Chinese telecom and networking giant Huawei Technologies has cleared security to manufacture telecom equipment in India, 19 months after the company first applied for a manufacturing license, reports VentureBeat. It is pending final approvals currently but will allow the company to manufacture smartphones and other equipment in India. According to the report, Huawei already has R&D operations in Tamil Nadu.
A BBC report stated that Huawei reported a 30% increase ($28.3 billion) in its revenues in the first half of this year, aided by the sale of smartphones and growth in other business areas. According to the report, Huawei is the third biggest smartphone seller in China following Apple and Xiaomi. The company also claims to have sold over 10 million smartphones monthly globally since May, according to this ET report. It shipped 75 million smartphones in 2014.
Other smartphone manufacturing initiatives in India:
– Earlier this month, HTC was looking to start manufacturing its handsets in India after entering into an agreement with Global Devices Network. The report mentions that Global Devices Network, which had set up a manufacturing and assembling unit three months ago in Noida already produces smartphones for Zen and is in talks with other device sellers as well.
– Last month, we’d reported that Apple’s iPhone making company Foxconn could possibly set up base in India to manufacture iPhones, iPads and iPods for Indian and international sales. Foxconn had previously stated that it was planning to develop 10-12 facilities in India, which would include factories and data centres by 2020. Foxconn was also going to start making Xiaomi phones in Andhra Pradesh. Its plant would be a small scale unit with a capacity to manufacture about 10,000 phones a day. However, it was not clear when Foxconn planned to start making Xiaomi phones at this factory.
– In the same month, Chinese smartphone maker OPPO revealed plans of setting up a handset manufacturing unit in India by August to primarily tend to the domestic market. The company also mentioned that some of devices manufactured here would be exported to overseas markets.
– In April this year, Chinese handset maker Gionee said that would set up a manufacturing facility in India within 2018. The company claims that it would invest Rs 300 crore to set up this plant, which would manufacture devices for India, SAARC countries and Nigeria.
– In April last year, mobile phone manufacturer Micromax had also started manufacturing devices in the country in its Rudrapur plant. Previously, the company imported devices from China where it had tie-ups with manufacturers such as Foxconn.
Image Credit: Flickr user Kārlis Dambrāns
