Xolo, the premium sub-brand of Lava mobiles, has revealed its plans to announce a sub-brand of its own called ‘Black’. Black will be an online only sub-brand under Xolo which will bring more premium smartphones to the online customer. The company also revealed plans to launch the first Black phone on June 15. This new smartphone range will be sold via an undisclosed ecommerce partner/partners. Xolo is also in talks with a telecom partner through which buyers can get a hands-on experience before buying the smartphone.
Vishal Sehgal, Co-Founder and Director of Lava International, was present at the event and said that they were planning to launch phones under the Black brand every 2-3 months after the first launch. It was also revealed that all Black phones will essentially lie in the 10K to 20K price segment and if Xolo gets a good response from the market, it may launch Black phones in other price segments as well. All upcoming Black phones will run on Xolo’s own Hive UI which will now come layered on top of Android Lollipop.
The 10K to 20K online mobile space is currently dominated by brands like Xiaomi, Asus and Motorola who offer the highest spec to price ratio in their category. However, Xolo reps believe that the Black phones can hold their own even with a higher price tag. Sehgal explained that their market study suggests that people generally don’t buy the cheapest phone in the market. He also said that their customer feedback identifies the four key features a customer looks for when buying a new smartphone: Camera, Industrial Design, Battery and Audio performance.
Sehgal said that they might not price their Black range of phones as low as their counterparts but will offer better experience than them. Therefore, all upcoming Black phones will concentrate on one key feature and optimize the other three key accordingly. So, to start, the first Black phone will focus on camera performance. It will have a dual-camera setup at the back which will offer support for depth-sensing hence offering Bokeh effect. The camera could also include click and refocus feature.
When asked whether the company plans to sell their Black phones via an online flash sale model, Xolo officials dismissed any plans to do so saying they didn’t believe in such ‘gimmicks’. All further information regarding the product lineup, brand as well as tie-ups will be revealed on June 15th when Xolo announces its first Black phone.
Buy XOLO BLACK on Flipkart at Rs. 12,999