Before make in india campaign, people in 1970's and early 80's were obsessed with Indian products. Everything India produced was awesome, including Bajaj chetak and ahuja radios, simply because they did not knew what the rest of the world used and discarded. Imported stuff was brought by your Uncle or Aunt in the U.S. or London which included Transistors and cassette players of vastly superior quality and technology than what we Indians made and consumed. Television was a giant magic box owned by the whole mohalla and the real owner paid the electricity bill.
These products were looked upon as if freshly landed from a Martian spaceship and used for years to come by the entire family.
Times have changed now. Post 1990's saw emergence of foreign brands in India vastly diluted the hefty price tag associated with them. Japanese Honda now became Hero Honda, Sony and phillips earned their reputation as solid manufacturers of electronics and sidelined more desi and outdated "Indian" Bush, B.P.L, Ahuja and other various brands existing for decades.
However this decade witnessed the curious revival of Indian brands in the domain of smartphones(at least). In the sweet - revenge-like fashion Micromax, Karbonn and Xolo replaced Samsung and Sony off the shelves of store with a great landslide. Every tactic used to destroy the cheaper Indian rivals resulted in the degradation of their own quality and made opponents seem close to them. Sony is virtually dead in the mid-range segment, Samsung is ticking inspite of suffering huge blows to their market share, Nokia survived because of the fact that they are Indianised to an extent that we do not see it as Finnish brand, Motorola is gradually reinventing themselves and no one even thinks of buying an L.G.
Pictured: We finally know what that iconic punch means.
But there is a catch though. What makes a Smartphone an Indian smartphone? Brand or the owners? Or where they have been manufactured? Or where they have been designed? Its all very confusing. This post discusses some myths associated with Indian brands of smartphones and tries to clarify the cloud of confusion that exists around them.
Well in my opinion (if anyone cares to ask me) Nokia is more Indian than any of the supposedly Indian brands we all cheer and are obsessed with. They hire Indian developers for respective projects, Have an R&D centre in India dealing with Indian customer needs, They did manufacture mid range phones and smartphones in India (Asha series and such) and customize the phones to suit Indian needs even dealing with loss in profit margins. This have ensured their survival even in the tough market that is today. Coming to Micromax, after using their two phones for 3 years I have realized that re branding popular Chinese smartphones and changing the start screen is the only R&D they do in India.
See above: In fact they do not even care to change the plastic cases. They are not China made phones, they are chinese phones....
Since I do not have any experience with Karbonn and Xolo phones I withhold myself from making any comments on them, but I do not expect them to be any better than Micromax and such. I was mighty amazed when a Chinese QWERTY phone's battery (Akoa 551) exactly got fit and turned on the Micromax Q75. The reason Micromax, Lava, Karbonn and Xolo have same service centres is broadly based on the fact that they all are Chinese phones re-branded or customized to Indian needs (Like adding Hindu calendars and adding Hindi as an language).
Now I personally do not hate these smartphone manufacturers for re-branding and selling Chinese phones. It is due to their marketing strategy that other brands were forced to reduce their prices in India. What disturbs me is that just by changing the marketing logos and cheesy advertising campaigns they force you to believe that their phones are somehow more "superior" and "value for money" than the same Chinese phones they copy.
Coming to Chinese products, I feel that their quality is directly proportional to the amount you spend on manufacturing them. Foxconn is the giant manufacturing facility where reputed brands like Apple, Sony and L.G. make their phones, still they all vary in sturdiness and quality of hardware. Xiaomi, the Chinese company whose phones sell like hot pancakes in winter have vastly superior hardware quality to that of Samsung and still costs a fraction of what you pay for Galaxy's and Ace's. Both made in china? Figure out yourselves.
Pictured: Proudly Made in China
Thing is that Corporations are multinational in present decade and anyone who tells you other is probably joking or born in 1960's. They have no nationality, morality or sense of pride whatsoever. They sell where they think they are going to make profit and manufacture where they think it is cost effective. You and me cannot dictate them on these choices, they think its cheap in china, they make in china. If they think it is cheaper elsewhere, they do not hesitate for a split second to move there; Case in here is Vietnam. (Turn your lumia phones backside and see Made in Vietnam carefully).
Buying supposedly "Indian" branded smartphones don't contribute a bit to our economy other than increasing the bank balance of their Indian owners and shareholders. Buy if you think they are worth it ( Micromax knight is a good example of that, Intex being the honorable entry among others) but please do not go into the delusion that these are Indian and would help domestic economy or such B.S.
I am still waiting for Indian companies to invest in the manufacturing facilities in India, or open a world class research and development center for their products in India, and I think it will be worth it.
These products were looked upon as if freshly landed from a Martian spaceship and used for years to come by the entire family.
Times have changed now. Post 1990's saw emergence of foreign brands in India vastly diluted the hefty price tag associated with them. Japanese Honda now became Hero Honda, Sony and phillips earned their reputation as solid manufacturers of electronics and sidelined more desi and outdated "Indian" Bush, B.P.L, Ahuja and other various brands existing for decades.
However this decade witnessed the curious revival of Indian brands in the domain of smartphones(at least). In the sweet - revenge-like fashion Micromax, Karbonn and Xolo replaced Samsung and Sony off the shelves of store with a great landslide. Every tactic used to destroy the cheaper Indian rivals resulted in the degradation of their own quality and made opponents seem close to them. Sony is virtually dead in the mid-range segment, Samsung is ticking inspite of suffering huge blows to their market share, Nokia survived because of the fact that they are Indianised to an extent that we do not see it as Finnish brand, Motorola is gradually reinventing themselves and no one even thinks of buying an L.G.
Pictured: We finally know what that iconic punch means.
But there is a catch though. What makes a Smartphone an Indian smartphone? Brand or the owners? Or where they have been manufactured? Or where they have been designed? Its all very confusing. This post discusses some myths associated with Indian brands of smartphones and tries to clarify the cloud of confusion that exists around them.
Well in my opinion (if anyone cares to ask me) Nokia is more Indian than any of the supposedly Indian brands we all cheer and are obsessed with. They hire Indian developers for respective projects, Have an R&D centre in India dealing with Indian customer needs, They did manufacture mid range phones and smartphones in India (Asha series and such) and customize the phones to suit Indian needs even dealing with loss in profit margins. This have ensured their survival even in the tough market that is today. Coming to Micromax, after using their two phones for 3 years I have realized that re branding popular Chinese smartphones and changing the start screen is the only R&D they do in India.
Since I do not have any experience with Karbonn and Xolo phones I withhold myself from making any comments on them, but I do not expect them to be any better than Micromax and such. I was mighty amazed when a Chinese QWERTY phone's battery (Akoa 551) exactly got fit and turned on the Micromax Q75. The reason Micromax, Lava, Karbonn and Xolo have same service centres is broadly based on the fact that they all are Chinese phones re-branded or customized to Indian needs (Like adding Hindu calendars and adding Hindi as an language).
Now I personally do not hate these smartphone manufacturers for re-branding and selling Chinese phones. It is due to their marketing strategy that other brands were forced to reduce their prices in India. What disturbs me is that just by changing the marketing logos and cheesy advertising campaigns they force you to believe that their phones are somehow more "superior" and "value for money" than the same Chinese phones they copy.
Coming to Chinese products, I feel that their quality is directly proportional to the amount you spend on manufacturing them. Foxconn is the giant manufacturing facility where reputed brands like Apple, Sony and L.G. make their phones, still they all vary in sturdiness and quality of hardware. Xiaomi, the Chinese company whose phones sell like hot pancakes in winter have vastly superior hardware quality to that of Samsung and still costs a fraction of what you pay for Galaxy's and Ace's. Both made in china? Figure out yourselves.
Pictured: Proudly Made in China
Thing is that Corporations are multinational in present decade and anyone who tells you other is probably joking or born in 1960's. They have no nationality, morality or sense of pride whatsoever. They sell where they think they are going to make profit and manufacture where they think it is cost effective. You and me cannot dictate them on these choices, they think its cheap in china, they make in china. If they think it is cheaper elsewhere, they do not hesitate for a split second to move there; Case in here is Vietnam. (Turn your lumia phones backside and see Made in Vietnam carefully).
Buying supposedly "Indian" branded smartphones don't contribute a bit to our economy other than increasing the bank balance of their Indian owners and shareholders. Buy if you think they are worth it ( Micromax knight is a good example of that, Intex being the honorable entry among others) but please do not go into the delusion that these are Indian and would help domestic economy or such B.S.
I am still waiting for Indian companies to invest in the manufacturing facilities in India, or open a world class research and development center for their products in India, and I think it will be worth it.
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