Lenovo plans to scale up its smartphone production capacity to 10 million units annually in 2016, nearly double its current rate of 6 million. The company is aiming for the number 2 spot among the top phone vendors in India.
China-based Lenovo set up shop in Chennai earlier in the year through a manufacturing partnership with Flextronics. It intends to start exporting from the factory and add more models to be produced there. Chen Xudong, the president of the brand’s mobile business group, stated that India would be part of the 1st wave of global launches from now on.
The change in strategy underscores the importance of the country to the handset maker. Lenovo and Motorola together occupy the 4th rank among smartphone producers by volume with a market share of 9.5% here. The duo is at the number 3 spot by value with a share of 11%, according to IDC’s September quarter report.
Xudong also revealed Lenovo was going to bring the popular Moto Maker phone customization service to India soon. He claims it will begin quickly in India due to large-scale domestic production. He also explained that it is logistically simpler for the brand to ship multiple customized handsets rather than 1 personalized phone from China.
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Moto Maker started life in the US and Brazil. The Economic Times reports that in India, the service will only allow buyers to customize the back cover of their phones in the beginning. As the scale of production at the local level grows in the future, the company will begin providing more specialization options such as RAM or display size.
All this is part of Lenovo and Motorola’s renewed spotlight on India. The companies intend the subcontinent to be its focus market as smartphone growth increases year-on-year in the nation.