InFocus plans to invest $10M in India, launches 'Turbo 5' smartphone

InFocus, which has a licensing deal with contract handset maker Foxconn plans to invest $10 million (around Rs 65 crores) to get a foothold in India with a focus on the Rs 10,000 price segment as a part of its second attempt to make a mark in the wold's second largest phone market.

"We have a huge support coming in from Foxconn in terms of supply chain, logistics, manufacturing. India is a huge market because it is a huge market. The focus will be on bringing best products and building a balanced online-offline strategy in India," InFocus Mobile Global CEO Zhongsheng Luo told PTI. He added that the company will introduce smartphones as well as feature phones to cash in on the Indian market. “We will also have devices which will be available only online. The devices will be priced between Rs4,999-11,999. We want to play in the affordable category as that is the largest segment of the market,” Zhongsheng added.

InFocus is working with partners like Dixon and MCM to manufacture its phones in India. It expects to sell 6 million phones in the first year, with 60 percent sales coming from feature phones(in volume terms). InFocus has a team of about 50 people, which will be ramped up to 200 by the end of the year, Luo said. It will start with markets like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and West Bengal to be present across eight states through about 8000 stores by December 2017.

The company also launched a new smartphone 'Turbo 5' that will be available in two versions-2GB RAM/16GB internal memory and 3Gb RAM/32GB storage priced Rs 6999 and Rs 7999 respectively. It features a 5.2-inch display, 1.3Ghz processor, 13MP rear and 5MP front camera and 5000 mAh battery. The device would go on sale on Amazon from July 4th.