'We want to make in India but it will depend on volumes and partner ecosystem.'
Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar on Thursday said he has a dream to see Americans carry phones made by Indians, and that he will support domestic companies whole-heartedly that are looking to go global.
He expressed the views while unveiling a smartphone and a two-in-one notebook of technology company Smartron today. The Master Blaster has invested in the company.
"This is the second inning of my life. First, I was playing cricket in field. The second inning is partnership with entrepreneurs. That means much more to me because if you read what is written behind the product (Smartron) it says designed and engineered in India," Tendulkar said.
He will be the brand ambassador of the company. However, he did not disclose details of his investment in the company.
"An Indian company looking to go global is a matter of pride for all of us. I wanted to support this whole-heartedly. It would to be a dream (come true) to see Americans carrying this phone and saying this product is made by Indians. Thoughts are there and result will follow," the legendary cricketer said.
Smartron's chairman and managing director Mahesh Lingareddy said the company will not only launch consumer devices but would also look at offering enterprise products like cloud storage, routers, storage, among others.
"Smartron was founded in August 2014. We are targeting IoT (Internet of Things) wave. We have filed over 50 patents and counting. Technology we are investing in is to go beyond smartphone market," he said.
Smartron will offer unlimited storage on cloud and all content of user will be seamlessly available across all devices that its customer will use, he said.
"We are investing heavily in some advance technology. It is not easy to build a product company out of India. There are challenges of ecosystem, original design manufacturers are not here," he said.
The company has spent $10 million and will further spend $100 million over 2 years.
The company launched t.book , the two-in-one PC, for Rs 39,999 and will start selling it in India by April end.
"We want to make in India but it will depend on volumes and partner ecosystem. We will focus on designing and developing products and prefer outsourcing manufacturing to companies like Foxconn," he added.
The company is also developing its own drone, smart home solutions that can be controlled from phones.
