In a major development, the Chinese smartphone brand Honor is reportedly gearing up for a comeback in India in August this year. Former Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth is also expected to join Honor and play a key role in the launch of Honor-branded branded smartphones in the country.
According to a report from ET Telecom, Honor’s India partner PSAV Global Tech Private Limited is currently discussing with former Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth to revive the brand in the country.
PSAV Global, headquartered in Noida, is a distributor of Honor devices including laptops, tablets, and wearables. The company is now expected to leverage Sheth’s network to sell Honor smartphones through both online and offline channels.
As per ET Telecom sources, Madhav Sheth, who is currently VP for Business and Corporate Strategy (Global) in Realme, will bring key employees from Realme India to help set up sales operations for Honor smartphones.
Sources also confirmed ET Telecom that Honor is not planning to set up its own team in India and will continue with its arrangement with PSAV Global, which has a comprehensive network of over 5000 retailers and more than 100 distributors covering both rural and urban areas across India in the top 100 cities.
In another report, IANS news agency sources said the director-level executives from Realme’s online and mainline (offline) verticals have also put in their papers, who will join Sheth in his new stint at Honor India. Also, Sheth was absent from the company’s flagship launch event on Thursday, where it introduced Realme 11 Pro 5G series featuring two models — the 11 Pro 5G and the 11 Pro+ 5G.
The development at Realme is significant at a time when the Indian smartphone market is going through a churn, as Apple and Samsung solidify their presence amid doubling down on local manufacturing of their products, leaving once formidable Chinese players behind in the race.
In 2020, Chinese conglomerate Huawei sold off its Honor smartphone business assets to China-based Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co Ltd. Last year, Honor said it was not planning to exit the Indian market, where it expanded beyond smartphones to enter the laptop segment and also launched a wearables portfolio.
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