By 2022, more than 700 million Indians will have smartphones
What's the story
India's already burgeoning smartphone market is on track to touch new heights, a new report from market analysis firm Counterpoint Research has suggested.
According to the report, over the next five years, more than a billion smartphones will be sold in the country.
This means the total number of smartphone users in India will go well beyond 700 million by 2022.
Here's more.
Details
Interestingly, mid-range smartphones to be in high demand
A big chunk of these numbers will be coming from the sales of mid-range smartphones (Rs. 14,000-29,000) in the country.
In the past, budget phones were high in demand, but Counterpoint Research has noted a gradual shift toward mid-rangers, thanks to the so-called flagship killers.
Sales of such phones are expected to grow 20% YoY in 2018 and quadruple in the next five years.
Potential changes
Flagship features to diffuse in mid-range segment
Over time, more flagship features will diffuse into the mid-range segment, leaving only processors and hardware elements as the differentiating factors.
"Features such as full-screen displays, dual-cameras, biometric security and support for Artificial Intelligence (AI) are beginning to make in-roads to the mid-range," Tarun Pathak, the Associate Director at CR stated. "They will become widespread over the next few years."
India's position
India's current position in global smartphone market
India boasts over 400 million smartphone users, standing as the second largest smartphone market in the world. However, this makes up only 44% of the potentially addressable market for smartphones.
"Part of this lack of development can be attributed to the poor relative development of data-capable mobile networks and high data pricing," Director Neil Shah stated, stressing on Jio's role in driving the change.
Current stats
And, what about the current stats?
According to stats for the first half of 2018, Samsung, Vivo, Apple, OPPO, and Huawei are the leading mid-range segment players with as much as 92% market share.
"However, we expect competition to increase in the segment as more brands enter including Xiaomi, ASUS, Nokia HMD and others," the report added.
Not to mention, new chips from Qualcomm will also play a major role.