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I bought a Chinese phone

By Abhijit Ahaskar, Mint, New Delhi on

Published in Senior Living Features

In 2015, a saturating smartphone market within China, and across Europe and the US, made Chinese smartphone brands look beyond--towards India, which had a subscriber base of 1.03 billion, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's October report. And the year saw people here overcoming their initial hesitation and opening up to the idea of buying a smartphone made by Chinese companies.

According to the firm CyberMedia Research (CMR), the share of Chinese brands in smartphone shipments to India in 2013 was only 4%. In 2015, the figure went up to 19%--this includes brands like Xiaomi, OnePlus, Gionee, Meizu, Oppo and Vivo.

This doesn't mean that when it comes to the number of phones sold, Chinese brands have made it to the list of top five in India. Samsung leads, with 23% of the smartphone market share, followed by Micromax, which has 17% of the market share, according to International Data Corp., a research and data collection organization.

But they have begun making a dent.

For some years now, China has been one of the leading manufacturers of smartphones, with major brands, such as BlackBerry, Micromax and Apple, making or assembling their phones at one of the manufacturing hubs in Shenzen or Beijing. But Chinese smartphones were another matter altogether, and Indian users had quite a few reservations. One reason was that the low-cost Chinese handsets that initially flooded the grey market were of poor quality and often did not work for more than a few months. Incidentally, most of these did not have IMEI numbers (the 16-digit unique number on every phone), which made it difficult for government agencies to keep track.

"Once the government came (down) heavy on the need to comply with quality (including IMEI numbers), things changed. While it was a free-flow kind of a thing a few years back, now a handset has to conform to the basic quality parameters set, and this has stopped the entry of low- and very-low-tier Chinese handsets into the country which were really affecting the overall image of such brands," says Faisal Kawoosa, general manager, telecoms and semitronics, CMR India.

We spoke with a number of users who have purchased Chinese smartphones over the past year to get an idea of their experience in buying and using these phones.

The changing perception

Kanika Bhatia, senior manager, product development, at an LED light manufacturing company, is happy with her Xiaomi Redmi 1S (Rs.5,999). "I wasn't sure if a Chinese phone could be value for money, but after using it for more than a year, my perception has changed. My next phone can be a Chinese brand too," says Bhatia.

While Chinese brands have been very active on social networks and e-commerce platforms, what has helped change the perception is the increased focus on a better build quality and powerful specifications that offer improved performance on a budget, something which the more established phone brands such as Samsung and HTC have been unable to do so far.

Shikhar Mohan Gupta, an area sales manager at Bajaj Corp. Ltd, bought a OnePlus One (Rs.19,999) phone in January last year because it has acquired a cult status among tech-savvy users. It was the first smartphone to offer Cyanogen OS (a customized version of Android that offers greater flexibility than plain Android).

That was not the only reason why Gupta bought it. The phone also offered the configuration of high-end flagships at half the price. "Chinese manufacturing is no longer a stigma as long as the end product is something one can count on. I could do that with this OnePlus One phone," says Gupta.

Avinash Kaushal, a lawyer, believes it doesn't matter whether a smartphone is made and sold by a Chinese or a European company. "What matters more is how it works," he says. He bought a Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G (Rs.9,999) last year as it was within his budget, and is happy with the experience so far.

Quality experience, affordable price

Though Xiaomi and OnePlus have dominated the headlines, the lesser-known brands, and even those that set up shop in India much later, are leaving no stone unturned to get a slice of the pie. Kawoosa says: "The overall behaviour of a smartphone buyer has changed in India. While earlier one would not stretch out of a few brands that were in the zone of consideration, now a buyer is ready to experiment with even the virgin brands."

 

Innovation, competitive pricing and the high quality of some Chinese smartphone products has shaken many other brands out of their comfort zone. Transparency has helped. OnePlus, for instance, decided this month to make public the prices for spare parts of three of its phones, along with labour charges; Meizu introduced highly stylized phones in 2015; Coolpad surprised many by offering features like fingerprint scanners in budget phones last year; and Phicomm opted for aggressive pricing.

In August, Dushyant Ayachi, a researcher at the Delhi School of Economics, bought a Phicomm Energy 653 because it had the best configuration for a smartphone priced at less than Rs.5,000. "After using the phone for four months, I am satisfied with it," says Ayachi, who was using a Lenovo smartphone earlier.

Aggressive pricing is one of the reasons Khalilur Rehman, a call centre executive, decided to buy a Chinese smartphone. He uses a Redmi Note 4G, which offers a 5.5-inch display with a screen resolution of 1,280x720p. The closest Samsung or LG smartphone, in terms of specifications, costs more than Rs.10,000. "Though I went for it only for the price, I like how it works," says Rehman.

The acceptance of Chinese brands is definitely higher among budget smartphone buyers. As long as the device they are using delivers on its promises, users don't really care who is manufacturing it, and where. "After comparing many leading phones in the range of Rs.10,000-13,000, I found that the Xiaomi Mi 4i at Rs.12,999 was the best option out there," says Mayank Srivastava, a software engineer who bought his phone in August.

He was a bit sceptical in the beginning--his experience of Chinese smartphones wasn't very good. He had a CDMA smartphone manufactured in China and was disappointed with the camera quality. "I was a bit hesitant about the Mi 4i first, even though the reviews were in its favour," he adds. Srivastava says what tilted the balance was that it had better features than a Samsung or Motorola in the same price range, including a better camera.

Amrit Kumar, a PhD student who uses a Xiaomi Redmi Note (bought in October), says he has realized that a European or Korean brand doesn't automatically imply better quality. "I was using a budget smartphone from Samsung and the software used to freeze up a lot. That is not happening with this phone," he says.

After-sales, the Achilles heel

But there are some areas Chinese brands still need to work on. These include opening more service centres, responding to queries quickly, speeding up the repair process and reducing the cost of spare parts.

Kaushal, whose experience with the Redmi Note 4G has been good, felt a little let-down with Xiaomi's Faridabad service centre when he approached them to repair his phone, which had fallen into the water and could not be switched on. The service centre said the motherboard had to be replaced, which would cost around Rs.8,000, almost 80% of the cost of the phone. Finally, he got it repaired at a shop in Nehru Place, south Delhi, for Rs.1,000.

Manjyot Singh had a harrowing experience when his Xiaomi Mi 4i stopped working in October and was classified as "dead set on the job sheet." The service centre in Bhubaneswar told him repairs would cost Rs.5,000 and it would take about two weeks. The phone was not repaired till January. Singh finally took back the "dead set" from the service centre and bought an iPhone.

While Chinese phone makers have got it spot on with the specifications and pricing, poor-quality after-sales service could spoil the good work. The real test lies not just in providing more service centres, but in the quality of repair.

(c)2016 the Mint (New Delhi)

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(c) Mint, New Delhi

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