China's Bird may set up handset plant

Bird International, China's largest manufacturer of mobile phones, today said it is exploring the possibility of setting up a handset manufacturing plant in India.

"We are evaluating the plan of setting up a manufacturing facility along with our local partners and component suppliers. Other options include sharing the manufacturing plant or providing advanced technology and equipment to a local firm, which sets up the production facility,' said Kin Ping Wong, director, Bird International Ltd, told Business Standard.

According to him, India is fast emerging as the software hub for the company's global requirements. "Bird is in talks with a couple of software companies in India for software development in areas such as local language content, gaming, music and other applications," he said.

Outlining Bird's plans for India, Ping Wong said it is in talks with both players in the CDMA (code division multiple access) segment - Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices - and in the GSM (global system for mobile communications) category - Airtel and Hutch - for handset bundling.

"Bundling is amongst our strategies to improve the awareness of the company's brand in India," he said. Despite having a presence in India for over two years, Bird is yet to find its place amongst other handset vendors and commands less than 1 per cent market share in the country.

"We are disappointed with our performance here. India continues to be the second largest handset market in the world, and we are targeting a 5 per cent market share by 2007," he said.

Wong also stressed that the company's focus is not to compete with other Chinese brands but take on handset majors such as Nokia, Samung, LG and Motorola.

"At present, Bird is operating in north and east India but plans to go national very soon. It is setting up a strong distribution and service network with a target of 10,000 retailers in one year," said Adarsh Shastri, head, marketing (India), Bird International.

The company has also tied up with Accel ICIM, a Chennai-based after-sales service provider for consumer service all across India. "From 75 such centres at present, we plan to increase it to 125 very soon," Shastri added.