Mobile chipset firm Spreadtrum Communications expects 20 percent growth in India business by end of this year on account of increase in demand for smartphones.
"We have been growing in India in double digits since 2012-13. It is now second largest mobile phone market. We are expecting 20 percent business growth by end of this year compared to last year," Spreadtrum Chairman, CEO and President Leo Li told PTI in an interview.
The company recently came into limelight for supplying chipsets for Jio Phone. In India the company sells mobile chipsets to Lava, Karbonn, Micromax, Celkon, Samsung etc.
Li said that India contributes between 15-20 percent to Spreadtrum's overall business.
"Some of the Samsung handsets sold in India also use Spreadtrum chipsets but we don't count bill raised to them in India business. We have 55 percent market share in India market of which around 25 per cent is for smartphones and rest for feature phones," Spreadtrum Communications Country Head Neeraj Sharma claimed.
The company claims to be shipping 130 million chipsets in India.
"Most of the printed circuit board (PCB) are imported in India. We sell most of the chipsets to companies in China who ship their PCBs (motherboard) to India and hence that part of business is not included in India revenue. Once PCB manufacturing picks up in India, the revenue from India will be much more," Sharma said.
Li said that Spreatrum will start "Design in India" programme where it will encourage companies and entrepreneurs to design mobile phones in India.
He said that company is also looking to expand business in Internet of Things, digital TVs and industrial control systems as well.
"We are working on high end chipsets with features that can reconstruct face of users and same can be printed using 3D printers. We will charge $30-35 extra for these chipsets from smartphone companies. It will be launched in China in January-February and expect its shipments in India in the second quarter of 2018," Li said.
The company sells chipsets for smartphones in the range of $10-15 a unit and $1-2 a unit for feature phones.
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