Most Indians Prefer Cheaper Phones

By siliconindia   |   Friday, 25 November 2011, 21:15 IST
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Bangalore: Internationally, the mobile device manufacturers are facing a tough competition, but in India, they have a huge prospect to grab the market by fulfilling the criteria of making cheap phones. As India has always been price sensitive and they like pocket-friendly phones. This budget segment has become the Unique selling proposition (USP) for global players of handset market, such as, Nokia, Samsung, and HTC.

According to Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, these mobile manufacturers are mostly focusing on low- end, value conscious Indian consumers. In India, the average selling price (ASP) of mobile devices is around 2,200 and 75 percent of the total sold devices are below 4,000.

The most popular handset equipment brand, Nokia, has launched dual sim devices in both, the C2 and Asha series of phones which are priced less than 4000. Similarly, Samsung has also launched Chap, Champ, and Star Duos series to cater to the need of budget conscious customers. These phones come in very reasonable prices with full company assurance as well. Due to such assurance, it is grabbing attention of Indian buyers.

In the “Handset Hotlist” conducted by ‘The Mobile Indian Website’, in July, this year, among 25 handsets, 12 were Nokia and 6 were Samsung. Hence these two have become the mostly preferred brands in India.

It’s been stated that, about 230 million phones will be sold in India next year and only 6 percent will be smartphones, which means these high-tech and expensive devices are still far way behind to grab the common man’s attention in India.