New market: Ex-Apple chief plans mobile phone for India

Sculley plans to exploit largely untapped market.

NEW DELHI:

Former Apple chief executive John Sculley, whose marketing skills helped bring the personal computer to desktops worldwide, says he plans to launch a mobile phone in India to exploit its still largely untapped smartphone market.

Inflexionpoint, an information technology supply company co-founded by Sculley, will start selling the smartphones next month in India under the new Obi Mobiles brand. “The smartphone share in India is only 20%, leaving the larger part of the ground with opportunities yet to be tapped,” said Sculley.

Inflexionpoint plans to invest $20 million this year to set up a supply chain, design centre and offices in India, producing “affordable smartphones with superior technology”, Sculley said in the statement.

Smartphone shipments in India increased from 16.2 million in 2012 to 44 million in 2013, International Data Corporation says, and analysts expect similar growth this year.

Sculley said he hopes Obi’s phones will lure premium phone buyers away from players like Samsung and Apple. Samsung dominates India’s smartphone market by sales, followed by Sony and Apple.

“We feel there is an opportunity to build another brand in India that would combine global branding skills and go into price points that are more like the local brands — in the 5,000 to 8,000 rupee range.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2014.

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