The Indian smartphone market is hitting a new high. The market is witnessing a boom as the mobile companies are making a kill in the second largest smartphone market in the world. There is rising demand in the market and from domestic manufacturers like Reliance Jio to global giants such as Samsung and Xiaomi are cashing in this opportunity. According to the International Data Corporation's (IDC) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, India’s smartphone market registered overall growth of 14% annually with a total shipment of 124 million units. Currently, India is one of the fastest growing markets amongst the top 20-smartphone markets globally.
The Indian smartphone market has received an impetus through PM Modi’s Make in India plan. The campaign aims to make the country-manufacturing base for major industries and mobile phone is one of them. Several international mobile giants such as Huawei, Samsung and Xiaomi have set their smartphone manufacturing base in India. The plan has also given a push to the Indian smartphone manufacturers to tap the rising demand for the mobile phones in the Indian consumer market.
1. India accounts for 20% of the world’s mobile phone market:
A new data from GSMA states that India will be the fastest growing market in the world between 2017 and 2020. Currently, the country accounts for 20% of the mobile phone subscribers with a half a billion new smartphone users are expected in the next 3 years.
Though, there are some limitations in the country regarding infrastructure related to mobile data coverage, broadband links, and payment options. However, with the Modi’s “Make in India” plan moving in a positive and progressive way, arrangements have been done to improve infrastructure in future.
2. Indian app market is booming:
India’s app market is second largest app market. In a recent report, App analytics provider App Annie, India alone accounts for nearly 58 billion downloads of the world’s 175 billion. Indians spend an average of three hours per day on apps. The report also revealed that 88% of the time spent on mobile was on apps and rest 12% was for mobile browsing. Studies have shown that Indian users do keep up to 30 apps on their smartphones.
3. India is now second largest smartphone user in the world:
According to research firm Canalys, India has overtaken the US to become the world’s second-largest smartphone market after China with over 40 million units shipped with 23% yearly growth in the third quarter of 2017. The Chinese handset maker Xiaomi fuels this market growth. The company increased its shipments by over 290% to 9.2 million units in the quarter.
Another study says that Indian will grow nearly five times faster than the world’s largest smartphone market, China. In China, the smartphone growth is decelerating as the market has received saturation. This saturation has made Chinese manufacturers capitalize on the Indian opportunity.
4. Indian mobile gaming industry stands at fifth position
India comfortably holds the fifth position the mobile gaming industry globally standing just behind the Russia and Brazil. In 2016, the games developed by Indians topped the Google Play download charts. Mobile gaming has become quite convenient and affordable for users. The revenue from mobile gaming was around $286 million in 2017 and is expected to explode to $628 million by the year 2020. The increased revenue is attributed to the fact that India’s wireless connectivity is improving and there is a rapid rise in the number of smartphone subscribers.
5. 4G has still reached just less than 1% of the population but showing huge potential
Though the Chinese market is looking towards 5G adoption soon, India is still struggling to increase its 4G users base. By 2016, there was less than one percent of 4G subscribers in the country. However, the number is growing at a tremendous speed. By 2017, India had 238.34 million 4G subscribers according to TRAI report. The dominant player in this market is Reliance Jio with its 160 million 4G connections.
6. Internet use has increased due to use of smartphones:
In order to access the digital world, Smartphone is becoming the primary device for the Indians. Nearly half of the Internet users are solely on mobile. Around 60% of the users accessed the Internet for the first time through their mobile phones only. This is highly contrasting fact as compared to other countries where first Internet device for users were either laptops or desktops.
Android is dominating the mobile OS market:
According to IDC, Android still dominates the mobile OS market with a share of over 90%. This is because the Android devices are highly accessible due to low entry-level cost of the smartphones. Google launched Android One at one-sixth of the price of the iPhone6. This further boosted the market as Indians are hungry for new features and if it is available at reasonable rates, people do not hesitate in buying.
At the same time, it is also suggested that Android devices will need to adapt fast and match the pace of the market as Apple is seeing rapid expansion in the Indian market.
App Store Content revenue can be increased:
The population of India is 1.3 billion and there are only 19 million people who use credit cards. This puts restriction on the purchase of apps against the high customer demand. As a result, the content revenue for the in-app purchases has been limited to 15% only.
Smartphone e-tailers are responsible for high sales of smartphones
According to the counterpoint research, mobile e-tailers such as Flipkart and Amazon are driving high mobile sales. IDC report says that in 2017, 13 million smartphones were billed to e-tailers. It was because of the high sales of iPhones via e-commerce platform that Apple has doubled its revenue in India recently.
Indian mobile market is already reaching massive heights and smartphone manufacturing in India is continuously scaling heights owing to the Make in India plan, increasing reach of broadband and mobile signals in every corner of the country.
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