The report also claims that experiential smartphones will drive sales in India in 2019. India smartphone market may defy the declining global smartphone market
Faisal Kawoosa, Founder and Chief Analyst, techARC, sharing the insights from the report said, “There is a benchmark for majority of the 4G smartphone users and they will be looking for a replacement which gives them better experience comparing what they have in hand.”
He added, “Though very subjective and personal to each user, experience will be measured how efficiently and effectively the 4G Smartphone adapts to the multiple roles that a user would want the device to play. For instance, a video player, camera and so on.”
80 per cent sales in over $140 smartphone segment
The report further estimates that over 80 per cent of the sales will in the $140 (Approx Rs 10,000) and above smartphones segment. Faisal said that the low-end smartphones can see a decline in terms of sales. This trend will be due to negligible direct switch from feature phones to smartphones.
Techarc’s report read, “The user switch journey will continue to be, feature phone to smart-feature phone to smartphone, and will be primarily driven by JioPhone. Smartphone OEMs would want to explore introducing/expanding their basic smartphone portfolio, but owning to Jio’s aggressive and ‘unpredictable’ moves, the brands shall continue to cautiously decide about this segment.”
Estimated smartphones sales in different categories
The forecast report has shed clear light on the estimations between actual sales of smartphones in 2018 in comparison to sales forecast estimations for 2019. It estimates that there will be healthy growth of five per cent in terms of sales of mid-range smartphones (Rs 10,001 to Rs 25,000) in 2019, over the previous year.
Similarly, the premium smartphone segment (Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000), is also estimated to grow by two per cent in 2019 over 2018. The Luxe segment(Rs 50,000 and above), as per Techarc, will grow by mere one percent in 2019.
However, smartphone segments below Rs 10,001, might witness decline in terms of sales in 2019, as compared to 2018. The segment below Rs 5,000 is estimated to decline by three per cent in 2019, whereas the Rs 5,001 to Rs 10,000 smartphone segment may also see a decline of up to five per cent in terms of smartphone sales.
