India's Itel among Africa’s top 100 mobile brand

Itel Mobile that entered India recently has managed to break into the top 100 “Most Admired Brands in Africa” list of 2015, ranking 51st in the list unveiled by Africa’s biggest business magazine—African Business. Launched by China-based Transsion Holdings with a focus on delivering cost effective and high-specification mobile devices, the company has moved up 21 positions since last year (ranked 72nd) overtaking leading global brands such as Facebook, Blackberry, Toshiba and Sharp.

“Being named amongst the ‘Most Admired Brands in Africa’ highlights the difference we have made to the continent’s consumers by bridging the technological gap between the urban and rural geographies,” said Sudhir Kumar, CEO of itel Mobile India.

Itel has sold more than 70 million handsets worldwide since its inception and has the presence across 37 international markets. Transsion Holdings recently unveiled its flagship brand itel with three smartphones and three feature phones variants in India. The feature phones—SmartSelfie, SmartPower and Shine series—will be priced below Rs 2,000 while smartphones SelfiePro, PowerPro, and Wish series will be available at prices below Rs10,000.

“We will be looking to consolidate our presence in India. We are confident that we will be able to drive the cause of Digital India through our state-of-the-art innovations and feature-driven products,” Kumar said.

Itel currently has six operational factories and more than 1000 service centers across the globe under the brand Carlcare Service Centre. The company, which has ten devices available for the Indian consumer, plans to launch additional 14 smartphones and 14 feature phones by December this year.

“We will be going completely offline with our itel products. We have realized that traditional channel will continue to occupy around 75 percent of the business. There is also direct conflict between the online and retailer so to avoid that we would be supporting traditional channels,” Kumar said. The company currently has 200 distributors and over 25,000 retail outlets on board.