Chinese smartphone brand Honor has said it would bring best of the smartphones in India and added that government cannot ignore Chinese handsets because of best of the technologies/ features still available with them.

The brand which will be selling its products under the company named HTech is right now in talks with various State governments to set up its first manufacturing plant in India and will roll out its first ‘Made in India’ product by middle of this year.

“We are all well aware of one thing that the Chinese cannot be discounted for the technology. But, what is more important between what the people think and what the government think is that government thinks probably that they want any company must be controlled by Indians,” Madhav Sheth, Chief Executive Officer, HTech told businessline.

Explaining why he brought back the Honor brand to India, he said that the Chinese technology is required at this point in time till the time technology is transferred to India over a period of time adding that one of the reasons he brought Honor into India was because it is one of the top technology advanced companies and in frontline with quality, reliability and the trust globally.

R&D

“We cannot just do as a brand like a trading brand in India like many brands are doing right now, they do not have any research and development (R&D) set ups across…but probably this is what used to happen with even the Micromax and Lavas of the world back in 2015. They did not have an R&D…they were dependent only on the Chinese original design manufacturing (ODMs) to come over here and relabel them as one of the product,” Sheth said.

He said such means will not bring the longevity of a brand and the only longevity will happen is through R&D and a strong R&D backup because the entire supply chain — 70 or 80 per cent of the world — is controlled in China from the electronics market.

“How do you transfer in a phased manner, over a period of time, is something what we are thinking…so that’s the reason why Honor came into picture with 100 per cent Indian entity, making sure that it is extremely compliant, having exclusive holding for Honor in India from manufacturing to end to end service consumer acquisition and everything put together,” Sheth added.

Meanwhile, the company launched its latest smartphone X9b 5G at ₹25,999 which will be on sale starting 12 noon on Friday. Consumers can purchase the smartphone with an offer of ₹3,000 instant bank discount for ICICI Bank users available on all bank cards or an Exchange Bonus of ₹5,000 on first sale day, bringing the effective price down to ₹22,999. Consumers will also have the convenience of No Cost EMI for up to six months, the company said.

Introductory offer

Additionally, Honor is giving away a complimentary charger worth ₹699 free of cost as an introductory offer. It has also announced a free-of-cost Honor Protect Plan powered by Onsitego valued at ₹2,999 that includes offerings like one-time screen replacement in six months, six-month extended warranty, 30-day assured buyback up to 90 per cent.

It has also launched Honor Choice earbuds X5 and Honor Choice Watch priced at ₹1,999 and ₹6,499 respectively. The earbuds will be available from Friday while the watch will be on sale from February 24. The watch will be available with an introductory discount of ₹500, which brings the price down to ₹5,999. All three products across Amazon.in, brand website www.explorehonor.com and multibrand retail outlets across India (around 1800 right now), the company added.

“The Indian smartphone market is ripe for disruption, and provides a significant headroom for smartphone brands with innovative offerings to carve out a distinct market presence. As a young brand, Honor has delivered on product innovation and differentiation with Honor X9b 5G. It now needs to get its go-to-market strategy right,” Prabhu Ram, Head of Industry Intelligence Group at CyberMedia Research, said.

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