Honor announces plans to take over Indian smartphone market by 2020

The Indian smartphone market has seen incredible growth over the past year, a rise that culminated in the Asian country becoming the second largest smartphone market in the world, effectively overtaking the US. This rise has made the local market indispensable to brands that aim to grow their global market share, as a significant share in the Indian market contributes greatly to global market presence.

Xiaomi are top dogs in India, with the company's retinue of reasonably-priced mid-rangers seen as a perfect fit for a market with a lean towards budget devices. Honor is another similar company, as the brand, an off-shoot of Huawei, was created to offer value-for-money devices, something best represented by devices like the Honor 7X and Honor 9. It's no surprise, then, that the company seeks to gain traction in the market, as it sees the market space ruled by Xiaomi as one it can effectively compete in.

Honor President George Zhao has announced that the company seeks to be the leading brand in the country by 2020, a goal it plans to achieve by offering bang-for-buck devices with price tags under the Rs 10,000 mark (US$155). It's a commendable goal, as Honor currently isn't anywhere near the top of the market—one utterly dominated by Xiaomi and Samsung. Of course, it's not a far-fetched objective either, since the brand already has a significant global presence.

New Honor devices like the 7X and V10 were released in India last week, which is an indication of the company's active journey towards achieving its goals. The Honor 6X, for example, was a bestseller, and while we believe the 7X outdoes it, it remains to be seen if it has what it takes to comes out on top in a battle against closely-priced devices like the Mi A1 and the next-gen Redmi phones.