NEW DELHI: Besides the Nokias and Micromaxes, the iPhones and BlackBerrys, there is another set of brands fighting it out in India’s booming mobile handset market—the likes of Georgio Armani, Versace, Christian Dior and Tag Heuer.
These international fashion labels are competing with Nokia’s own Vertu and Swiss brand Goldvish to sell handsets, not as a tools for communication or all-in-one gadgets, but as status-defining lifestyle products for the super rich willing to spend lakhs.
“Various mobile brands have introduced phones that are high on luxury and many make these handheld gadgets the right accessory to gel with one’s personality,” says Sudhin Mathur, business head — mobile communications, at LG India, which retails Versace’s designer phones in the country for more than Rs 2 lakh each.
And these phones are getting the right numbers, with a market size of $20 million and growing at an annual rate of 20%, company insiders say.
That may not be outstanding in a Rs 27,000-crore (2009-10) industry growing almost at the same rate, but these numbers seem attractive enough for the players to expand their operations and launch new models.
Samsung recently launched a new model in the Giorgio Armani phone collection designed by the master designer himself – priced at over Rs 40,000.
“Customers are increasingly becoming more design and brand conscious, especially when it comes to mobile phones,” says Ranjit Yadav, director – mobile & IT, at Samsung India.
Samsung had earlier also launched two handsets designed by Giorgio Armani – Giorgio Armani Samsung in 2007 and the Emporio Armani Samsung Night Effect in 2008.
French luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH), which forayed into Indian luxury handset market through its labels Christian Dior and Tag Heuer in 2008, plans to sell about 700 phones a year and cross 1,000 handsets a year by 2012, according to Manishi Sanwal, general manager, LVMH Watch & Jewellery.