Indkal forays into smartphone biz under Wobble brand with Rs 225 cr initial investment

New Delhi, Nov 19 (PTI) Consumer electronics firm Indkal has forayed into the mobile phone business with the launch of the indigenously manufactured "Wobble One" smartphone built on Mediatek chipset, a senior company official said on Wednesday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the new smartphone, Indkal Technologies CEO Anand Dubey said the company has already invested around Rs 225 crore to enter the new segment, mainly on setting up a research and development team, manufacturing the devices through a third party, marketing and after-sales services.

He said the smartphone is a product category where the value chain is very complex and its effort to set up the business has been in the making for a long time -- for about three years.

"This is all the culmination of all of that effort in the last two and a half years. We want to be present across segments. We want to have products which appeal to all types of customers. The Wobble One price starts at Rs 22,000 apiece, and the next set of phones that we will be launching are phones towards both sides of this price point," Dubey said.

The company has launched three variants of Wobble One, which will be available in the combination of 8GB RAM (system memory) and 128 GB storage, 8GB RAM with 256GB storage, and 12GB RAM + 256 GB storage at a starting price of Rs 22,000 apiece.

"The next set of phones will be towards both sides of this (Wobble One) price point. A higher-end phone, which is built on a higher-level chipset in the future, comes with higher capabilities in the price point between Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 per unit," Dubey added.

He said the phone has been partially designed in India by the company, and the chipset and related components have been imported.

"If you look at the design, the actual physical design of the phone, the camera module has been completely designed by us. The hardware is completely done inside. We rely on component manufacturers.

"We work with them here in India for components like display, which is a very important part of a smartphone and then obviously components like battery and chargers. What has not been done in India is obviously the chipset," Dubey said.

Wobble One features a versatile 50MP OIS main camera and an 8MP ultra-wide lens.

The company plans to start selling the new smartphone on Amazon in the first week of December. PTI PRS PRS BAL BAL