Lava launches contest to design its next smartphone

Lava today announced its ‘Design in India’ contest for its upcoming smartphone. Lava is calling students and professionals to design its next phone in India.

Lava’s design contest is open to B.Tech/B.E/B. Des/M.Des students and professionals. The contest will take place in three phases of ideation, creating a prototype, and presentation to the jury. Lava’s chief manufacturing officer Sanjeev Agarwal will lead the judging panel. Participants will also get mentoring from Lava’s design team during the course of the contest.

Lava will select the top three teams for its design contest who will also get a pre-placement interview at the company. The top three teams will be awarded cash prizes of ₹50,000, ₹25,000 and ₹15,000. The registration process for the contest starts today and it will be open till July 9.

Lava along with other Indian phone companies like Micromax and Karbonn are working on new launches. The move comes at a time when people are people looking for Indian alternatives to Chinese smartphones which largely dominate the market. These Indian brands are also using this opportunity to make a comeback in the Indian market. Although these brands never really left but they’ve been lurking in the shadows so to speak.

“Now, we know what is right for business we know what's the right thing to be done and we should do it. I think it is not that we have lost, but we missed the bus. I will say a new bus is coming and we will board the new bus…and forget about the old bus,” Lava president & business head Sunil Raina said.

There’s no confirmation yet on how many smartphones Lava plans to launch soon. Micromax has already confirmed that it will launch three new budget phones starting this month.