The premium market, however, continued to grow in 2022 with the Rs 30,000 above price band reaching a new high, Counterpoint Research India said in its report.
New Delhi: India’s smartphone shipments are expected to fall 5% year-on-year in 2022 to 160 million units – the second time since the last three years, a research report has said.
The report, however, added that the market is expected to grow by 10% in 2023 to reach 175 million units.
According to Counterpoint Research India’s data, in 2017, the smartphone market registered an annual growth of about 7% with a total shipment of 158 million units. The next year saw a negative growth of 4% with 152 million units. It rebounded in 2021 with an annual growth of 11% with a total shipment of 168 million units, and contracted 5% in 2022.
The market research firm’s report said that 2022 began with supply chain issues, including component shortages, rise in the prices of semiconductor chips, the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, and weak global cues. However, despite having the supply chain back on track by the first half of 2022, demand didn’t improve as expected.
“The weak demand was especially felt in the entry- and mid-level price bands owing to the increase in retail prices due to the rise in component prices and inflationary macro environment. The premium market continued to grow in 2022 with the >INR 30,000 ($400) price band reaching a new high,” it said.
This indicates the prevailing spending capacity of the households that can only afford entry- and mid-level smartphone brands, or budget phones.
In June, ETTelecom.com had reported that the entry-level (below Rs 5,000) and low-budget (Rs 5,000-Rs 10,000) smartphones are the most affected segments. A research analyst had told the news outlet that inflationary pressure impacted this consumer group most.
India has over 600 million smartphone users, and as per the Counterpoint Research report, the number is expected to grow over time as more feature phone users migrate to smartphones.
However, another report, released in November, had said that the impact of inflation on consumer demand, increasing device costs, and slow feature phone-to-smartphone migration would be the major challenges for India’s smartphone market in 2023.
According to the International Data Corporation, in the July-September quarter of 2022, smartphone shipments fell by 10% year-over-year, hitting a three-year low of 43 million shipments.
Credit : https://thewire.in/business/indias-smartphone-market-budget-phones-economy
