India has world’s fastest growing smartphone market and it is progressing rapidly. In recent years Indian market has seen huge penetration of Chinese brands and these brands are elevating competition over here and have altogether captured more than 50% of the Indian smartphone market share. Evolving mobile technology has big impact on human life and making lives easier than ever. To know further about Indian Smartphone market, competition and growth opportunities in this industry, DT spoke with Mr. Puneet Narang, Director, Huawei Consumer Business Group. Below are his excerpts:
DT: What is your viewpoint about Indian Smartphone market? Do you think that India is currently influencing the smartphone innovations globally?
Mr. Puneet Narang:As the Indian cellular market goes through consolidation and aggressive 4G roll out, demand for smart phones will continue to grow. With smartphone penetration maturing in many developed markets, continued growth in the world’s third largest smartphone market makes India an attractive market to device manufacturers. Smartphones in India are expected to account for 62 percent of all mobile phones sales in India in 2018.
Definitely, India has the fastest-growing Smartphone market in the world, accounting for 27.5 million devices sold in the second quarter of 2016, up 17 percent from the previous quarter. Mobile subscriptions are expected to hit 1.4 billion by 2021,India is leapfrogging ahead of many developed countries to a paperless, cashless, presence-less system, Besides,Aadhaar authentication enrollment technology and process, which was launched with fingerprint-based scans in 2010,is something that recently caught the imagination of the Smartphone makers
DT: How is the competition among smartphone vendors as China consistently bringing cheap smartphones with latest features? How much is the market share of Chinese brands in Indian smartphone market?
Mr. Puneet Narang:All Indian brands along with Samsung are loosing market share rapidly to Chinese brands which now has almost 45% of Indian smartphone value share. This is primarily because these brands are able to offer better value for the features and build quality for the relevant price category. Price segment of greater than Rs 30,000 is though primarily dominated by Samsung and Apple.
DT: What do you think about the evolving mobile technology? What are the impacts of mobile technologies on the life of a common person?
Mr. Puneet Narang:The technology that drives mobile devices has improved a lot since those days, and especially in the last ten years. Mobile gadgets have gotten smaller, more powerful, and very useful. They are everywhere and play increasingly greater roles in the lives of most everyone. Availability of mobile devices is rapidly spreading throughout the world and making significant improvements in many lives.
Mobile technology, in the form of phones, tablets, and notebooks, is making our lives better than ever before. It does this in many ways, not the least of which is making communications routine. We can be in touch with those we need to reach, whether work-related or personal in nature. We can send important files almost anywhere in the world in seconds so business is addressed when it is critical. We can collaborate with co-workers in real-time no matter how spread out they may be. We can get confirmation or approval of vital decisions on the spot. Mobile technology has changed the way we do business for the better.
DT: How do you see rivalry of Samsung and Apple in India? People have a perception about Apple that it’s a symbol of wealth so does the Apple leads in this way or not?
Mr. Puneet Narang:Both Apple and Samsung are holding the fort very well above Rs 30,000 price segment. If Apple is perceived as ‘symbol of wealth’ then Samsung is wooing high end customers by feature rich and ‘different’ smartphones. Apple will have to innovate on the design of its upcoming phone to be able to continue to stake its claim on Indian customers.
DT: Apple is now reducing the price of its smartphones and has also established a manufacturing plant in India, how it affects the sale of Samsung? In your opinion which company leads in terms of better features?
Mr. Puneet Narang:Apple will need to do more than just reduce price to establish a solid foot hold in the Indian smartphone market. Customers are more aware these days that Android based smartphones such as that of Samsung, Huawei etc gives similar or better build quality with more feature sets.
DT: As smartphone is becoming more popular among young generation so what will be the targeted smartphone users by 2020 in India?
Mr. Puneet Narang:Smartphone user base in India crossed 300 Mn in 2016 with annual growth rate of 18%. If this trend continues then India will cross 500 Mn users by 2020
DT: The development of mobile applications is at ultimate stage and the demand of smart mobile apps is tremendously increasing so how will be the future of app market in India?
Mr. Puneet Narang: The rise of the Indian smartphone and mobile app market is among the most outstanding examples of rapid, substantial growth in today’s global economy. The number of mobile internet users in urban areas has grown by 65% since last year, according to Apps India 2016, and revenue from paid apps alone will reach an estimated $317.6 million (USD) by the end of this year.But rapid growth isn’t always a sure sign of profitability — a look at the structure and past behavior of the Indian market may cast some shade over these optimistic predictions of its future performance.60% of mobile internet users in India face problems with their mobile connection, and 62% of users in small to mid-sized cities experience inconsistent internet speeds while outdoors.
