India’s smartphone industry will return to growth in 2022 with 167 million units shipped: Report

The Indian smartphone market is expected to return to growth in 2022 with shipments reaching 167 million units as the market will attempt to offset the slump in overall sales caused by Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, according to ‘techARC India Smartphone Trends Report 2021’ report.

techArc was expecting shipments of 162 million units in 2020. “The expected sales for 2020, will be achieved by the market in 2022,” it said.

At the same time, 5G smartphone sales are expected to grow exponentially to hold 19% of total smartphone sales volumes in 2021, owing to smartphone OEMs’ 5G enablement efforts and chipset ecosystem support.

However, smartphone brands could also launch 4G smartphones to drive sales across mass and entry-level segments, towards the second half of 2021.

This is because consumers looking to buy a smartphone above Rs 25,000 (premium & luxe) category will prefer a 5G smartphone but consumers willing to pay a lesser amount than this may not necessarily buy a 5G smartphone.

One significant concern is 5G smartphone adoption in India. The research firm said it expects 5G smartphone uptake in India to be affected by two factors.

Firstly, early adopters may wait for the safe and stable second-generation of the technology as they believe market feedback and tests will result in improvisations.

Secondly, it is unlikely that 5G services will be launched at affordable rates. To recover these 5G investments, operators in India will have to price 5G services at least 30-50% more than the present 4G plans which may trickle down to customers.

Interestingly, this is despite the fact that the smartphone industry is driving the 5G ecosystem in India as brands like Oppo and OnePlus have announced plans to bolster 5G initiatives in India, which will also serve global markets.

Other major OEMs like Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo, and Realme have also launched their 5G portfolio in India. Cupertino-based Apple, too, launched the 5G-enabled iPhone 12 series last year.

Both these developments have placed the smartphone industry in the anchoring spot driving the growth of 5G in India and ramping up its presence on the 5G map globally, the report noted.

Consequently, smartphone OEMs will have a major contribution to India’s journey towards 5G by building up an active subscriber base with a 5G compatible smartphone, and this will encourage operators as well as others to pace up the activities.