Chinese manufacturer LeEco certainly has some grand plans up its sleeve for the Indian market. After a slew of successful smartphone launches, the company is now all set to inaugurate its first ever manufacturing facility in India, as a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India‘ initiative. The inauguration ceremony will be held tomorrow i.e. August 30th in the country capital New Delhi. Special guests invited for the inaugural event include current Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad. Earlier, the company had launched its first-ever ‘Made in India’ smartphone – the LeEco 1s back in May this year. Furthermore, the company also announced its plans to set up in-house Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) in 10 cities across the country by the end of the calendar year 2016, with an investment worth over a massive US$ 10 million.
While earlier this month, the company announced that its founder and chief executive officer Jia Yueting is to take over as the chairperson of Coolpad. According to Yueting, LeEco and Coolpad will adopt a dual-brand strategy where the two brands will co-exist and target different international markets. The duo officially launched their first smartphone in China on August 26 – the Cool 1 Dual. The metal-clad smartphone features a 5.5-inch full HD IPS display. While powering the smartphone is a Snapdragon 652 processor bundled with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM. The main highlight of the Cool 1 Dual, however, is its 13MP dual-lens camera setup similar to the one found on the Huawei P9.
LeEco also announced that it has managed to sell 7,00,000 units in India in the past six months. And with its recent partnership with Coolpad, both are expected to churn out 50-60 million units to become one of the top four players in China. Moreover, LeEco has its sight set on becoming the top supplier of smartphones by next year with annual sales of 100 million handsets.
Just last month, the company acquired US television manufacturer Vizio for $2 billion. While during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, LeEco announced its plans to further strengthen its global footprint by offering new products and unique content offerings.
Despite being what you’d call a relatively new entrant, LeEco is now among the most popular smartphone brands in China since its debut last year. The company has reportedly sold more than 10 million handsets by quarter ending April 2016, while its second quarter sales have surpassed 2 million units in a single month. To top it up, the figure is expected to cross the 3 million mark by the end of the next quarter.
