John Sculley is a name you should know with regards to the Obi Mobiles launch in India, because ‘former Apple CEO’ is always a good hand to have in the phone business game. The brand in question belongs to Inflexionpoint, a decidedly forgettable name for an IT supply chain company.
Obi Mobiles will be entering the Indian market in early May 2014, that’s next month, says BGR.in. Ajay Sharma who has held important positions at HTC and Micromax, will steer the ship as CEO of the company. But being an ex-Apple CEO does not mean Sculley has turned his nose up at the mid-range market.
The company will kick off operations in India with special attention to the inexpensive handset segment. It has marked out a budget of $20 million for 2014 and this will go towards setting up the supply chain, design center, sales and after-sales in various places across the country.
Obi Mobiles subsidiaries, Iris Computers and Dragon Technology, will be involved in the design and testing of the products to be released by the company. Sculley sees the current scenario as the perfect one in which the new brand can prosper since smartphone penetration in India is reported to stand at only 20%.
According to Sculley, two things are hindering wider adoption of these smart devices – slow implementation of 3G and the high cost of such gadgets. But considering the rates at which homegrown names offer their products, we can’t see Obi Mobiles going any lower unless it’s willing to slice its profit margins very thin.
Future expansion plans by Obi Mobiles include Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America.