Huawei on Friday announced that it will start manufacturing smartphones in India in collaboration with leading mobile contract manufacturer Flex. Starting from first week of October 2016, the Flex manufacturing plant in Chennai will manufacture one of the Honor smartphones models.
The plant will have a capacity to make three million units by the end of 2017. In addition, Huawei will be strengthening its after sales services in India with over 200 service centers, including more than 30 exclusive Huawei service centers in India.
Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad made the announcement at Huawei’s Make in India inauguration ceremony in New Delhi. Announcing the manufacturing facility from Delhi, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “We are working towards making India an electronic manufacturing hub. As India is set to become the second largest smartphone market, our government would like to invite even more businesses to come and manufacture in India. This is an opportune time to start manufacturing from India. The smartphone landscape in India is growing every day and such initiatives by technology leaders will help accelerate the growth of local manufacturing industry in India.”
According to a Flex statement, India is a very important market for Huawei and the company has renewed its focus on India working with two brands, Huawei and Honor, to cater to the widest cross section of consumers. Huawei has established strong consumer confidence in India by launching a series of products, for both the Huawei and Honor brands, including the launch of Huawei’s flagship P9 in India this year. Google has also collaborated with Huawei to make its premium Nexus 6P device.