Advanced features and affordability increasing mobile sales
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 17 August 2010, 23:38 IST   |    1 Comments
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Advanced features and affordability increasing mobile sales
Bangalore: In today's world, mobile phones are more than just a device for communication. From camera to social networking, mobile phones offer more features than ever. Each day sees a new manufacturer announce the launch of a new model of handset with a new or unique feature. A new study by IDC India, an IT intelligence firm looks at the new features that have become pervasive and turning the phone into a Swiss Knife of communications. The study threw up some interesting results. For instance, in 2007, only 35 percent of phones had FM radio in them. The percentage has almost doubled to 67 percent in 2009. In case of music players in the phones, only 20 percent phones had music players in them in 2007 which has now grown to 37 percent in 2009. The concept of embedded GPS was absent in our phones in 2007 and then year 2009 saw twp percent of mobile phones being integrated with embedded GPS. With handset makers trying to innovate that perfect handset, the sale of mobile phones in India is reaching new heights. The first quarter of 2010 saw handsets sales stand at a record breaking 36.35 million, reports IDC India. This was a growth of 39.5 percent from the unit shipments in the same time period last year. Naveen Mishra, Lead Telecoms Analyst, IDC India, said, "Over the last few years the mobile phone has morphed to become no less than the 'Swiss Knife' of personal communication devices. Some features address basic user concerns in an emerging market like India - lack of access to 24x7 power supply to recharge batteries (30-day recharge cycle phones, solar powered handsets), operating in noisy, dusty and/or humid conditions (high decibel speakers, dust-proof lamination, water-proof outer casing), living in areas with high incidence of power outages (LED flashlight) etc." We are witnessing enhancements in looks, features, network access-capability (3G-enabled phones etc.), and applications-capability (phones pre-loaded with e-book readers etc.), integrated social networking sites on the mobile phones. Apart from snazzy features, the pricing of the phones is what is adding to the soaring sales of the phones. Indian handset manufacturers are gaining market share at extremely competitive prices of their phones. The leading Indian brands - Maxx, Micromax, Karbonn, Spice etc. - are giving tough competition to established brands both in terms of features as well as price. In fact first time mobile users opt for low cost mobiles and do not bother much about the brand of the handset. And the rate of growth of mobile users is faster at the bottom of the price-sensitive market. The growth in number of 'Indian' brand has been rapid and dramatic-IDC studies of the mobile market show that from just 5 Indian brands in the January-March 2008 quarter commanding just 0.9 percent of the 100 million handsets market the number of Indian brands shot up to 28 in the October-December 2009 quarter swelling up their market share to 17.5 percent. With the market growing at a fast pace, we can be sure that feature rich phones at lower price points will arm the user with more at his fingertips.

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