In India, Smartphone has become one of the hottest trends and why not, a total of 11.2 million units of Smartphones were shipped in 2011, with 87% YoY growth. Out of that, 1 million units were shipped just in the last month of 2011. The demand of smartphone is continuously increasing with the galloping pace across the country. It’s well-known that Android-powered smartphones have made a strong penetration in the country. As per a recent survey (on the basis of 1 million mobile users visited the website ‘The Mobile Indian’ in July 2012), 18 out of the 25 smartphones, being used for searching the website, are powered by Android OS.
According to the stats provided by the survey firm, 11 out of top 25 smartphones accessed the website during the survey period were from Samsung, followed by four from Sony, three each from Nokia and LG and two from HTC. Smartphones powered by Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) are more popular than others running on different platforms such as Symbian, Windows Phone and more. At present, the mobile internet access is at the top of the priority for Indian smartphone users. A few months before, we elaborated that almost half of the web traffic is being generated by a mobile device in India.
Besides Android, consumers also showed off their interest in phones having good camera capabilities and larger screen size. On the basis of the TMI’s survey, I found out several factors which determine consumers’ purchasing behaviour towards smartphones:
Camera Resolution:
In India, a significant number of mobile users are more likely to own a smartphone having a good quality of the camera. Of course, the third highest smartphone visited the website (TMI) during the survey period was Nokia 808 PureView; astoundingly, the smartphone features 41 MP. Almost all smartphones visited the website during the survey period had 2 or more MP camera resolution.
Operating System:
Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS is the most popular OS in India, however, Android 4.0 has not been rolled out by the manufacturers till the end of July this year. Besides Android, Nokia’s Symbian and Samsung Bada OSes were also among the top 25 handsets, visited the website. Surprisingly, iPhone could not even succeed to make its position in the top 25 listed smartphones. Just One BlackBerry device was on the list during the survey; it’s due to a decreasing demand for the device across the country.
Screen Size:
At present, a screen revolution has been sparked out around the world. Now, users are more relying on larger size-screen and that’s why Apple is also experimenting on its iPhone screen. Apparently, the demand for larger screen size smartphone is also augmenting in India since the end of the last year. Majority of the smartphones (listed in the top 25 smartphones visited the TMI website during July of this year) have 3-inches or larger screen sizes.
Price :
Undoubtedly, the Price is the main driving force for the shipments of the smartphone in India, where smartphones are not being subsidized by carriers. 16 smartphones (listed in the survey) are having the price range of Rs 3,890 to Rs 16000. And out of these 16 smartphones, 9 are having the price of just Rs 10,000 or less.
Brand Value:
In India, users want to own the global brand, that’s why only Micromax succeeded to make its position on the list. It’s clear from the survey that the Indian smartphone market is being dominated by the global brands especially Samsung.
See the Table of top 25 listed smartphones below, which has been prepared on the basis of about 1 million of users visited the ‘TMI’ website during July of this year :
