Sony aims to be among top three smartphone players in India

NEW DELHI: Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony today said it is targetting to be among the top three smartphone players in the Indian market within a year.

"We want to be among the top three players by next year," Tadato Kimura, Consumer Unit Head ( Mobile Division) at Sony India, told reporters.

Sony is targetting the revenue contribution from its Xperia range of smartphones to equal flagship television range Bravia by next year, he said.

Bravia contributes about 35 per cent to Sony India's total sales.

At present, Sony India has around 7.5 per cent market share in terms of volume in the smartphone category, and the company is selling around 1.5 lakh devices monthly on an average, Kimura added.

The company would continue to introduce new products in each price segment every month. Its cheapest model is Xperia Tipo that comes for about Rs 7,000. The company, however, is concentrating more on the premium segment (above Rs 30,000) and it enjoys around 13 per cent market share in the premium smartphone category, he further said.

"We want to become the top player in the premium segment with around 30 per cent market share in a year," Kimura said.

The company, however, is not looking to expand in the tablet segment since the market in India is mostly driven by low-cost devices, and it does not have any products in that price range.

"We want affluent consumers who want to enjoy technology. The tablet market in India is low cost driven and we have no interest at all in that segment... we are aggressive in smartphones," Kimura said.

Strengthening its smartphone portfolio, Sony will launch Xperia Z, with 6.4 inch display screen, on August 2 for Rs 46,990, targetted at affluent users in the mobile space.

The phone comes with a 2.2 GHz Quad Core processor. Sony also terms it as the slimmest full HD smartphone.