Motorola evaluating mobile phone facility in India

Mobile handset maker Motorola is evaluating a manufacturing facility for mobile phones in India. The company is also evaluating options to restart its Chennai facility.

“We are evaluating a manufacturing facility in India. This is part of our discussions to start our own manufacturing facility,” Amit Boni, GM, Motorola Mobility India, said. The company had an assembly and packaging unit in Chennai, but operations were suspended and the unit is now lying idle.

While there is no time line, discussions are on as part of the internal strategy,’’ he said. “We have a factory in Chennai and the thought is how to restart it and a lot of analysis is going on,” he said. Currently, the company is importing mobile handsets from China, he added.

Meanwhile, as part of its service offering, the company is planning ‘Care on wheels’. “We started a pilot in Delhi to offer our customer services on the move. We would be replicating this service in 10 more cities,” he added.
Motorola, which has been selling mobile handsets through e-commerce portal Flipkart in an exclusive tie-up, has no plans to enter the traditional retail market. “We are not planning on going into standard practice. Our e-commerce strategy is doing very well and we will keep on doing in near future. Therefore, there is no plan to go into retail outlet or distribution network,” he said.

The company had sold 30 lakh phones through the e-commerce portal between February and December last year, he said. Moto E and Moto G comprised 80% of the overall sales. The company hopes to have many more additions this year and he refused to divulge any information regarding the third-generation models.