Coolpad will use Videocon’s facility in Maharashtra to manufacture its own devices, apart from setting up an R&D unit in the country.
Chinese phone maker, Coolpad on Friday announced that the company intends to invest around $300 million, approximately Rs. 1,950 crore, for manufacturing handsets in India. It has partnered with Indian electronics major Videocon to produce the devices from its facility in Maharashtra.
Speaking at the launch of the Coolpad Note 3, Coolpad Group Chief Financial Officer Jiang Chao told PTI, "We have earmarked an investment of USD 300 million (about Rs 1,950 crore) till March, 2017 in our India business." The company will be using its existing stock till the end of this year, and the first made in India Coolpad phones are expected to be available in the first quarter of 2016. Coolpad India CEO, Syed Tajuddin also indicated that by manufacturing in India, the company can reduce the cost of phones. "We will also use the investment to subsidise handset price so that customers get to experience our product. We will give existing players run for their money. Once we start producing in India, we will be able to further lower the price,” he said.
Coolpad further plans to set up its own research and development unit in the country. Tajuddin also expressed the company’s intention to scale up operations, saying, "As our business grows, we will need manpower to support it. We expect our team to grow from 50 at present to 500 in a year. This will have people for operations, sales and product development.” Coolpad Group Vice President, Dr. Johnson Luo said, “India is a very crucial market for us and we believe that we will learn a lot from our investments in the country which will affect the company and its business globally.”
The company launched the Coolpad Note 3 on Friday, which will be sold exclusively via Amazon from October 20. The 4G enabled device sports a 5.5-inch HD display, and is powered by a 64-bit 1.3GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6753 processor with 3GB of RAM. It comes with 16GB of onboard storage, which is further expandable up to 64GB via micro-SD card. It has a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera and is priced at Rs. 8,999. It is also the cheapest smartphone to come with a fingerprint scanner.
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