HTech CEO Madhav Sheth says smartphone brands in India are confusing consumers

Honor made a comeback in India last year with the launch of the Honor X9b. The company had to exit India after geopolitical tensions between the US and China, which heavily impacted its parent company, Huawei. Google services were pulled back from Huawei and Honor phones and their operations were pretty much limited to China. However, Honor separated from Huawei in 2020, and rebranded itself as HTech. In 2023, Honor returned to the Indian market. Since then, the brand has launched three phones in India, including the Honor X9b (review), Honor 200 and Honor 200 Pro. Last week, the company launched a fourth phone, the Honor 200 Lite.
The Honor 200 Lite is also the company’s first phone in the Indian market since its comeback, that is priced under Rs 20,000. This is interesting because Honor is evidently rebranding itself –– not just as a new independent brand, but also in terms of its positioning in the market. “Honor is not a value for money brand any more,” HTech CEO Madhav Sheth told India Today Tech. Until now, Honor was known for bringing premium features in a budget. But the company has a new strategy and is now focusing on the higher segment –– ranging from mid-segment to premium.
This switch has apparently been challenging for the company. The company CEO says the rebranding was “extremely tough”. “I have been getting a lot of backlash from the consumers,” says Sheth. The reason: consumers already have reservations about the brand due to its previous exit, and now Honor is shifting its target audience. However, Sheth says he is determined to pull the brand out of Huawei’s shadow. We sat down for an interview with Sheth, and he spoke at length about the struggles of building a brand that is not starting from zero but from negative levels.
“We are not working with a brand that is at zero, but it’s a brand that is on the receiving end of negative points of view.” However, Sheth shared his intent to make Honor one of the top 5 brands, and the “most stable brand” in India in the next five years. But to achieve that goal, Sheth says he refuses to compromise on the trust of the consumers. “Technology is important for Indian consumers” but “the biggest factor is trust”.
Unlike other brands in India, who are making a “mockery out of the system” and “confusing the consumer”, “we are going to build the foundation right and build a sturdy Honor ecosystem in India”. “We will do it the right way”, says Sheth.
Interestingly, here Sheth pointed out something we also wrote about, on how many brands in India have been cloning their devices under different names, relaunching products with minor tweaks in different price segments, and at the end of the day, under the garb of giving user more options, they are only confusing them. Sheth agreed. “Brands these days have an oligopolistic approach”. “At face value it may seem as if the consumers have more choices but companies are only confusing them,” he says.
“As for the companies, they have made a mockery out of the compliance systemâ€æand they have made a mockery out of AI”. “They are using AI as a gimmick and fooling consumers,” says HTech CEO. “There is no ethical standardisation of features like AI, so they are repackaging existing or old AI features as new,” he adds.
“Like around 2018, there was a race for who would offer more camera pixels with options for 64-megapixel and 108-megapixel cameras. There is now a race for including AI features.” “Brands need to be more responsible,” Sheth remarks.
“With Honor, the value proposition we offer is a full package”. “We may be getting backlash right now, but I am sure consumers will soon realise our price to specification ratio,” says Sheth. That said, he acknowledges that the company is still a “work in progress”.
Madhav Sheth also shared with us the company’s plans to launch the “best foldable phone in India under Rs 1,00,000”. It will apparently also be the “slimmest” in the segment. Sheth also confirmed that Honor V2 foldable will be launched next in India, which will likely be this year, and that will be followed by the launch of Honor V3 foldable. Sheth also told India Today Tech that an Honor X9b successor will also be launched in India soon.
And to top that all, Sheth also revealed his ambitious plans of making Honor the only Indian smartphone company to have a public IPO.
For a company that has “nothing to lose”, Sheth dreams of plans that aim to not only reclaim Honor’s lost ground in India but also to push the brand into a new era of innovation and global recognition.