The smartphone manufacturer Honor is preparing the relaunch in India and wants to start local production in early 2024
Chinese smartphone brand Honor will restart in India through a licensing deal with a local company and aims to start domestic production early next year, the country chief told Reuters.
Honor had stopped selling its smartphones in India and reportedly declined last year due to a limited marketing budget and less prudent portfolio management.
“India was never a focus market for Huawei Technologies-owned Honor until 2020 – when it was forced to spin off the brand and reassess strategy,” said Neil Shah, vice president at Counterpoint Research.
Honor’s comeback is underpinned by a licensing deal with newly formed Gurugram-based Honor Tech at an undisclosed “agreed price” related to technology and hardware transfers.
Three variants of Honor phones will be launched in India, with the mid-range Number series expected in September.
The company, which is wholly owned by local shareholders, will manufacture, sell and service Honor-branded smartphones in India.
“All the phones will ultimately be made in India,” said CEO Madhav Sheth, without giving further details.
“The biggest challenge for the (Indian) government in the past has been how a (Chinese) brand can be accountable in India,” said Sheth, a former manager at rival Realme, who is credited with expanding into India.
Chinese companies have struggled in India lately as the government banned several apps and tightened scrutiny of investments to ward off a neighbor’s takeover bid.
According to Counterpoint Research, Honor will compete with the likes of Samsung Electronics – the top seller in India with a market share of almost 20 percent – followed by Vivo, Xiaomi, Realme and others.
Honor Tech aims to capture a 5 percent share of the Indian smartphone market by sales volume in 2024, with sales of at least Rs. 10,000 crore ($1.20 billion), Sheth said.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
