Dubai: Intex Technologies, an Indian IT and computer accessories, peripherals, and multi-media manufacturing company, has launched a series of mobile handsets — including dual and triple sim options — to tap the growing mobile telecom market, a senior official said.
"The UAE's mobile phone market is forecast to grow at 7 per cent annually valued at Dh1.4 billion by 2014," Sanjay Bansal, Intex Technologies' Managing Director told Gulf News.
"The sales of smartphones are expected to reach 8.5 million in the Middle East market by end of 2010."
Intex plans to invest Dh15 million in 2010-11, in infrastructure, developing distribution network and in brand building in the UAE.
The company, which has strengthened its regional base in Jebel Ali in recent months, is planning to roll out these in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) retail markets as well as the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asian markets through its Dubai hub operation.
Increased turnover
Despite the economic downturn, the company which employs 1,900 professionals, has increased its annual turnover to $150 million in 2009-10, up from $120 million in the 2008-09 financial year, Bansal said.
The parent company was established in 1996 in India, and its Dubai operations started in 2002.
The company currently has offices in China, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa, Nigeria, in addition to India and the UAE. It has plans to open offices in Ethiopia, Russia and Saudi Arabia in 2011. Its products are exported to 61 countries.
"We have a target of $190 million turnover in 2010-2011, with sales of 200,000 phones per month," Bansal said.
"We have rolled out 40 retail outlets called Intex Square in the past year and we plan to open another 60 in the next year in India." The company has a service network of more than 350 centres within India and over 15 internationally.
"Our UAE operations started to catch up with the growing export market from Dubai.
"Later we shifted to the Jebel Ali Free Zone and next year we will have 55,000 square feet of storage space in our facility," Bansal said.
"We are catering to our customer worldwide directly from China as well as from Dubai. And once we gained momentum in our export business we started looking for our retail presence."
The company's new mobile handset product line includes WiFi, 3G mobiles with dual and triple sim options.
Bansal said he expects a growth of around 25 to 30 per cent in the next four years, driven by the popularity of new electronic devices such as LED and 3G TV sets, 3G mobile handsets, smartphones, feature-rich notebooks and Blu-ray disc players.
