Guwahati, Sept. 8: Minecom Merchants Pvt Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of Italian technology major Datamatic, launched its operations in the country from the Northeast market with its Mediacom range of smartphones, eyeing customers preferring brands between the cheaper Chinese and high-end gadgets.

"The Northeast is a prime market for us given the brand consciousness backed by the smartphone sales boom. This is what has prompted us the launch brands from here. Subsequently, we will launch our brands in north and west India and plan to cover the entire country in about nine months," Navneet Kansal, the company's business development head, told The Telegraph here at the launch today.

The firm, which set up its corporate office in New Delhi a few months back, is eyeing sales revenue of about Rs 25 crore in the country by March 2016 of which Rs 5 crore would be from the Northeast alone. "We expect to achieve this target as our smartphones are modelled on the high-end models of the best brands and more importantly, reasonably priced," Kansal said.

The price of the Mediacom smartphones ranges from Rs 6,000 to Rs 15,000. "We are anticipating sales of about 1,000 units per month. We have set up the requisite after-sales set-up here," he said.

According to data from a research firm, CyberMedia Research, the country's mobile handsets market in 2014 (calendar year) grew by 4 per cent to 257 million units in terms of shipments over 2013.

Over the years, several top-notch mobile manufacturers have scaled up its operations in the Northeast with value-for-money smartphones.

In June, Bengal-based Rashmi Group had announced plans to invest over Rs 15 crore this fiscal to promote its mobile handset brand, Reach.