Amazon to launch smartphone in India next month to take on Flipkart's Billion Capture+

In a bid to outplay its rival Flipkart, Amazon is all ready to launch its own smartphone under the brand name Tenor or 10.or in India.

This is not the first time, the e-commerce giant has forayed into an in-house smartphone. Earlier, it had launched two models of smartphones – Tenor E and G.

According to Amazon.in, The 10.0r G is a sleek mobile phone that has a smooth metal body and delicate metal accents, for that premium look. It comes loaded with 13MP+13MP rear dual camera technology, a mean 16MP front camera, high-speed RAM and dual Dirac stereo sound speakers to name a few. It has 5.5" Full HD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 processor and Android v7.1.2 Nougat upgradable to Android 8.0 Oreo.

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The company claims to have conducted thousands different tests for speed, power, endurance, and reliability, they bring you the 10.or G smartphone. In other words, feature-packed devices that are defined by you.

"We leverage the customer data and feedback to understand the gaps in the selection, pricing and reach out to our vendors or OEMs to manufacture relevant products," Manish Tiwary, vice president, Amazon India told ET.

Off late, brand and private labels have become an important part of the strategy for e-tailers in the country.

On November 15, Flipkart had launched ‘made-for-India’ smartphone Billion Capture+.

Billion Capture+ has two versions in a price range of Rs 10,999 and Rs 12,999. The Softbank-backed company is eyeing to capture 7-8 percent share of overall smartphone volume through Billion Capture+.

Importantly, Flipkart had launched a range of Android tablets under its in-house brand Digiflip in 2014. However, it didn’t work.

According to experts say private label market in India for smartphones is fairly nascent. The smartphones private label would be targeting the local, low-brand and mid-brand strength of smartphones.

Among other categories, Amazon has other private labels here like Myx, Symbol and Solimo.

Amazon Vs Flipkart growth

Last month, Amazon announced that it witnessed over 105% growth in revenues in India in the fiscal year 2017. Amazon’s market share during the festive sales period that has stretched about a month is estimated to have remained unchanged at 35 per cent, though the company said it saw a 50 per cent share in other metrics like order volume and active customers.

However, during the festive season, Flipkart’s share of sales increased to 50 per cent from 45 per cent last year, capturing much of the market.

According to a report by Counterpoint Technology Market Research, Flipkart’s share of the smartphone category slipped to 50% from 57% in the March quarter. Meanwhile, Amazon India’s share of the category rose to 33% from 27% during the same period.