The Micromax smartphone is the epitome of Indian innovation in the cellphone industry. Started in 2000 as an IT company and a distributor for Nokia phones by Rahul Sharma and three friends—Vikas Jain, Sumeet Arora, Rajesh Aggarwal—it is currently India’s second largest smartphone company behind Samsung, with a market share of 17 per cent. In April 2008, it started manufacturing cheap mobile phones and made it big with the idea of phones with a 30-day battery backup.
Though Sharma is all over the news after his engagement to Bollywood actor Asin was announced, making headlines is nothing new for the 39-year-old co-founder and CEO. Before Micromax, the cheap mobile phones market in the country was lorded over by Chinese imports, which came with problems such as an invalid or absent IMEI numbers, abysmal build quality and design, poor performance, and high-radiation levels.
Micromax not only brought in a certain degree of legitimacy to this market but also introduced handsets with warranty. It is also credited with innovative phone features such as Made in India QWERTY keypad, dual SIM and dual standby phones, handsets which emit frequencies to repel insects, and another that can also work as a computer mouse.
In 2014, the company’s revenues were $1.2 billion. Micromax has also inked a deal with Google to make below $100 phones for its Indian market. The 15-year-old company has a presence in more than 560 districts of India through 1.25 lakh retail outlets.
PRIDE FACTOR
* It got Hugh ‘Wolverine’ Jackman as its brand ambassador.
* It is the tenth largest mobile phone player in the world.