Microsoft is planning for a chain launch of number of affordable smartphones powered by Windows Phone 8.1, starting with Lumia 630, to increase its share in the affordable segment of the smartphone market, claims a new report.
The Economic Times reports that the company is eyeing the emerging markets including India, where affordable smartphones of Rs 10,000 and below, account for a major 80 percent of the market.
Following the acquisition of Nokia’s handset division, Microsoft is reportedly targeting the dual SIM market in India, with the Lumia 630 launch, which was announced at Microsoft’s Build Conference in San Francisco last month.
Vineet Durani, director-Windows Phone at Microsoft India, said in a statement that the company will be launching a number of smartphones manufactured by Nokia as well as other companies like Micromax, Lava and Xolo by this year.
“There’s huge headroom for growth because a large number of population is currently using feature phones,” Durani said. “They will migrate to smartphones in India over the course of next few years.”
Microsoft Devices Group EVP Stephen Elop believes the dual SIM capability in smartphones in emerging countries like India is “critically important.”
“The Lumia 630 dual-SIM capability opens up that market to all of us, so I’m really, really excited about that,” Elop said.
The Lumia 630 launched on Monday, runs Windows Phone 8.1 and features a 4.5-inch display, a 5-megapixel auto focus camera and 8GB of internal storage.
The device is said to take on Moto G, HTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy Duos in the affordable smartphone market with the single-SIM variant at $159 (Rs 9,500) and the dual-SIM variant at $169 (Rs 10,100).
According to the report, Microsoft is looking to increase the overall handset market share of Nokia in India from the 12 percent as of December last year. Microsoft’s Windows Phone is the second largest operating system in India, however with just 10 percent of the share.
The company expects Windows Phone OS to gain ground fast with the launch of affordable smartphones as the market segment grew last year by three-folds to more than 44 million devices from just 16.2 million units in 2012.
