon, according The Times of India. “We are the fastest growing manufacturing destination for smartphones in the world now and we support all companies coming to India.”
The current manufacturing facility is spread over 40,000 sqf and will house 1500 employees for manufacturing lines, quality assurance, product testing, etc. Both Lenovo and Motorola will have separate manufacturing lines at the same facility, but the products will be assembled under the same roof, so to speak. Lenovo’s Pondicherry plant manufactures ThinkPads, personal computers. Both companies have started integrating the manufacturing and supply chain operations and are working towards to combining many back-end operations as well. Lenovo had acquired Motorola in January 2014. “Lenovo’s investment in the new manufacturing plant represents the potential we see in the Indian market and our long term commitment to our customers”, said Chen Xudong, President MBG Group, Lenovo and chairman Motorola Mobility Operating Board.
Lenovo is not the first smartphone maker to announce a #MadeinIndia device.
India’s leading smartphone player Samsung has been manufacturing all its smartphones in its Greater Noida factory. It is also the only Chinese brand among top five vendors in the country.
With regard to Lenovo’s own factory, Sudhin Mathur, Director for India Smartphones, said that he would not call the Chennai plant as only an assembly unit but rather somewhere in the middle.
The existing cheapest 4G smartphone available in India is the Phicomm Energy 653 priced at Rs 4,999 (500 yuan).
“The Indian government’s thrust on Make in India has opened up a plethora of opportunities for organisations looking to conduct business in India”, Amar Babu, COO, Asia Pacific and chairman, Lenovo India said. “We will work with the government to ensure that local component availability improves”.
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Lenovo said that they’ve grown 330 per cent in India from last year based on IDC numbers and that they were bullish on the market and plan to make further investments in India.
