Smartron India and Foxconn join hands to make tablets, ultrabooks and IoT devices

NEW DELHI: Technology startup Smartron India has tied up with Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, to manufacture a range of smartphones, tablets, ultrabooks and Internet-of--Things (IoT) devices, starting next month. “There’s a separate assembly line for our products at the Foxconn plant in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh,” Smartron promoter Mahesh Lingareddy told ET.

He said the company will kick off its commercial operations around mid-January. Initially Smartron, which hopes to emerge a global premium tech products brand from India, will bring high-end 5 inch and 5.5 inch smartphones, along with hybrid Windows tablets. In the second half of 2016, Lingareddy said, the company will launch high-end ultrabooks and several IoT devices, including smart cameras, storage systems, bulbs, security devices with wireless router capabilities, smart bands and wireless chargers. Taiwan’s Foxconn is already making smartphones for Xiaomi, Gionee, Asus, and OnePlus out of the Sri City plant.

Smartron is also evaluating a manufacturing tie-up with Taiwan’s Wistron, the world’s No. 2 contract manufacturer, which recently formed a joint venture with India’s Optiemus Infracom to set up a smartphone assembling unit in Noida. The estimated $200-million (Rs 1,320-crore) facility is currently under construction and is scheduled to be operational by March 2016.

Smartron, which has been operating under a stealth mode for the last nine months, is bringing small teams and companies on a single platform for end-to-end offerings and to aggregate all IoT products. It will also target mobile, home and enterprise infrastructure segments with these products.

Lingareddy, who is also the CEO and cofounder of silicon semiconductor startup Soft Machines, said there will be synergies between Smartron and Soft Machines for several products. Soft Machines is valued at over $1 billion and has teams in India and the US.