Spice Mobility Morphs Into Mobile Internet Co; To Spend Rs1000 Cr

Spice Mobility Ltd, the flagship handset manufacturer by Spice Group, has announced a change in strategy to become a mobile internet company. In a notice to the BSE, the company said the first phase of shifting to a technology company will begin in September 2011 and that it plans to invest Rs. 1000 crore in FY2011.

Spice Mobility has launched dual sim and Android OS based handsets in India. It also appears to have a 7 inch tablet called CSL Droidpad Mi700.

The change includes setting up a global supply chain for increasing sourcing efficiencies and support. It will be setting up a supply chain, R&D and market intelligence facility in Singapore. It will also increase focus on local handset distribution, adopting a cluster based distribution model. Its handset manufacturing division Spice Devices will focus on seven clusters across the country.

It will also bring various associate companies and subsidiaries it has set up in Africa's Ivory Coast, Middle East, India and S.E.Asia under an umbrella brand. Spice has a subsidiary Spice I2I Ltd (Formerly known as MediaRing Ltd) which is headquartered in Singapore and listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. Spice I2I launched a mobile VoIP solution called S-Unno.

Within Spice Televentures, the group operates Spice Retail, Spice Mobility, Spice BPO, Spice Digital and Spice Labs. The company has a global knowledge centre in Noida.