Dubai: Smartphone manufacturer Alcatel is re-entering the Middle East and Africa (MEA) markets in a big way and aims to rake in $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) in sales revenue in 2017 and $2 billion in 2019.

“We are bringing the brand back to life. Innovation should not be split to the ones who can afford the products. Innovation and technology should be to the reach of everyone,” Ahmad Khalil, General Manager of Alcatel MEA, told Gulf News after launching its X1 smartphone for Dh899.

The X1 is a 5-inch smartphone with AMOLED display coupled with 13MP rear camera and 5MP front camera in a 6.9mm thickness. It houses 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage capacity.

The brand, which was founded in France in 1872, was acquired by China-based and Hong Kong-listed TCL Corp in 2005.

Khalil said the brand does most of its business through telecom operators and is now shifting its focus to open markets.

In Latin America, 80 per cent of the business is driven by telecom operators and 20 per cent by retail sales while in some African countries, it is 90 per cent driven by telecom-operated business. In the Gulf, it is only 20 per cent by telecom operators.

“The African markets offer subsidised phones and makes money through data packages. In the Gulf markets, the phones are not subsidised and the data packages are a bit expensive, so the operator business is very small but it is very critical to our business. It will not give us the scale of growth, so we are making strong inroads into the retail sector,” he said.

“Our markets are not based on oil-economy consumers. There are customers from Lebanon, Egypt, Pakistan and lot of African countries. We are here to fulfil that and seek to bring to life the latest technologies that have positive impact on People and make it affordable. We listen a lot to our consumers.”

Core markets

The company aims to attain 10 per cent market share in MEA this year and 15 per cent market share by 2017.

“We expect our shipments to grow 250 per cent this year. Our core markets are in Nigeria, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Kenya, Algeria and South Africa and that is where the opportunities are. We have almost doubled our market share in 2015 to around seven per cent,” Khalil said.

It has already invested in a spare parts hub in Jebel Ali and has invested Dh2.5 million on its new office in Jumeirah Lake Towers to strengthen its regional retail channels.

He said the company will launch 10 models this year compared to five last year and will not focus on “specific price segments”.

“We are here to offer end-to-end portfolio in basic phones, smartphones, tablets and wearable devices. Our aim is to reach number three in rankings in the next couple of years,” he added.