Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Motorola upbeat about Indian, Chinese mobile market

Motorola Inc, the world's second-largest mobile phone maker, is looking at the fast-paced Indian and Chinese mobile markets to fuel its handset sales, company officials said on Tuesday.

Global mobile phone makers are facing slack demand in most western markets such as the United States and Europe because of a worldwide economic slowdown.

But Asia remains a bright spot for the industry with India's $5.0-billion (Rs 24285 crore) cellular sector expected to surge at 51 per cent each year to 12 crore (120 million) users by 2008.

China is the world's largest mobile market with more than 18 crore (180 million) users.

"India and China are the two markets which will provide growth," Cliff Barrett, vice-president of product line management at Motorola, told a news conference called to launch three new handsets in India.

"To our company, India is strategically a very important market."

U N Nayak, country manager of Motorola's Indian operations, said he expected the domestic mobile sector to surge at a compounded rate of over 60 per cent, making it one of the fastest growing markets globally.

This strong double-digit growth is likely to catalyse Motorola's mobile phone sales.

Nayak said the company's handset sales in India were forecast "to grow this year at about 100 per cent and subsequently at higher than the cellular market's growth rates".

But he did not reveal Motorola's handset sales and market share in India.

Motorola competes with market leader and Finnish giant Nokia, Swedish firm Ericsson and South Korea's Samsung Electronics in India's handset market.

Nayak estimated the domestic handset market at between 4.2-4.3 million units annually, with cheaper "grey" market or smuggled units accounting for close to two-thirds of the demand.

High import duties and local taxes have spawned a huge smuggled handset market in India where new models often come in much before they are officially launched in the country.

Nayak said "the opportunity for the legitimate market is large enough in India" despite the grey market because Motorola planned to introduce handsets with local language menus by 2003.

ALSO READ:
More Money Headlines