itel mobile to set up manufacturing unit in India

Vijay Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 7
 
Buoyed by the response it received in the Indian market, itel Mobile plans to set up a manufacturing unit in India.
The company’s planned integrated industrial park manufacturing unit is likely to set up by next year, although its location is still undecided, the Hong-Kong based telecommunications company owned by Transsion Holdings said on Friday.  

The park will also house its partners manufacturing phone components. An announcement will be made soon, the company said.

The company began its operations in India in May 2016 and has sold around 40 lakh handsets, including feature and smartphones, in the country in past five months. It currently has 21 phones in the market and sources around 20 per cent of its handsets from a contract manufacturer in Noida. The rest is imported.

The company launched its latest smartphone, it1520, recently.

“Our team is working on the modalities and soon an announcement will be made in this regard. The proposed manufacturing facility will not only cater to the domestic market but also export market like African market where we have major presence. It is too premature to say about the location but preferably we are looking at near ports, taking exports into consideration, “said Sudhir Kumar, CEO of S Mobile Devices Ltd who was in the city to launch the new handset, said. 

The company has two manufacturing units in Africa and three in China. Kumar claims it is already a leading phone company in the African continent. Besides this, the company has its presence in 42 countries. 
The company’s latest, it1520, comes equipped with wide-angle 13 MP front and back cameras, operates on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and features IRIS scanner, 4G-VoLTE connectivity and a Reliance Jio connection. The phone costs Rs. 8490.