Indians set to buy 174 million smartphones by 2017.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: India will unseat the United States as the second largest smartphone market within the next two years, with China remaining the clear leader in the global rankings, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics.
Per the report, in 2015, Indians will buy 118 million smartphones, and by 2017, 174 million phones will be sold over the course of the year.
According to Digital Trends, experts attribute the rise of the smartphone to “the advent of local Indian smartphone companies like Micromax, which have created affordable mobile devices that have all the bells and whistles of their more expensive, foreign counterparts, but a much less intimidating and more attractive price tag.”
Last year, India boasted the third-largest number of Internet-equipped inhabitants, with 243 million people online, whereas the U.S. had 279.8 million. Forecasters also predict that this will soon shift, as the U.S. figure reflects 86 percent survey penetration, whereas India’s number is a paltry 19 percent of its population.
Strategy Analytics Director Linda Sui noted, “China has been the engine of global smartphone growth in recent years, but China is now maturing and slowing. India is fast becoming the next major growth wave … India’s growth is being driven by low smartphone penetration, expanding retail availability of devices, wealthier middle-class consumers, and aggressive promotions from local smartphone brands.”
In a study previously released in Dec. 2014, eMarketer predicted India would surpass the United States as the second-largest global smartphone market by 2016.
“Inexpensive smartphones are opening new opportunities for marketing and commerce in emerging markets where many consumers previously had no access to the Internet,” eMarketer stated.
“However in mature and established markets, smartphones are quickly shifting the paradigm for consumer media usage and impressing the need for marketers to become more mobile- centric,” the report advised.