Feature Phones: The unsung heroes of consumer electronics are still alive and kicking in India, says study

The steady stream of smartphones with their rich application ecosystems might be mesmerising, but a consumer study has shown that the battery life, durability and capabilities of feature phones still offer value to users in India. There are common perceptions about feature phones, including that they are mostly purchased by the lower income category of people, that they offer only basic calling and texting functions, that the benefits of the internet are not available on feature phones, and that most feature phone users would upgrade to a smartphone, given the opportunity or the choice. These are all proven to be myths.

The study was conducted by the Mobile Marketing Association , a global non-profit trade body with over 800 member companies operating in over 50 countries. The study was conducted in association with a leading Indian market research company, Kantar IMRB . The study was intended to study the usage patterns and behaviors of mobile phone owners to enable companies to deliver better advertisements. The study was conducted in metro cities as well as small towns, and the results are eye opening.

85 percent of the urban population in India owns a mobile phone, either a feature phone or a smartphone. Out of these, a whopping 56 percent of users actually use feature phones, although smartphones get most of the attention. 75 percent of feature phone users were from the upper socio-economic class. 25 percent of feature phone users were from the lower income category. Half of the users consume music on their feature phones and a third watch videos as well as play games.

Surprisingly, feature phone users prefer to access the internet through their handsets, as against a desktop or a laptop. Only 15 percent of the users of feature phones intend to “upgrade” to a smartphone. This means that more than 40 percent of urban mobile phone users in India are committed to using feature phones. Feature phones are not “dumbphones”, and they do it all, satisfying the needs of communication, information and entertainment. Feature phones are here to stay, and any assumptions of their disappearance or lack of relevance are premature, at least for now.

The study dives deeper to understand the background from which these stubborn feature phone users are coming from. Feature phone users are voracious consumers of multimedia, higher than the average in fact. Feature phone users spend 4x more time watching television as compared to the national average. Feature phone users are also enthusiastic consumers of traditional print media as well as radio.

Feature phone users spend twenty percent more than the national average on their plans. The lack of applications does not stop feature phone users from accessing rich content and services through the internet. Compared to the rest of India, there are more affluent feature phone users in North India and South India. Almost half of the feature phone users were thirty five years of age or older.

“With over 85% mobile penetration, we are today one of the largest mobile markets globally and insights on mobile usage in India are of critical importance to the modern day marketer," said D Shivakumar, Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo India Holdings and Chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association. “We are in an age now where we need to seriously think about marketing measurement and attribution, giving marketers better measurements, tools and confidence in connecting marketing to business outcomes. A thorough understanding of the differential usage and consumer segments that are using smartphones and feature phones will only help marketers use their monies more efficiently.

While most designers and developers are targeting smartphones, this report is a wake-up call. Today, the mobile is undeniably the closest we can get to our consumers, and it is this that will help marketers seek to understand – and leverage – a consumer’s path to purchase.”

Preeti Desai, Country Manager, Mobile Marketing Association India, said “Mobile is clearly the third largest mass medium in terms of Ad spends in India today, with estimated spends in 2016 amounting to Rs 4,200 crores. Hence it becomes very important for the industry to have credible research and measurement guidelines and reports, to help fully understand and leverage mobile’s ability to drive the future growth of business. With this in mind, MMA India has collaborated with Kantar IMRB to deep-dive into the dynamics implications and impact of smartphones and feature phones in India, focusing on each category separately and giving each their due focus. The insights of this study will be published in a series of industry reports that will go a long way in helping marketers use the medium effectively and efficiently. It is a great data set for marketers to reassess and optimize their spending with the most impactful allocations in their marketing mix, while leveraging mobile with double digit spend.”

“Mobile has had an outsized influence on the way consumers interact with each other, make decisions, transact and shop,” said Hemant Mehta, Senior Vice President, media and retail, Kantar IMRB “This has significantly impacted the way companies and brands connect with their consumers and do business. But we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. With the advent of 4G, reduced data costs and free voice and SMS, we expect to see even more rapid changes in the mobile landscape. It is, therefore, important to keep a continuous pulse on the way consumers interact with and use their mobile phones. Along with MMA, we at Kantar IMRB have embarked on a journey to help marketers understand the impact of these changes and to identify emerging trends. The Smartphone and Feature phone reports are a step in this direction – providing an unbiased and insightful view on the evolution of mobile usage in India.”

WhatsApp is only going to end support for a number of feature phones, including Symbian devices, at the end of this year . Feature phones offer exceptional battery life compared to smartphones, which really need to get better at their battery game . All critical services are available on feature phones and the small and cheap devices are quite capable being used to access music, reply to emails, navigate using apps, browse the web for news and take photos. Analysts expected that 2016 would finally be the year that smartphone shipments would exceed feature phone shipments in India, but it was not to be. The findings of the MMA study are in line with, and explain to an extent, the on ground research that shows that feature phones still outsell smartphones in India , even in 2016.