Whether it is Micromax, Lava, Karbonn, Celkon, Intex or Salora – India’s homegrown mobile phone brands are giving global handset heavyweights a run for their money as 
they are increasingly taking up market share in India’s $13 billion mobile phone market. As a result of their smart marketing campaign and matching product feature sets, Indian brands are shining bright on the home turf today.
If we look back, just about five years ago there wasn’t a single recognizable local brand in India’s mobile market, but today it is a different story and as a result, globally well established brands such as Apple or Samsung have to really put on their thinking hats in order to create better space for themselves in India.
Cut-throat pricing, aggressive marketing and localization changed that; today the top-10 space is dominated by local newcomers including Micromax, Karbonn and Lava, 
which together account for almost 30 percent of the smartphone market. Micromax’s 17.5 percent share is second only to Samsung today as per the market research reports.
It is important to understand that Indian local players began gaining traction in 2008-2009 when the smartphone revolution reached China, leading China’s feature phone manufacturers to search for new markets.
Companies such as MediaTek have also contributed heavily towards making smartphones much more affordable today. India, which was undergoing a telecom revolution, 
seemed like a perfect market as policy changes reduced call tariffs and removed import barriers. All this ecosystem supported the fast paced growth of smartphone segment in India and as a result we are not having a sizable number of home grown Indian brands operating in the country.
India’s handset industry, among the world’s fastest growing, jumped 20 percent to 226 million units in 2013 according to market research data from Counterpoint. It’s the second-largest handset market globally after China.
These homegrown brands such as Micromax, Lava, Karbonn, Celkon, Intex or Salora etc quickly climbed the value chain and within a few years started selling smart phones, creating a niche for themselves in the overcrowded smartphone market and most importantly addressing the affordability question for the end customer.
Indian smartphone players were also quick to customize their phones to customers’ needs, investing in locally driven research and development, design and software design centers to develop new apps and customize their handsets for better local usage. This has given a new meaning to the local smartphone segment in India and it is also becoming one of the biggest differentiating factor in terms of determining the local winners.
Brand Ambassadors
Even though these Indian players are focused on the low-end to mid-end market, they still spend big on advertising and marketing. From hiring big-name brand ambassadors to sponsoring big-ticket cricket tournaments, they have created a name for themselves, the hard way.
Whether it is Karbonn, Celkon or Micromax, they have been associating themselves with Cricket tournaments and TV shows, which has surely paid off as people want to see local brands with Indian idols in sports or on TV.
Additionally, last October, Micromax signed Hollywood star Hugh Jackman as its brand ambassador. On the other hand, Lava has become the official sponsors of English football club Liverpool in India.
What’s more, is the fact that some of the brand’s marketing push also aims to capture foreign markets. Some Indian players have reached Russia and the Middle East and aim to break into Europe and the U.S markets as well.
But as far as the established brands are concerned, foreign competition is moving up, with international players like Samsung, Lenovo and LG launching phones at very competitive price points, threatening the very unique selling proposition that has made these local players so successful. As per the experts in the market, moving forward life is going to be difficult for Indian players as they would be required to continuously innovate and deliver unique value propositions to the end customers.