It will be a disruptive year for the mobile handset industry as it will see major knock offs and consolidation in 2017. Besides, re-entry of Nokia will be another important factor driving the market.

The vendors are also expected to come out with their unique propositions such as more RAM and higher battery capacities. In a nutshell, 2017 is going to be a ‘Do or Die’ year for many of the brands, said a latest report by CyberMedia Research (CMR).

According to CMR’s India Annual Mobile Handset Market Review, the ₹5,000-10,000 market is going to see some new specs and upgrades. In the premium segment, new models of Samsung, Apple and OnePlus would be worth to watch, it said.

‘Make in India’ has also provided the right impetus to the mobile manufacturing in the country. Today, about 66 per cent of the total shipments are domestic manufacturing, in 2017, the share would touch 90 per cent, said the report.

However, the ‘Indian brands need to brace themselves up for a terrific war against the Chinese players,’ it said, adding that the Indian players would look forward to ₹6,000-₹10,000 smartphone market, where they will primarily fight it out with Xiaomi and Lenovo, having wide portfolio in this segment as well.

“The war between MILK (Micromax, Intex, Lava, Karbonn) and LOVE (Lenovo, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi) brands is going to be aggressive,” it said.

In terms of technology, 4G is going to be synonyms to smartphones. Feature phones would be here to support the voice-centric market. In 2016 calendar year (CY), 4G constituted about 69 per cent of total smartphone shipments, while 3G was 29 per cent. In CY 2017, 4G is all set to cover near 100 per cent of smartphones.

In terms of volumes, the total market share of MILK brands stood at 35 per cent, while for LOVE it was at 10 per cent. However, in terms of value, LOVE brands managed to beat MILK, with the combined revenue of former standing at 22 per cent as against 17 per cent of latter.

In terms of revenue, the Indian mobile handset market recorded 22 per cent rise in revenue at ₹1.36 lakh crore in 2016 (CY) as against around ₹1.12 lakh crore in 2015. Samsung maintained its top position with 33 per cent market share during the year with its revenues standing at ₹45,371.3 crore, followed by Apple (8 per cent) and Lenovo (7 per cent) with ₹11,297.5 crore and ₹9,980.6 crore revenues, respectively, the CMR report said. The 4G revenue of the industry increased by over 100 per cent to ₹9,927.4 crore in 2016 CY, while 3G declined by about 60 per cent to ₹16,597.8 crore.

Feature phones

On feature phones, CMR predicts that this year, the buzz would be around making the feature phones smarter with upgraded cameras and introduction of new features. The 4G-capable feature phone is, however, going to cannibalise the below ₹5,000 smartphone market.

“Although, the revenues from feature phones constitute a very small chunk of around 14 per cent, in terms of volume they hold about 57 per cent of the market. Overall, there’s a scope to play around feature phones and brands like Itel, Zen and Ziox would get aggressive in this space,” it added.

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