Micromax Says Sold Over a Million Canvas Spark Series Smartphones

Indian smartphone manufacturer Micromax has announced that it has sold more than a million Canvas Spark series smartphones. The online exclusive lineup went on sale in May earlier this year.

The company launched the Canvas Spark in April of 2015. Micromax said the entry-level handset received an overwhelming response from users, selling more than 20,000 units in less than two minutes in its first flash sale. The handset is priced at Rs. 4,999. The company launched the Canvas Spark 2 in September. Priced at Rs. 3,999, the Canvas Spark 2 runs Android 5.1 Lollipop and offers 3G connectivity.

(Also see: Micromax Canvas Spark Review)

"The consumer response for the Canvas Spark series has been phenomenal and overwhelming at the same time with the demand for the range is increasing with every passing minute," said Vineet Taneja, CEO, Micromax.

"Currently, smartphone penetration stands at 12 percent in the country and 3G adoption is barely 10 percent, which presents a huge opportunity to upgrade. Our partnership with Snapdeal for the Canvas Spark series reaffirms our commitment to make 3G more accessible for the masses, introducing more people to the best of the connected world. We expect the sales of this device to touch a new high in the coming weeks and hope to further strengthen our leadership in mass smartphone category in India," Taneja added.

Micromax is one of the few companies that has experimented selling its handsets via online retail channels as opposed to completely relying on traditional brick and mortar retail stores that usually have larger transportation and overhead costs. Lenovo recently announced that it has sold over a million units of the Lenovo A6000 and the K3 Note via online channels in India. Motorola in September said that it has sold more than 2.6 million smartphones since re-entering Indian market in 2014. Xiaomi at around the same time had said that it has sold more than 3 million smartphones in the country.

Research firm IDC reported earlier this week that online retailers continue to drive sales for smartphone manufacturers. "E-tailers such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon continue to drive shipments of the Chinese vendors, who have been aggressively trying to capture the 4G smartphone market in India," the firm noted.