Micromax Canvas 4: When Nokia, Apple, Samsung failed to innovate cost effectively

Micromax Canvas 4, priced at Rs 17,999. is a real smart phone for future generation of India.

First, Micromax, India’s #1 handset maker, dared to invent Canvas 4 with a number of features. I cannot compare with the financial muscle of Samsung when I compare Micromax’s innovations.

Samsung invests in marketing more than R&D. See the impact to Samsung S4 smartphone in the latest quarter.

After all, Micromax, born in India, is just a 5-year old phone brand and 1.5-year old smartphone maker in India. But it is taking on the mighty phone makers from abroad.

India’s #1 handset maker Micromax has 19.3 percent market share in the Indian smartphone market. Karbonn is in the third position with 8.6 percent share. The Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung has 40.7 percent market share in Q1 and is leading the market.

Thanks to the innovation of Indian phone brands, major foreign handset makers such as Apple, BlackBerry, Sony, LG, Nokia are not part of the top three smartphone vendors in India, according to CMR’s India Monthly Mobile Handsets Market Review.

Second, Micromax says Canvas 4 is targeted at the Indian youth. Youth does not mean the handset maker is targeting 15-30 age range. The new phone is for people with an attitude. The latest phone is for both business professionals and individuals.

The strategy of Micromax Canvas 4 reflects the pre-booking for the latest smartphone. 11,500 is the pre-booking orders when the company did not even announce its features and specifications. 11,500 phones were booked in less than one week. The company plans to bring more phones — both 3G and 4G — in coming months. It will not rely completely on Android phones as there are plans for Windows 8 as well.

Canvas 4 combines great hardware and loads of great software features that make the device a great enabler for consumers, according to Micromax.

Deepak Mehrotra, CEO, Micromax, said: “We are strengthening our promise of offering great service to millions of Micromax consumers across the country. With Canvas 4, we are introducing a new challenge for ourselves to build on our promise for service excellence, ‘either we deliver or we pay’.”

Quality of Micromax smartphones has increased. That’s why the company has introduced new service offerings.

Starting with Canvas 4, Micromax will offer a replacement device for any customer issue which is not resolved within 7 working days of registering the complaint in any of our 681 service centers called as Micromax Check Point across India.