25% of smartphone sales to happen online in 2 yrs: Micromax

With growing consumer preference to shop online, domestic handset maker Micromax expects 25 % of its smartphones sales to come from eCommerce platforms over the next two years.

The company, which has partnered eCommerce major Snapdeal for launching its latest handset -- Canvas Nitro, currently gets about 10 % of its sales from online purchases.

'Online is small but is definitely growing. About 10 % of our sales are coming from that. Over the next two years, 25 % of at least the smartphone sales would come from online,' Micromax Chief Executive Officer Vineet Taneja said.

He added that the company would continue with its mix of online and offline sales.

The company on Monday launched a new octacore processor powered smartphone, priced at ₹ 12,990.

Canvas Nitro, to be available exclusively on eCommerce major Snapdeal, is powered by a 1.7 GHz Tru Octa Core processor and Android KitKat operating system.

The handset features 5-inch HD IPS display, leather finish back, 2GB RAM, 13MP rear and 5MP front camera, 8GB memory (expandable up to 32GB) and 2500 mAh.

'We are excited to be partnering with Micromax to launch their latest product - the Canvas Nitro. The new product has most superior technology and we are sure that this will be well-received by our 25 million members,' Snapdeal Senior Vice President - Electronics & Home Tony Navin said.

At Snapdeal, mobile and tablets are one of the fastest growing categories and this partnership is a strategic decision to add to the online marketplace's offerings, he added.

Micromax, which is the country's second largest handset maker, also plans to bring in two more smartphones apart from feature phones ahead of the festive season.

'Apart from the Android One phone, we will have one more smartphone and some feature phones, as there is still a market for them. By early next year, we should have a 4G handset as well,' he said.

Currently, 60 % of Micromax's sales volumes comes from feature phones, while the remaining is smartphones.

As a large chunk of Indian users are migrating to affordable smarter devices from feature phones, Indian smartphone market grew 84 % year-on-year to 18.42 million units from 10.02 million units (in April-June 2013 quarter), according to research firm IDC.

Korean handset maker Samsung still continues to lead the smartphone market with 29 % share, followed by Micromax 18 %, Karbonn 8 % and Lava 6 %.