Indian smartphone biggie, Micromax, is coming up with translation and transliteration of 10,000 apps in local Indian languages in a bid to attract more customers. Reports pouring in suggest that the company would use MoFirst Solutions’ patented Swipe Technology to come up with the translation work in 10 languages, including English to Hindi and vice versa. They plan to offer the service with MoFirst’s Firstouch, an Android-based local language OS. Hence, MoFirst, which once wanted to introduce its own smartphone, has backtracked and instead decided to join hands with smartphone vendors, to offer its unique service.
While speaking to the Economic Times, Subhajit Sen, the Chief Marketing Officer of Micromax, said that over 80 to 100 million people will soon start using smartphones in India, thus justifying the tie-up with MoFirst, something that would give Micromax an edge over other smartphone manufacturers in rural India. It is to be noted that Micromax, which is currently the No.2 handset maker in India, is finding it hard to hold on to its position against the Chinese smartphone companies. In fact, the company’s market share has dipped in the recent months, which probably made the tie-up all the more mandatory. According to a report published by Counterpoint Research, Micromax had a 15.3-percent market share at the end of March, a notable dip from the company’s 19.5-percent share in the previous quarter.
Having said that, Micromax recently launched the Canvas Unite 3 model in India at a price tag of INR 6,999. It is available on various e-commerce websites as Flipkart and Snapdeal, between INR 6,700 ($105) and INR 7,100 ($112). The handset is the first Micromax smartphone with the Firstouch local language suite, aimed at millions of people in India, who aren’t quite comfortable with English.
During the chat, Sen admitted that the Unite 3 handset is a very strategic model, the first of its kind with which Micromax plans to go big with its translations and transliteration project. The company is expected to initiate a 360-degree advertising campaign to promote the device and catch the attention of the masses, even those living in the remote interiors of India.