Return call

Indian brands are making a comeback in the competitive mobile phone category. Are they good enough to take on the mighty Chinese?

- K. SUNIL THOMAS

I JUGGLE MANY lives. My friends, my work, my passion,” says actor Hugh Jackman, his hazel eyes staring intently at the viewer, plugging Canvas, the flagship smartphone from Micromax. “It’s nothing like anything!” he declares with a flourish.

The campaign, launched in the autumn of 2013, was indeed nothing like anything. Never before had an Indian electronics brand roped in a global celebrity. And never before had an Indian startup had ambitions about building a global brand.

And why not? Indian phone brands were dazzling the domestic market with feature-packed smartphones priced below the Samsungs and the BlackBerrys. In the process, brands like Karbonn and Lava, besides Micromax, held about half of the market between themselves. Replicating the success on the international stage seemed like the next logical step.

Then, everything went horribly wrong.

A sleek, sly enemy surreptitiously crossed the border, raining on the ‘Make in India’ pawri. Chinese phone brands, till then laboring under an image of being cheap and unreliable, suddenly upped their game. A slew of brands like Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus swooped in and took over the market, almost without breaking a sweat. They floored the Indian customer with models packed with amazing features at unbelievably low prices. The arrival of Jio and cheap data plans in 2015 led to the mass adoption of smartphones, catalyzing the Chinese takeover of the market. Soon the Indian brands disappeared.