SanDisk announced today that it’s making a big retail push that will start in India’s 12 largest cities, where it mainly will court the country’s growing population of mobile phone users. (Of course, it will be more than willing to sell them USB flash drives and camera storage, too.)
The Milpitas-based flash memory maker plans to have products in 2,000 stores there in the next few weeks, and more than 14,000 by the end of next year.
“We see great potential for growth in consumer electronics products, especially mobile phones, digital cameras and computer accessories,” Sanjay Mehrotra, president and COO, said in a release. “India’s emergence as a technology leader and its rising per-capita income are creating opportunities for us in these categories. And with our new distributors, Ingram Micro and Rashi Peripherals, we are creating a relationship with strong, well-established companies that we believe will showcase the SanDisk brand throughout India.”
This is interesting. Mainly, it’s another indication of India’s rising clout as a market for wireless products and services, which one analyst report noted just last week; some reports say more people in India than in China are now signing up for cell phone service each month.