Micromax to distribute Huawei phones in India offline: Everything you need to know

Huawei has entered into a distribution partnership with Micromax to strengthen its presence in India's offline market. Last year, Huawei partnered with Croma to enter the offline retail channels. Later on, a similar deal had been struck with Poorvika.

"We are already present in 200 sales points through our existing partnerships. The tie-up with Micromax will give us access to a strong network of 1.25 lakh outlets across 40,000 pin codes," Huawei India Consumer Business Group Vice President (Huawei Brand) Rishi Kishor Gupta said.

Although Gupta did not disclose the financial details of the partnership, he said the partnership is "aimed at a long-term association under a commercial agreement, primarily driven by sales and purchases."

The timing of this partnership is significant as the US government has banned Huawei.

Gupta said Huawei had not seen any impact of the global developments on the sale of its smartphones in India. The partnership will not bar Micromax from launching its own devices in the country.

"Indian market is a top priority for us and we have not seen any slowdown in sales. We remain committed to the market and will launch more devices in the coming months," he said.

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Globally, Huawei was the number two handset vendor in terms of shipment with 19 per cent market share in the January-March 2019 quarter, following Samsung (23.1 per cent). However, Huawei was ahead of players such as Apple, Xiaomi and vivo.

In India, Huawei is estimated to secure a 3-4 per cent market share.

Huawei plans to launch new devices in the coming months and with that in mind, Huawei is looking to expand its offline retail presence in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Kochi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dehradun, Kolkata and Jaipur among others, to begin with.

Offline retail continues to dominate the market share of India's mobile market with an estimated 70 per cent of sales being made offline.

In May, the US government barred Huawei from receiving the US-made hardware and software components without permission from Washington.

Last month, US President Donald Trump said the US companies could sell equipment to Huawei. However, there is no known regulatory development after his statement to end the ban.

Google had said it would continue to support existing Huawei smartphones for its Android operating system.

(With inputs from PTI)