Micromax Planning To Launch Wearable Devices

Sanjay Kapoor, the newly appointed Chairman of Micromax, says that the company needs a holistic change to evolve from a handset-maker to one that satiates the growing appetite for data. According to the former Airtel India CEO, Micromax could expand to wearable devices and machine-to-machine products in its next phase of growth even though it is gearing up to become the country’s top smartphone player.

The homegrown phone-maker hopes to go deeper into the Indian and the global markets with Kapoor’s induction as the new chairman. Earlier, he had been instrumental in the growth of Bharti Airtel, a telecom behemoth.

The former Airtel India CEO decided to join Micromax as the company's motto of ‘democratizing technology’ resonates with his thinking and the work he had done in the past, wherein he helped deploy technology at a mass scale to render connectivity to millions of people.

“After Airtel, I wanted to create something out of my experience. It is an obvious fact that data is now the new emerging market. I wanted to focus my energies on creating and building a solid platform which would be able to participate and contribute immensely to this growth area. Micromax is very well positioned to be able to play this role,” said Kapoor.

Kapoor also claimed that data is the most potent platform of connectivity now. However, its proliferation is at a very nascent stage. He also asserted that data growth has to happen over the five pillars of access, storage, analytics, application and content, and finally, devices. According to him, Micromax will be intensely focusing on these five areas.

As the company is at the cusp of looking at new markets, Kapoor said it’s too early to disclose any specific action plan. However, the company wants to go beyond handsets and is keen to focus on other products such as wearable devices and machine-to-machine products.

“At present, we are focusing on Russia, our newest foray. We received a great response and once we are settled there, we will plan which other markets to enter,” he said.

Kapoor also specified that the company believes in democratizing technology and will not operate at a niche level just for a very small customer base.

Micromax has recently launched Unite 2 smartphone in India at a price of Rs 6,999. The USP of this smartphone is that it will support 21 languages including English, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, etc.

The smartphone features a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, and 4 GB of internal storage, which can be expanded by up to 32 GB. It is also the first smartphone by the company to offer the latest Android KitKat 4.4.2 out of the box. The Unite 2 smartphone will be available in 4 colors – grey, white, red, and green.