Poco Expects Upgrades to 5G Phones Will Drive Growth: Himanshu Tandon

Smartphone company Poco expects an upgrade to 5G mobile phones from 4G coupled with pricing and design strategy to drive the growth of the company’s business by 60 percent in this year, a top official of the company said. Poco India Country Head Himanshu Tandon told PTI that the sub-Rs 10,000 smartphone segment is likely to be most impacted because of inflationary pressures and rupee depreciation, and the industry will see strong competition in the Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 mobile phone segment.

“I think the opportunity area for the market to grow is basically the upgrade from 4G to 5G. People upgrading from 4G to 5G smartphones is one of the critical factors that can basically help the overall smartphone industry to grow,” he said.

Tandon said that Poco’s strategy in the year 2023 will be to keep a lean portfolio with a focus on the performance and design of the smartphones at aggressive pricing.

The company has plans to launch its Poco X5 Pro 5G smartphone next month embedded with Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G processor in the price range of Rs 20,000-25,000.

“I think the under Rs 10,000 segment has been impacted more because of inflationary pressures and rupee depreciation. But at the same point of time we are seeing opportunity with regards to Rs 20,000-30,000 segment. It is the segment where the real innovation is happening right now. We will see a major competition this year in this price range,” Tandon said.

He said that the company will also start selling smartphones through retail shops this year to push sales.

“I think in the next few weeks you will see that we will be venturing into offline space. This year we are diversifying from online to offline. The industry might grow in the range of 5-10 percent but we are taking an ambitious target of growing by 60 percent. The 60 percent is the baseline growth target that we are taking in 2023,” Tandon said.

The company will also ramp up annual production capacity in India by about 30 lakh smartphones in this year, he said.

Poco at present gets handsets manufactured through electronic contract manufacturers.