15 popular smartphone brands that are ‘dead’ in India
The Indian smartphone market has always been highly competitive and not all mobile brands are able to keep up with the momentum. Back in 2014-2015, the smartphone market in India was flooded with options across all price ranges from both big and small brands. But soon some brands ceased to exist after being active for some time. Here are 15 popular smartphone brands that have given up and can be considered as ‘dead’ in India.
LG Electronics
In April 2021, LG Electronics announced that it is closing its mobile business unit. Despite launching innovative handsets globally, LG couldn’t make it big in the smartphone market. The company said that it will provide service support and software updates for users of existing mobile phones for some time.
Sony
In May 2019, Sony announced its exit from Indian smartphone market after dwindling sales. Apart from India, Sony has pulled out of some other markets as well. The company also stopped sales in Central and South America, West Asia, South Asia, Oceania, etc, in FY18.
HTC
Taiwanese brand HTC tried to make another comeback in the India smartphone market in 2019 but didn’t workout. HTC suffered a major setup from the Chinese mobile makers in India and ultimately decided to directly stop selling phones in India.
BlackBerry Mobile
BlackBerry made a mark with its QWERTY smartphones among office goers in India and globally but with the rising popularity of Android and iOS, the company simply couldn’t keep up. BlackBerry Mobile ultimately shut down after August 2020 with the expiry of its contract with manufacturing partner TCL.
LeEco
LeEco entered the Indian smartphone market with a lot of grandeur. But it was burning more cash than it was actually making. Ultimately, it had to shut down in 2017.
Meizu
Meizu is another Chinese smartphone brand that tried to compete with the likes of Xiaomi by offering more hardware specs at affordable prices. While some of its handsets were quick to gain popularity, the brand couldn’t manage its India business well and had to shut down.
Spice
Spice Mobiles was a popular India smartphone brand that operated in the budget segment. But the company had to shut down due to the intense competition from other players.
Qiku
Qiku was another smartphone brand that launched around 2014 and attracted consumers by offering more hardware specifications for less price. The company launched a couple of handsets but it couldn’t make a mark in the market.
Panasonic
After struggling in the affordable smartphone market for some time, Panasonic ultimately gave up.
Videocon
Videocon launched a range of mobile phones in the affordable segment but the brand couldn’t gain any competitive advantage in the market and had to ultimately stop selling phones.
YU
YU– a sub brand of Micromax– entered the Indian market to compete with the likes of Xiaomi. But it just couldn’t manage to survive the stiff competition.
iBall
Accessories maker iBall also attempted to make budget smartphones to target rural areas but the intense competition from Chinese brands like Oppo, Xiaomi, Vivo and others made it difficult to survive.
InFocus
InFocus is an American smartphone brand which just abruptly stop selling phones in India after launching a couple of handsets.
Alcatel
Alcatel could never make its mark in the Indian smartphone market and the brand was quick to lose the attention of buyers in India.
iVoomi
iVoomi is another smartphone brand operating in the budget smartphone space that just couldn’t take the competition.
