Festive season to see over Rs 1.44 lakh crore in smartphone sales, 15.6 mn 5G phones likely to be sold: Techarc

After a long hiatus, it seems that smartphone manufacturers in India are going to witness a massive festive season sale this year. Techarc, a marketing, analytics, and research consulting firm estimates that the market will see around 51.7 million smartphones being sold during this festive season, with at least 15.6 million of them, being 5G smartphones.

PM Narendra Modi launched 5G services in India on October 1 at the Indian Mobile Congress. While telcos are bullish about 5G services and their adoption in India, one of the biggest challenges that the government of India and telcos will face is the availability of true 5G handsets that have the required 5G bands to connect to the spectrums that will work in India. Techarc’s data shows that the festive season sale in India, which is likely going to last till Diwali, will likely fetch over Rs 1.44 lakh crore in revenue for the Indian smartphone industry. This will account for up to 43 per cent of the total expected revenues for the calendar year 2022. By unit, this festive season sale will see about 32 per cent of the total expected sales for the calendar year 2022. Of the 51.7 million smartphones that will be sold during the festive season, Techarc estimates that about 30 per cent of these will be from 5G smartphones, which, in terms of revenue will constitute about 66.7 per cent of the total revenue that the Indian smartphone industry is expecting. Techarc’s research also shows that 37.8 per cent of the volume sales of 5G smartphones will be in the Rs 25,001-50,000 price segment, whereas in terms of value, the segment of Rs 50,000 and above, will be about 66.9 per cent of the total revenues earned. Faisal Kawoosa, Chief Analyst at Techarc said in an interview, that Apple, Samsung, OnePlus, Vivo, OPPO, Realme and Xiaomi are going to be aggressive during the festive season. These seven brands are expected to collectively garner close to 90% of the total volume sales for the period.     He also said:

“This festive season is all going to be about online, 5G and premium. We are expecting users to leverage the offers and schemes along with the choice that the platforms and brands are collectively going to offer during the period giving consumers a chance to upgrade to a premium 5G experience and get service ready, which will gradually be rolled out starting next month.”

Techarc expects 65-68 per cent of the sales to come from online e-commerce platfroms and D2C channels.   There is a reason why sales this festive season is going to go well for the Indian smartphone industry. Global rising inflation has made consumers conscious, which made them spend judiciously on the purchase of products like smartphones affecting its sales in the first 7 months of the year 2022. Kawoosa said that brands are unlikely to roll out great offers on the latest models.