The Hindu Business Line : Nokia bullish on Indian mobile market — Pegs handsets growth at 25 million a year

NOKIA Corporation of Finland, which on Wednesday announced its decision to set up a plant near Chennai to manufacture mobile handsets, estimates the Indian mobile market to be in the region of 25 million handsets a year.

This includes both new subscribers being added every year and the replacement market. It is this growth that prompted Nokia, which has been operating in India for 10 years, to establish a manufacturing base here, according to company officials.

They hoped that some of their suppliers would also establish manufacturing facilities near Nokia's plant that would come up at Sriperumbudur, about 50 km west of Chennai.

At present, Nokia does not source any components from India for its manufacturing plants across the world, but has been working with software companies such as Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services for mobile handset-related software. About 500 software engineers are engaged on Nokia-related work, they said.

In a chat with journalists here today, Mr Lauri Vesalainen, Vice President - Operations and Logistics, APAC, Nokia, said typically about 15 suppliers were located in the vicinity of each of Nokia's nine manufacturing plants. Nokia had three plants each in the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. In the Asia-Pacific region, the plants are in China and Korea.

Asked about the mobile handset market in the country, Mr Sanjeev Sharma, Managing Director, Nokia India Pvt Ltd, said the subscriber base was growing by about 1.8 million a month.

The new subscribers and replacement market together would add up to about 25 million handsets a year, he said. Nokia estimated its market share to be in excess of 50 per cent.

He said Nokia sold more than 50 models in India. At present, a majority of its handsets sold in India came from the Asia-Pacific region.

To a question, Mr Vesalainen said that Nokia was confining its manufacturing plans right now to handsets. It was studying the potential for producing telecom network equipment in India and would take a decision once the study was completed.

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