Many people may not be familiar with the name Micromax, and for good reason. Micromax is India’s homegrown brand and the largest smartphone maker in the country, surpassing even giants like Samsung and now it looks like U.S. is the next market they are looking to enter.
However, there are a few obstacles that Micromax needs to overcome despite how successful they are. First of, the name Micromax is an almost unknown brand to U.S. smartphone users and establishing themselves as a worthy competitor to companies like Apple and Samsung will not be an easy feat. Secondly, taking an example of other successful brands outside of the U.S. like Xiaomi and Huawei(who still have not entered the U.S. market), it opens up the risk of being sued, not immediately but further down the line.
Micromax was reportedly “considering launching its premium smartphone line called the Yu in the U.S. sometime next year”, but Rahul Sharma, co founder of Micromax and also the man who runs the Yu brand said they have not decided to do so as of yet, according to The Information. The Yu device, which is sold in India for about $200 runs on CyanogenOS, which is a custom version of Android and the revenue gained from that is at an estimate of about $1.5 billion at the end of the fiscal year in March.
At this rate, Micromax is expected to reach at least $2.25 billion by the end of the fiscal year in March 2016. They have even mentioned plans to release up to 48 new phones per year, all of which will be priced up to $150. This is not only a bold plan but also a very difficult task to fulfill and keep up, but if Micromax pulls this off and is able to enter the U.S. market with their plan, it will be interesting to see how the smartphone market will change with the added variety and what the competition plans to do to ensure they remain on top. This might also spur companies like Huawei, Xiaomi and ZTE to follow suit and start selling devices in the U.S.