India's Lava Mobiles forays into Middle East

Dubai, Feb 11 (PTI) Indian mobile brand Lava International has entered into a strategic alliance with Sharaf Electronics, the Gulf region's leading electronics retailer, to foray into the Middle East market. This move is part of its expansion strategy to cover the Middle East and Africa by this year-end. Lava says it has sold over 6 million handsets across India in 2012 alone. The initial offering from the Lava range includes dual SIM mobile phones, including 'Iris' and 'Discover' series of handsets, the company said in a statement. "The UAE is an important part of our global expansion plan. While we are firmly established in the Indian mobile market, the focus now will be to take our product range to international markets," Shailendra Nath Rai, Co-Founder and Director of Lava International said. "Lava will introduce its complete range of smart phone devices and tablets driven on the Android platform - a segment that is gaining increasing importance," he added. The entry of the brand in the Middle East is further indication of the changing landscape of the international mobile industry, with Indian manufacturers looking to capture a bigger foothold in the global market, he said. With products aimed at all price segments and age groups, Lava's comprehensive range includes tablets, IRIS series of Android-based smartphones, Discover series of Internet touch phones and ARC & KKT series of feature-rich multimedia phones. "We are entering the UAE with a long-term perspective in mind. Consumers in this market are extremely knowledgeable about global mobile trends and are increasingly demanding the best-in-class features for their handsets. "We are confident that Lava phones will appeal to such consumers who demand high-performance, quality and value-for-money handsets," Rai said. Lava's in-house R&D facility in Bangalore undertakes extensive development on 3G and Android technologies to enhance consumer experience, the statement said. Industry reports says the mobile handset market in the UAE has been forecast to grow annually at 7 per cent and would be valued at USD 374 million by 2014, it added. PTI