The mobile handset market’s revenues in India will grow from INR 255.91bn in 2010 to INR 350.05bn in 2016, according to a research by business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.
The firm says a reason for the growth of mobile handset sales in India is the Indian mobile consumers’ increasing preference for high-end handsets and the youth’s desire to use mobile Web 2.0 technologies.
The study, "The Mobile Handset and Smartphone Market in India", finds that the mobile handset market had unit shipment of 104.9 million in 2010 and expects this to touch 208.4 million in five years.
The smartphone market had unit shipment of 2.9 million in 2010 and anticipates this to grow to 29.4 million in 2016. The study found the mobile handset-smartphone combination is emerging as the future growth engine of the telecom industry.
The study also said that this year, the mobile market is likely to witness almost a three-fold increase in the number of participants resulting in a price war. However, abundant opportunities in the rural and semi-rural market will present themselves for new players for the next three to four years.
"For the mobile handset market, the rural market offers exciting prospects due to its significant uptake of feature phones," said Frost & Sullivan.
"The rural and semi-rural markets accounted for 65 per cent of sales for most Indian manufacturers in FY2010."
The firm said that in the next five years, the revenue share of smartphones in the mobile handset market is expected to rise steadily, as an increasing number of participants are targeting this space for higher margins.
Frost & Sullivan said, "This trend is likely to persist, as numerous handset manufacturers are strategizing to deploy more smartphone models in their portfolio."
India is the second largest mobile handset market in the world after China and is set to become an even larger market with unit shipment of 208.4 million in 2016 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.8% from 2010 to 2016 according to the report.
