Vivo phones to get cheaper in 2016

Chinese handset maker Vivo on Tuesday said that its new products will see a drop in prices as it launched its 30,000 square feet assembly facility in Greater Noida.

Vivo's assembly plant will see an investment of `125 crore and will create 2,200 jobs. The assembly facility, which has a production capacity of 1 million units per month, will currently produce 150,000 phones with immediate scaleability to 300,000 units," said Alex Feng, CEO of Vivo Mobiles India, adding that the scaling up will depend on the demand .

The company has sold over a million handsets in India. The figure for China is 40 million.

"We are not underpricing our products to give cheaper devices. We are setting up a plant as the customs duty is as low as 13.8% and combining all other sops such as modified inventive special package scheme (MSIPS) we will able to cutting down prices by 5-10%," Feng said adding that the India is the most important overseas market for company.

The price cut will be applicable for three models - Y11,Y21 and Y15S. The company has already slashed prices of its VMax series of smartphones which were launched globally from India.

Currently, Vivo has no online partner but has 30 exclusive stores with 10,000 outlets in 400 cities across 20 states. It has 25 exclusive service centres, which it wants to expand to 200 by the end of 2016.

The handset-maker, however, said that the government needed to do more to ensure other component manufactures set shop in the country. Citing inexperienced workforce as a hurdle, Feng said Vivo would hold specialised training sessions also.

The company also revealed that it plans a total investment of `200 crore in India for the next calendar year. "Half of the total investment will go towards IPL which is the best platform for us to make Vivo a household name," Feng said. Vivo recently replaced Pepsi as the title sponsor for the 2016 and 2017 seasons.