India’s smartphone makers are seeking government action after a dramatic loss of market share to deep-pocketed Chinese rivals, who have been taking the country’s mobile market by storm with aggressive pricing and marketing campaigns.
在被财大气粗的中国竞争对手抢走大块市场份额后，印度智能手机制造商正寻求让印度政府采取相应的行动。中国智能手机制造商一直在以激进的定价和营销攻势，在印度手机市场攻城略地。
Homegrown companies such as Micromax and Intex had grown to dominate the Indian mobile market, building strong local brands while relying heavily on product designers and component suppliers in China.Micromax和Intex等印度本土企业经过发展，曾主导了印度的手机市场。它们打造了强大的本土品牌，但严重依赖中国的产品设计者和零部件供应商。But over the past year, Chinese smartphone makers such as Xiaomi, Lenovo and Oppo have launched an intense assault on India, where their market share grew to 46 per cent in the final quarter of 2016 from 14 per cent a year earlier, according to Counterpoint Research. Indian brands’ share fell from 54 per cent to 20 per cent during the same period.过去一年里，小米(Xiaomi)、联想(Lenovo)和OPPO等中国智能手机制造商向印度市场发起了猛烈突击。Counterpoint Research的数据显示，2016年最后一季度，中国智能手机制造商在印度的市场份额已从一年前的14%上升至46%。同一时期内，印度品牌的市场份额从54%滑落至20%。“The government should be more supportive of their people,” Narendra Bansal, founder of Intex Technologies, the second-biggest Indian smartphone brand by sales, told the Financial Times. “Every child needs hand-holding by their parents.”以销量计的印度第二大智能手机品牌Intex Technologies的创始人纳伦德拉?班萨尔(Narendra Bansal)向英国《金融时报》表示：“政府应给予他们的人民更多支持。每个孩子都需要他们的父母扶一把。”Mr Bansal called for “anti-dumping duties” on Chinese handsets, similar to those imposed on low-priced steel imports from the country. He argued that supplementary levies could be imposed even for handsets assembled by Chinese companies in India, to compensate for the financial support that those groups have received from Beijing.班萨尔呼吁对中国手机征收“反倾销税”——类似于对从中国进口的低价钢材征收的那些税。他声称，即便对中国企业在印度组装的手机，也可征收附加关税，以抵消这些企业从中国政府那里获得的经济支持。Industry leaders have met government officials in recent weeks to outline their concerns, according to one person with direct knowledge of the talks.据一位直接了解相关讨论的人士称，行业领袖们已在近几周与政府官员举行了会晤，大致谈了他们的顾虑。Beyond pricing, executives are alarmed by the huge scale of an ongoing Chinese advertising drive: on billboards across the country, Bollywood heart-throb Deepika Padukone can be seen clutching an Oppo handset, while Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli gazes at a phone from Shenzhen-based Gionee.除了定价以外，行业高管们还对中国企业正在展开的广告攻势的巨大规模感到担忧：在遍及全印度的广告牌上，都可看到宝莱坞大众情人迪皮卡?帕杜科内(Deepika Padukone)手握OPPO手机、印度板球队队长维拉?科利(Virat Kohli)凝视一款深圳金立(Gionee)手机的画面。The Chinese companies’ focus on India reflects the huge recent growth of its smartphone market. Last year, 109m smartphones were shipped in the country, according to IDC, well more than double the number three years before.中国企业聚焦印度市场，反映出印度智能手机市场近期的巨幅增长。据IDC称，去年印度智能手机发货量达1.09亿部，是三年前的两倍以上。“Their spending is too high,” said Pradeep Jain, founder of Karbonn Mobile, which once ranked third in the Indian market but, like other local brands, has now dropped out of the top five. “The government should do something otherwise it’s a loss for industry, and a loss for the government also.”“他们的支出太高了，”Karbonn Mobile的创始人普拉迪普?贾殷(Pradeep Jain)表示，“政府应该做点什么，否则不仅是行业的损失，也是政府的损失。”Karbonn Mobile曾在印度市场位列第三，但与其他本土品牌一样，如今它也跌出了前五名。“The China ecosystem historically came up because of a lot of subsidies and incentives from the Chinese government,” said Shubhajit Sen, chief marketing officer at Micromax, the biggest Indian phonemaker by sales.“过去，中国的生态系统能够发展起来，是因为中国政府提供了大量补贴和激励，”Micromax首席营销官沙巴吉特?森(Shubhajit Sen)表示。该公司是以销量计的印度最大手机制造商。While the Indian government could not replicate this, he argued that it should “reduce the gap between the China ecosystem and the Indian ecosystem”, through steep levies on imported smartphones and components.尽管印度政府无力如法炮制，但森认为，印度政府应通过对进口智能手机和零部件征收高额关税来“缩小印度生态系统与中国生态系统之间的差距”。But Neil Shah, an analyst at Counterpoint, said that Chinese companies have sharply increased their local assembly of phones in India. This now accounts for about 75 per cent of the handsets they sell in the country, he estimated — roughly the same as for the Indian brands, meaning that any crackdown on imports would hit the latter just as hard as their better-funded Chinese rivals.
但Counterpoint分析师尼尔?沙阿(Neil Shah)表示，中国企业大幅增加了在印度本地的手机组装。他预计，本地组装的手机如今占中国企业在印所售手机的75%左右——差不多与印度品牌的销量相当，这意味着任何打压进口手机的举措，在打击到资金更加雄厚的中国竞争对手的同时，都将给印度手机制造企业带来同样沉重的打击。“Actually the Indian brands would be shooting themselves in the feet,” he said.“事实上，印度品牌会搬起石头砸自己的脚，”沙阿表示。