In the first quarter of 2014, Indians bought 186% more smartphones than they did in the same period the year before, according to the International Data Corporation, an American market research and analysis firm. Get set for that number to explode. On Tuesday, Google launched an assault on the low-end phone market – phones retailing for $100 or less – and India is the first market it is exploring.
There is certainly a great deal of demand. One billion of the four billion people who do not have access to the internet are in India, said Google vice-president Sundar Pichai.
The low-cost phone, Android One, was unveiled in June at Google’s annual software-developer conference in San Francisco. At a launch at the Marriott in New Delhi, Pichai explained that Google hoped to show handset manufacturers the feasibility of cheap and affordable smartphones for emerging markets.
There was an 18% decline in shipments of low-end phones (known in the industry as feature phones) between the fourth quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014. Smartphone shipments increased 17% during the same period.
“The share of feature phones in the overall market slipped further to 71% in [the first quarter of] 2014, which is a considerable decrease from 90% share in [the first quarter of] 2013,” said the report.
Another report by the GSM Association said that the number of smartphone connections in India will grow three-fold in the next six years. At the moment, India is fourth in the world in terms of smartphone connections, with 111 million units. China (629 milion) is first, followed by the United States (196 million) and Brazil (141 million). By 2020, four out of every five smartphone connections will come from the developing world.
Launchpad India
Android One will begin retailing in India before expanding to the rest of South Asia, and eventually the rest of the world. Google has partnered with three manufacturers of low-cost phones, Micromax, Spice and Karbonn. It has also tied up with Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile carrier, which currently services 40% of the smartphone users in the country.
By 2020, there are expected to be six billion smartphone connections in the developing world. Google is only too keen to get in on the action.
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There is certainly a great deal of demand. One billion of the four billion people who do not have access to the internet are in India, said Google vice-president Sundar Pichai.
The low-cost phone, Android One, was unveiled in June at Google’s annual software-developer conference in San Francisco. At a launch at the Marriott in New Delhi, Pichai explained that Google hoped to show handset manufacturers the feasibility of cheap and affordable smartphones for emerging markets.
There was an 18% decline in shipments of low-end phones (known in the industry as feature phones) between the fourth quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014. Smartphone shipments increased 17% during the same period.
“The share of feature phones in the overall market slipped further to 71% in [the first quarter of] 2014, which is a considerable decrease from 90% share in [the first quarter of] 2013,” said the report.
Another report by the GSM Association said that the number of smartphone connections in India will grow three-fold in the next six years. At the moment, India is fourth in the world in terms of smartphone connections, with 111 million units. China (629 milion) is first, followed by the United States (196 million) and Brazil (141 million). By 2020, four out of every five smartphone connections will come from the developing world.
Launchpad India
Android One will begin retailing in India before expanding to the rest of South Asia, and eventually the rest of the world. Google has partnered with three manufacturers of low-cost phones, Micromax, Spice and Karbonn. It has also tied up with Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile carrier, which currently services 40% of the smartphone users in the country.
By 2020, there are expected to be six billion smartphone connections in the developing world. Google is only too keen to get in on the action.
