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Nokia to micro-finance handsets ……….Akhilesh Shukla
Nokia, the mobile handset giant, will now offer low end phones on EMI’s, targeting people at the bottom of pyramid mostly living in the rural part of the country. So far, the trend of offering phones on EMI was limited to high-end smart phones including iPhone and BlackBerry. The handset price has come down to Rs 800 in India, with Vodafone Essar offering the cheapest handset. The step would further penetrate the mobile telephony in India. It will also help the market leader to gain some market share, which it is loosing to Indian branded handset players offering multimedia handset at economical price.
As per V&D100, Nokia has 52.2% market share in India as per revenue. It is still the market leader despite losing 14.9% revenue as compared to previous fiscal. Nokia’s share was eaten up by Samsung and Indian branded handsets including Mircomax, Spice, Karbonn, etc, which gained momentum in the third and fourth quarter in the last fiscal.
The micro-finance scheme will be rolled out in two states including Punjab and Haryana. The company has tied up with three micro-finance institutions including SKS Microfinance, Ujjivan and Madura Micro-finance. The company, initially offered micro-finance scheme on a pilot basis in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Under the scheme, the Finnish giant offering phones on an EMI as low as Rs 100 per week over a period of time.
Feeling the heat from the domestic players in the handset segment, Nokia would also launch dual SIM handset in India. The dual SIM handsets have gained momentum in India in the recent past. Sale of dual SIM handsets have doubled in the last fiscal.
Samsung, Nokia’s nearest competitor have introduced dual SIM phones in the recent past. Micromax, Spice, Karbonn mobiles have gained traction by offering dual SIM and QWERTY keypad phones in economical price.
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