Tag: IDC

Global smartphone shipments increase in first quarter amidst trade concerns

MUMBAI: According to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, global smartphone1 shipments experienced a 1.5 per cent year-over-year increase in the first quarter of 2025, reaching 304.9 million units. This performance aligned with IDC forecasts, attributed to manufacturers increasing production in anticipation of potential US tariffs on imports from China.

IDC vice-president Francisco Jeronimo noted that geopolitical uncertainty and the threat of US tariff hikes on Chinese goods led vendors to accelerate production and pull forward significant shipment volumes, particularly into the US market, during the first quarter. This supply-side action resulted in shipment figures exceeding levels expected based on underlying consumer demand.

IDC group vice president Ryan Reith highlighted that while the US government’s recent pause on smartphone import tariffs from China provides temporary relief, the continued reliance on China’s supply chain and ongoing tariff volatility create challenges for future planning and decision-making for many companies. He suggested that US smartphone brands should leverage the tariff exemption to maximize building and shipping. Additionally, he cautioned that economic uncertainty could potentially dampen consumer demand in the coming months.

The US smartphone market saw growth of over five per cent in the first quarter, despite the impact of tariffs and trade tensions on disposable income. IDC research director Anthony Scarsella attributed this growth to increased consumer interest in new models from leading manufacturers and a sense of urgency to purchase before potential price increases. He also suggested that the 90-day tariff pause could further boost sales in the second quarter.

Globally, the first quarter saw growth among major smartphone vendors, particularly Chinese companies in their domestic market, supported by government subsidies extended to smartphones in January 2025. This subsidy program aims to stimulate consumption for products priced below yuan 6,000 ($820).

Among the top vendors:
* Samsung regained market leadership, driven by the continued success of its Galaxy S25 premium devices and the mid-range Galaxy A series, including the latest Galaxy A36 and A56 featuring more affordable AI capabilities.

* Apple achieved its highest first-quarter shipments ever, attributed to stockpiling to mitigate potential US ariffs and to address potential supply chain disruptions in other regions. However, its performance in China declined as its Pro models were not included in the Chinese government subsidy program.

* Xiaomi’s performance was primarily driven by growth in China due to the government subsidies, positively impacting sales of its mid-range products.

* Oppo regained the fourth position despite a decline in shipments due to weaker performance in international markets, which was not fully offset by growth in China.

* Vivo experienced substantial year-on-year growth of 6.3 per cent, supported by subsidies in China and growth in international markets, with strong performance in low-end devices and the V series.

In conclusion, while the global smartphone market showed positive shipment growth in the first quarter of 2025, the ongoing US-China trade war and tariff volatility continue to present significant concerns for the remainder of the year.

April 20, 2025
Flipkart launches sell-back program ahead of the festive season

Mumbai: Flipkart is enabling a “sell-back program” ahead of the festive season. The programme offers a safe and convenient option to sell old phones to network partners. Customers can truly upgrade via the sell-back program by selling their used mobile phones while receiving the right buy-back value in their bank account.

As a part of this program, an objective 10-grade system will guide the partners in valuing the used phones. The process is seamless and hassle-free with attractive value, quick payment, speedy doorstep pick-up, and a safe and secure sales network for customers.

The programme was launched following extensive research. If we talk about the data, India is the second largest smartphone market and the fastest growing market for second-hand smartphones in the world. In 2021, around 25 million smartphones were traded in the second-hand market and are expected to rise to 51 million units at a valuation of $4.6 billion by 2025, as per a report by IDC and the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA).

Around 70 per cent of people don’t sell their old phones, mainly because of the lack of a trusted platform that can provide good prices, the convenience of selling, and assurance of data safety. With this, the launch of the “sell-back program” is a significant step in that direction. With the acquisition of Yaantra, which has a robust device quality assessment capability, Flipkart has strengthened its foothold in the re-commerce industry.

Commenting on the launch of the program, Flipkart senior vice president & head-new business Adarsh Menon said, “As the festive season approaches, more people look at options to upgrade and purchase the latest devices and mobiles. Consequently, there has been the emergence of an ever-growing market for re-selling devices that are highly unorganised, unsafe, and difficult to navigate. With the “sell-back program,” we hope to offer our customers a safe, convenient, and environmentally friendly option that guarantees the best value and prompt payment. We have received strong adoption and interest for this program, which witnesses approximately one crore customers every month from across the country. At Flipkart, we consider it a priority to work towards bringing smart tech-enabled solutions to customers and helping in reducing the generation of e-waste, which is a crucial step in creating a sustainable economy.”

September 24, 2022
Dish TV wins IDC Insights Awards for ‘Excellence in Operations category’

MUMBAI: Dish TV India Limited, the world’s largest single-country DTH Company, has bagged the I.C.O.N.I.C IDC Insights Award 2018 for its pioneering initiative ‘Project Phoenix’– a common service CRM for both its brands i.e Dish TV and D2H under ‘Excellence in Operations category’ at the award ceremony held recently. The winners, after a rigorous evaluation process, were chosen based on the votes of the jury and final validation of the jury chair person.

Post the completion of merger, ‘Project Phoenix’ was launched to seamlessly integrate the user interface of the individual CRMs of both the brands i.e Dish TV and D2H. With this, the user interface became common and the CRMs of both the brands were working in their individual capacity since building a new common CRM platform was a time consuming task. The tool has highly intuitive user interface and has helped in simplifying the working of Service Coordinators.

Commenting on the award win, Mr V.K.Gupta, CTO, Dish TV India Ltd said, “We are very excited to be recognized for our focus on innovation, customer satisfaction and our commitment to achieving excellence through technology. As a leading DTH player, Dish TV always strive to create distinct operational and functional capabilities offering industry leading solutions to achieve maximum customer satisfaction.”

The prestigious IDC Insights awards honor the business and IT leaders who envisaged, conceptualized, and successfully executed an IT/Technology implementation that brought about tangible results for their organization. Dish TV was felicitated at a ceremony on 6-7th December 2018 at the Hyatt Regency, Chandigarh.

December 18, 2018
Small Indian cities fuel smartphone sales; global consumer spend on digi content to rise: IDC

NEW DELHI: Non-metro Indian cities, mainly those in Tier 2 and 3 (population between 20,000-100,000), have fuelled growth in smartphone sales during the festive season between August and October, according to International Data Corporation (IDC), which said total sales in such cities grew 23.3 per cent over the previous month as per Monthly City Level Smartphone tracker.

In another forecast, IDC said global consumer spending on digital devices, services and content will reach $3.4 trillion in 2020, rising 4.7 per cent annually from 2015. The global forecast is from a newly launched research program, Consumer Spending Priorities: Tech and Services, which provides a holistic view of consumer spending across all goods and services.

Meanwhile, Retail Asia, quoting IDC data relating to Indian smartphone sales, said the growth was largely due to vendors focusing on new affordable launches, higher spending on marketing and innovative payment options. IDC India senior market analyst Upasana Joshi said the key four months from July to October 2016 made up more than 40 per cent of annual smartphone sales. The festive season in India started in August with Independence Day and ran until Diwali in October.

“Multiple sales by all major e-commerce players in October with their high-decibel marketing, attractive payment options, and exchange offers also helped in growing the market. The top 8 to 10 cities of India constitute the major portion of online sales, leaving a yawning gap between these markets and the still largely untapped smaller towns,” Joshi was quoted as having said.

Joshi, who disclosed that China-based players contributed significantly to the growth at the offline retail counters while continuing to dominate the online channel, said, “These vendors collectively accounted for more than 40 per cent market share in the top 30 cities during Diwali month, primarily driven by 4G enabled handsets. Oppo and Vivo continue to shake the traditional line up of Indian vendors with their superior build quality, massive marketing investments in the offline channel.”

Global Digital Spending on Content To Rise By 2020

Coming to market research firm’s latest data on global digital spending by consumers, IDC said the share of consumer digital spending on devices will fall from 28 per cent in 2015 to only 22 per cent by 2020, but consumer spending on digital content will rise at a 12.6 per cent annual clip, according to the CSP, a twice-annual pivot table. Digital services, however, will maintain its 61 per cent share of consumer digital spending by growing 4.9 per cent annually.

According to IDC, a global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the IT, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets, while total consumer digital spending is going up, the nature of spend is changing. For example, just as consumers shift spending towards digital content, consumers worldwide are moving digital spending towards online media and away from entertainment devices.

Consumer spending on online media will grow 12.6 per cent from 2015 to 2020, while spending on digital communications devices and services will grow at a mere 1.6 per cent annual rate as consumer spending on voice services, both fixed and mobile, declines in absolute terms from 2015 to 2020.

“Clearly the value of the devices is derived primarily as conduits for the content and services that they transport and the applications that they enable,” said Jonathan Gaw, research manager for IDC’s Consumer Spending Priorities: Tech and Services program.

Much of the change in consumer spending categories is driven by regions outside of the United States, where the shift among spending categories continues but is largely complete and the share of spending by solution type is largely stable, IDC said, adding that in developing countries, however, consumer spending on digital content and services vs. devices, is still gaining, while online media spending also increases in wallet share.

January 10, 2017
Small Indian cities fuel smartphone sales; global consumer spend on digi content to rise: IDC

NEW DELHI: Non-metro Indian cities, mainly those in Tier 2 and 3 (population between 20,000-100,000), have fuelled growth in smartphone sales during the festive season between August and October, according to International Data Corporation (IDC), which said total sales in such cities grew 23.3 per cent over the previous month as per Monthly City Level Smartphone tracker.

In another forecast, IDC said global consumer spending on digital devices, services and content will reach $3.4 trillion in 2020, rising 4.7 per cent annually from 2015. The global forecast is from a newly launched research program, Consumer Spending Priorities: Tech and Services, which provides a holistic view of consumer spending across all goods and services.

Meanwhile, Retail Asia, quoting IDC data relating to Indian smartphone sales, said the growth was largely due to vendors focusing on new affordable launches, higher spending on marketing and innovative payment options. IDC India senior market analyst Upasana Joshi said the key four months from July to October 2016 made up more than 40 per cent of annual smartphone sales. The festive season in India started in August with Independence Day and ran until Diwali in October.

“Multiple sales by all major e-commerce players in October with their high-decibel marketing, attractive payment options, and exchange offers also helped in growing the market. The top 8 to 10 cities of India constitute the major portion of online sales, leaving a yawning gap between these markets and the still largely untapped smaller towns,” Joshi was quoted as having said.

Joshi, who disclosed that China-based players contributed significantly to the growth at the offline retail counters while continuing to dominate the online channel, said, “These vendors collectively accounted for more than 40 per cent market share in the top 30 cities during Diwali month, primarily driven by 4G enabled handsets. Oppo and Vivo continue to shake the traditional line up of Indian vendors with their superior build quality, massive marketing investments in the offline channel.”

Global Digital Spending on Content To Rise By 2020

Coming to market research firm’s latest data on global digital spending by consumers, IDC said the share of consumer digital spending on devices will fall from 28 per cent in 2015 to only 22 per cent by 2020, but consumer spending on digital content will rise at a 12.6 per cent annual clip, according to the CSP, a twice-annual pivot table. Digital services, however, will maintain its 61 per cent share of consumer digital spending by growing 4.9 per cent annually.

According to IDC, a global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the IT, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets, while total consumer digital spending is going up, the nature of spend is changing. For example, just as consumers shift spending towards digital content, consumers worldwide are moving digital spending towards online media and away from entertainment devices.

Consumer spending on online media will grow 12.6 per cent from 2015 to 2020, while spending on digital communications devices and services will grow at a mere 1.6 per cent annual rate as consumer spending on voice services, both fixed and mobile, declines in absolute terms from 2015 to 2020.

“Clearly the value of the devices is derived primarily as conduits for the content and services that they transport and the applications that they enable,” said Jonathan Gaw, research manager for IDC’s Consumer Spending Priorities: Tech and Services program.

Much of the change in consumer spending categories is driven by regions outside of the United States, where the shift among spending categories continues but is largely complete and the share of spending by solution type is largely stable, IDC said, adding that in developing countries, however, consumer spending on digital content and services vs. devices, is still gaining, while online media spending also increases in wallet share.

January 10, 2017
Q3 ’16: 70pc smartphones shipped, 90pc sold by e-tailers 4G-enabled; Indian market crosses 30 million

MUMBAI: Smartphone market in India crossed the 30 million unit shipments milestone for the first time ever in a quarter in CY Q3 2016 maintaining its healthy traction with 11 per cent year-on-year growth.

According to the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, smartphone shipments clocked 32.3 million units in CY Q3 2016 with 17.5 per centage growth over the previous quarter. “This seasonal spike in third quarter of the year can be attributed to the channel preparation for the festive season, mega online sales and early import of smartphones owing to Chinese holidays in October” says IDC India’s senior market analyst – client devices Karthik J.

Online share of smartphone increased to 31.6 per cent with impressive 35 per cent Quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ) growth due to strong performance by key online players primarily from China-based vendors. Also, closing weeks of the quarter witnessed incremental supplies as many vendors were preparing their inventories for the online festival sales in October. Lenovo Group continues to lead online channel followed by Xiaomi. “Lenovo Group accounts for almost one-fourth of total online smartphone shipments driven primarily by Lenovo’s K5 series and Motorola’s G4 series models. Also, Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 3 and newly launched Redmi 3S fuelled the online shipments to a large extent,” adds Karthik.

4G smartphone shipments grew 24.8 per cent over previous quarter in CY Q3 2016. Rollout of Reliance Jio network has further increased the share of 4G enabled smartphones in India. Seven out of 10 smartphone shipped in Q3 2016 were 4G enabled and 9 out of 10 smartphone sold by eTailers were 4G.

Samsung leads the Indian smartphone market with 23 per centage share with 8 per cent sequential growth and 9.7 per cent growth from the same period last year. Despite the recall of Samsung’s flagship Note 7, multiple new launches across both offline and online channels added onto the its strong portfolio helped vendor to grow at a healthy rate in CY Q3 2016. J2 continues to be a key contributor for Samsung.

Lenovo Group (including Motorola) climbed to second place with 9.6 per cent share of smartphones. Similar to the CY Q3 2015 trend, Lenovo Group’s shipment spiked in CY Q3 2016 with growth of 46.1 per cent over previous quarter. Motorola’s volume almost doubled Quarter-on-Quarter driven by newly launched E3 Power and G4 models. K5 series continues to be lead runner for Lenovo accounting for over 40 per cent of its total volume.

Micromax slips to third position with a 32 per cent decline in smartphone shipments over previous quarter. Vendor is facing tremendous pressure from other local vendors in sub US$ 100 segment and with Chinese players in US$100-150.

Xiaomi makes its debut in top five as its shipments doubled over previous quarter. With primary focus on online and minimalistic product portfolio, vendor has grown more than 2.5 times over the same period last year. As the vendor plans to expand its footprint in the offline channel, competition is likely to get intense in Indian smartphone market.

Reliance Jio sustains its fifth position in CY Q3 2016 despite a healthy 20.9 per cent growth over previous quarter. With the commercial launch of Reliance Jio Service with attractive introductory offer, the LYF branded smartphones saw a sharp demand with reports of stock outs at some locations. Apart from its entry level Flame series, Water series also contributed to the growth in Q3 2016.

Overall mobile phone market shipments closed at 72.3 Million units in CY Q3 2016 with an 18.1 per cent sequential growth. Feature phones registered 39.9 Million units in CY Q3 2016 with a healthy 18.6 per cent quarter-over-quarter growth. However, feature phones market declined at 12.4 per cent over the same period last year, pulling down the overall mobile phone shipments marginally by 3.3 per cent.

“Mobile vendor ecosystem is going through a multi-dimensional transition. Continuous investment from China based vendors on retail expansion and high decibel marketing has led to disruption in the plans of home-grown vendors to some extent. To remain relevant, home-grown vendors are counting on the feature phone market even though they are facing certain supply issues for a few components” says IDC India market analyst client devices Jaipal Singh. “Also, vendors are relooking at the channel strategy by getting lower tier distributors on-board, positioning more staff at storefronts and adopting the right mix of products in both online and offline channels” adds Singh.

Migration from feature phone to smartphone has slowed down, helping India based vendors to maintain their dominance in overall mobile market. Though feature phone market is consolidated with few key vendors, it is also witnessing the emergence of new brands. Itel in its second quarter in Indian market has quadrupled its shipments while Zen mobile shipments have more than doubled over the previous quarter.

IDC India expects 2016 to end with a higher single digit annual growth, considering the smartphone performance till CY Q3 2016.

November 15, 2016
Q3 ’16: 70pc smartphones shipped, 90pc sold by e-tailers 4G-enabled; Indian market crosses 30 million

MUMBAI: Smartphone market in India crossed the 30 million unit shipments milestone for the first time ever in a quarter in CY Q3 2016 maintaining its healthy traction with 11 per cent year-on-year growth.

According to the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, smartphone shipments clocked 32.3 million units in CY Q3 2016 with 17.5 per centage growth over the previous quarter. “This seasonal spike in third quarter of the year can be attributed to the channel preparation for the festive season, mega online sales and early import of smartphones owing to Chinese holidays in October” says IDC India’s senior market analyst – client devices Karthik J.

Online share of smartphone increased to 31.6 per cent with impressive 35 per cent Quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ) growth due to strong performance by key online players primarily from China-based vendors. Also, closing weeks of the quarter witnessed incremental supplies as many vendors were preparing their inventories for the online festival sales in October. Lenovo Group continues to lead online channel followed by Xiaomi. “Lenovo Group accounts for almost one-fourth of total online smartphone shipments driven primarily by Lenovo’s K5 series and Motorola’s G4 series models. Also, Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 3 and newly launched Redmi 3S fuelled the online shipments to a large extent,” adds Karthik.

4G smartphone shipments grew 24.8 per cent over previous quarter in CY Q3 2016. Rollout of Reliance Jio network has further increased the share of 4G enabled smartphones in India. Seven out of 10 smartphone shipped in Q3 2016 were 4G enabled and 9 out of 10 smartphone sold by eTailers were 4G.

Samsung leads the Indian smartphone market with 23 per centage share with 8 per cent sequential growth and 9.7 per cent growth from the same period last year. Despite the recall of Samsung’s flagship Note 7, multiple new launches across both offline and online channels added onto the its strong portfolio helped vendor to grow at a healthy rate in CY Q3 2016. J2 continues to be a key contributor for Samsung.

Lenovo Group (including Motorola) climbed to second place with 9.6 per cent share of smartphones. Similar to the CY Q3 2015 trend, Lenovo Group’s shipment spiked in CY Q3 2016 with growth of 46.1 per cent over previous quarter. Motorola’s volume almost doubled Quarter-on-Quarter driven by newly launched E3 Power and G4 models. K5 series continues to be lead runner for Lenovo accounting for over 40 per cent of its total volume.

Micromax slips to third position with a 32 per cent decline in smartphone shipments over previous quarter. Vendor is facing tremendous pressure from other local vendors in sub US$ 100 segment and with Chinese players in US$100-150.

Xiaomi makes its debut in top five as its shipments doubled over previous quarter. With primary focus on online and minimalistic product portfolio, vendor has grown more than 2.5 times over the same period last year. As the vendor plans to expand its footprint in the offline channel, competition is likely to get intense in Indian smartphone market.

Reliance Jio sustains its fifth position in CY Q3 2016 despite a healthy 20.9 per cent growth over previous quarter. With the commercial launch of Reliance Jio Service with attractive introductory offer, the LYF branded smartphones saw a sharp demand with reports of stock outs at some locations. Apart from its entry level Flame series, Water series also contributed to the growth in Q3 2016.

Overall mobile phone market shipments closed at 72.3 Million units in CY Q3 2016 with an 18.1 per cent sequential growth. Feature phones registered 39.9 Million units in CY Q3 2016 with a healthy 18.6 per cent quarter-over-quarter growth. However, feature phones market declined at 12.4 per cent over the same period last year, pulling down the overall mobile phone shipments marginally by 3.3 per cent.

“Mobile vendor ecosystem is going through a multi-dimensional transition. Continuous investment from China based vendors on retail expansion and high decibel marketing has led to disruption in the plans of home-grown vendors to some extent. To remain relevant, home-grown vendors are counting on the feature phone market even though they are facing certain supply issues for a few components” says IDC India market analyst client devices Jaipal Singh. “Also, vendors are relooking at the channel strategy by getting lower tier distributors on-board, positioning more staff at storefronts and adopting the right mix of products in both online and offline channels” adds Singh.

Migration from feature phone to smartphone has slowed down, helping India based vendors to maintain their dominance in overall mobile market. Though feature phone market is consolidated with few key vendors, it is also witnessing the emergence of new brands. Itel in its second quarter in Indian market has quadrupled its shipments while Zen mobile shipments have more than doubled over the previous quarter.

IDC India expects 2016 to end with a higher single digit annual growth, considering the smartphone performance till CY Q3 2016.

November 15, 2016
China Based Vendors Gaining Ground In Tier 2 And Tier 3 Cities: IDC

MUMBAI: According to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) monthly city level smartphone tracker, the Tier 1 cities namely – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata accounted for 26.4 percent of the entire smartphone market in Q1 2016 as compared to 29.9 percent in Q4 2015 clearly indicating that the smartphone market is gradually deepening towards Tier 2 And Tier 3 cities.

Click to Tweet: China based vendors gaining ground in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities says IDC #IDCIn
According to Navkendar Singh, Senior Research Manager, IDC India, “As Tier 1 markets saturate, the next growth frontiers for smartphone players are clearly the smaller cities and towns. China based vendors have understood this trend and are gradually building & investing significantly in the offline distribution network in Tier 2 cities and beyond. This really shows that the offline channel remains significant and the vendors have understood that offline must go hand in hand with the online channel.”

China based vendors have already captured more than 20 percent of the smartphone market in 25 Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of India and are expected to penetrate further as their offline presence increases.

“Majority of the sales for the China based vendors like Lenovo, Motorola, Xiaomi, LeEco are still coming from the online channel in these cities due to their superior positioning as quality brands, with a value for money proposition. Others like Oppo and Vivo are expected to grow in coming months in these markets with their huge marketing spends and increasing retail presence” adds Singh.

Customers across the city tiers are getting future ready, by choosing more 4G than 3G devices, with more than 65 percent of the smartphones being 4G compatible across all city tiers. Also, with Telecom operators gradually increasing the 4G footprint and promoting 4G services, this is expected to see exponential growth in coming months.

“In Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, China based vendors are eating into the 4G device share of global brands, with almost 40 percent of the demand being generated by them” says Varun Singh, Market Analyst, Channels, IDC India. “This is a clear indication of the acceptance of said brands in these markets with their affordable & quality smartphones” adds Singh.

Price parity between offline & online channels has been a constant concern for the traditional distribution channel. “While online exclusive models will continue to generate demand, the new government regulations forbidding the predatory pricing and dominance by a few sellers on the e-commerce marketplace will help in bringing back the pricing hygiene across channels and a level playing ground for all brands” says Upasana Joshi, Senior Market Analyst, Channels, IDC India.

May 20, 2016
China Based Vendors Gaining Ground In Tier 2 And Tier 3 Cities: IDC

MUMBAI: According to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) monthly city level smartphone tracker, the Tier 1 cities namely – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kolkata accounted for 26.4 percent of the entire smartphone market in Q1 2016 as compared to 29.9 percent in Q4 2015 clearly indicating that the smartphone market is gradually deepening towards Tier 2 And Tier 3 cities.

Click to Tweet: China based vendors gaining ground in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities says IDC #IDCIn
According to Navkendar Singh, Senior Research Manager, IDC India, “As Tier 1 markets saturate, the next growth frontiers for smartphone players are clearly the smaller cities and towns. China based vendors have understood this trend and are gradually building & investing significantly in the offline distribution network in Tier 2 cities and beyond. This really shows that the offline channel remains significant and the vendors have understood that offline must go hand in hand with the online channel.”

China based vendors have already captured more than 20 percent of the smartphone market in 25 Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of India and are expected to penetrate further as their offline presence increases.

“Majority of the sales for the China based vendors like Lenovo, Motorola, Xiaomi, LeEco are still coming from the online channel in these cities due to their superior positioning as quality brands, with a value for money proposition. Others like Oppo and Vivo are expected to grow in coming months in these markets with their huge marketing spends and increasing retail presence” adds Singh.

Customers across the city tiers are getting future ready, by choosing more 4G than 3G devices, with more than 65 percent of the smartphones being 4G compatible across all city tiers. Also, with Telecom operators gradually increasing the 4G footprint and promoting 4G services, this is expected to see exponential growth in coming months.

“In Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, China based vendors are eating into the 4G device share of global brands, with almost 40 percent of the demand being generated by them” says Varun Singh, Market Analyst, Channels, IDC India. “This is a clear indication of the acceptance of said brands in these markets with their affordable & quality smartphones” adds Singh.

Price parity between offline & online channels has been a constant concern for the traditional distribution channel. “While online exclusive models will continue to generate demand, the new government regulations forbidding the predatory pricing and dominance by a few sellers on the e-commerce marketplace will help in bringing back the pricing hygiene across channels and a level playing ground for all brands” says Upasana Joshi, Senior Market Analyst, Channels, IDC India.

May 20, 2016
Reliance Jio to delay its commercial roll out till December

MUMBAI: The onslaught might take a little while before it revs itself for a decimating run in the Indian telecom ecosystem.’The world’s most expensive start-up entailing an initial investment of Rs.1.5 trillion – Reliance Jio’, as termed by Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani who has a revolutionary vision of digitising the entire country to get its people to use the internet. Reliance Jio 4G services were launched for the employees and privileged personalities in December last year (2015). At that time speculations were rife that the company would roll out its commercial services in early April, though the company did not release any official statement indicating the launch date.

As per information available with Indiantelevision.com, Reliance’s 4G services are likely to launch in December 2016. A source close to the development informs, “They are planning the commercial roll out this December. There are many factors which are evolving and the launch will take time. Before the commercial roll-out there will be phases of soft launches in various regions to conduct a test run in each and every region.”

Reliance Jio’s immediate target will be the premium consumers of other networks. Research says that consumers with spends of Rs 300 per month and above are most vulnerable to poaching by the Jio onslaught. The biggest player in the Indian telecom ecosystem, Airtel has 89 per cent of its 250 million subscribers that use feature phones or smartphones only for calls and not data. Hence the ring fencing will happen for the 11 per cent of the premium consumers. “Airtel is planning to counter Jio with its own weapons,” says a veteran in the telecom industry. He further adds, “Jio will roll out combo plans where voice calls and SMS services will be offered for free or at cheap prices. It will also package 4G services with mobile devices. In the initial stages it will roll out many lucrative offers to poach consumers.”

When contacted, the corporate communications team of Reliance Jio refused to offer any comments. “We have not declared any date and hence there is no question of postponements or delays,” the team said.

One of the vendors that provides technical assistance to Reliance Jio asserts, “The internal declaration to roll out in December is primarily to ensure maximum reach. Availability and affordability are key factors which the company is not ready to compromise with. Moreover there will be an aggressive marketing plan to back the launch, so overall its a strategic move to wait till December.”

Driven by strong adoption of data consumption on handheld devices, the total mobile services market revenue in India is expected to touch US$ 37 billion in 2017, registering a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2 per cent between 2014 and 2017, according to research firm IDC.

According to a Telecom Regulatory of India (TRAI) press release, as of 31 January 2016,India’s mobile subscriber base has crossed the one billion mark. A study by GSMA says that smartphones are expected to account for two out of every three mobile connections globally by 2020 making India the fourth largest smartphone market.The broadband services user-base in India is expected to grow to 250 million connections by 2017, says GSMA.

The opportunity is huge, and will benefit the ultimate user, given the poor quality of intermittent 4G data services that are being offered by the players in the market at present.

April 21, 2016