Motorola to manufacture all smartphones in India in future, says firm's India head

After announcing the manufacturing of its entry-level Moto E smartphone at the Sriperumbudur, Chennai plant, Motorola now plans to start manufacturing its Moto G smartphone in India.

Amit Boni, country head, Motorola Mobility in a conversation with Business Today said, "In another week to ten days, the company will start manufacturing Moto G smartphone in India. This will be followed by the production of Moto X Play and Moto X Style as we scale up our production. The Chennai facility has the capacity to manufacture six million units a year. The handsets manufactured in India should be able to meet the demand of Motorola smartphones in the Indian market."

However, there will not be any change in the pricing of the existing products once Motorola starts manufacturing all its smartphones in India.

Boni stated the company has absorbed the increase in the duties and did not increase the pricing of the Motorola smartphones.

He added, "When people are manufacturing in India, they actually don't end up saving money as the cost of manufacturing in India is high - labour is expensive and we are still importing components such as displays and chispets on which we end up paying duty."

Since its return to the Indian market in February last year, Motorola has sold over 5.7 million smartphones in India. The company opted for ecommerce channel and had an exclusive tie-up with Flipkart for selling all its smartphones.

However, it recently started selling smartphones in offline retail as well. "The idea is to start diversifying the channels and we have started it with the Moto E. The phone is now widely available at ecommerce platforms and we have tied up with Airtel Stores too. It is started getting distributed right now and we are talking to other organised retails as well. We have been able to offer a very controlled offline experience as our consumers get the same price. It is a gradual approach. We are still saying that ecommerce will be the dominant channel."

Motorola also plans to launch its Android Wear Moto 360 smartwatch but will bring it only when the company will have sufficient stocks to meet the demand.