Lava Mobiles makes ambitious foray into UAE

Lava has quickly risen to be among the top three Indian mobile brands in a relatively short span of three years, selling over 6 million handsets across India in 2012 alone.

The initial offering from the Lava range includes highly sophisticated dual SIM mobile phones, including the award-winning Iris and Discover series of handsets.

"The UAE is an important part of our global expansion plan," explained Shailendra Nath Rai, Co-Founder and Director of Lava International.

"While we are firmly established in the Indian mobile market, the focus now will be to take our product range to international markets. Lava will introduce its complete range of smart phone devices and tablets driven on the Android platform - a segment that is gaining increasing importance," Shailendra 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. 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," explained Rai. "Consumers in this market are extremely knowledgeable about global mobile trends and are increasing 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 added.

Lava is the only Indian mobile manufacturer having its own design capabilities, allowing the company to customise the product as per consumer needs. This unique ability allows the company to enrich the consumer's mobile experience through customisation of various features and applications. In addition, Lava's in-house R&D facility in Bangalore undertakes extensive development on 3G and Android technologies to enhance consumer experience.

The UAE has one of the highest mobile penetration rates in the world with active mobile penetration rates exceeding 230% as of Q2 2012 end. Industry reports reveal that the mobile handset market in the UAE has been forecast to grow annually at 7%, valued at $374m by 2014.

According to a survey done by Arab Advisors Group (AAG), smartphones make up more than 40% of the mobile phone sales in the UAE. Moreover, with the advent of advanced telecom infrastructure with major telecom operators offering 3G and HSPA networks, the UAE is poised to become a frontrunner in the global mobile phone market.

The Lava range of mobiles are distributed by Sharaf Electronics and are available at all leading electronics retail outlets across the region.