Sony Ericsson eyes small towns for expansion

Posted on | February 2, 2006 |

Sony Ericsson will focus more on the smaller towns across the country for its expansion plans. Its distribution partners Ingram and Salona will focus retailing in the small cities and town.

“Our 60 per cent of the business comes from B and C category towns. In bigger cities, the market is more for replacement customers,” he added.

A significant change in buying pattern was the preference of colour mobile handsets in small cities. In the beginning of the last year, 60-70% of the handsets were black and white but by the end of the year, the trend had reversed.

The company is planning to double it’s existing 23 advantage stores in the state, which is highest in the country, by the end of the fiscal year.

“The national growth rate for mobile handsets was 40 per cent last year while in Gujarat it was 60 per cent. Apart from economic factors, Gujarat has a large number of young consumers who are always eager to try new products. Therefore, we chose Ahmedabad for the launch as it is a potential market,” he added.

The company has introduced good quality feature-rich handsets and is present in all price segments. It seems to be doing well in India. It is already among the top 3 and wouldn’t be surprising if its market share has risen.

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