Smartphone Users In India To Double By 2022, Says Report

A report by technology conglomerate Cisco, showed that smartphone users in India are projected to double to 829 Mn by 2022 from 404.1 Mn in 2017.

According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index (VNI) smartphones are expected to account for 38% of the total number of connected devices by 2022, which are expected to reach 2.2 Bn from 1.6 Bn in 2017.

“More traffic will be created in 2022 than in the 32 years of the existence of the internet,” the report said.

This forecast is 129 Mn users more than a projection by Counterpoint Research in September 2018, which estimated that the number of smartphone users will cross 700 Mn by 2022.

Sanjay Kaul, president of Asia-Pacific and Japan at Cisco said, “By 2022, the smartphone data consumption will increase by 5X in India ― which proves the dominance of smartphones as the communications hub for social media, video consumption, communications, and business applications, as well as traditional voice. ”

From Telephones To Smartphones

India’s evolution from telephones to feature phones and now smartphones has been a rapid one and the country is currently the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market with  23% CAGR.

A report by Canalys said that India has now overtaken the United States to become the world’s second-largest smartphone market after China.

Other Key Predictions By Cisco

• The number of total internet users is set to reach 840 Mn by 2022
• Average fixed broadband speed increased by 44% from 6.6 Mbps in 2016 to 9.5 Mbps in 2017
• Total number of public WiFi hotspots including homespots are projected to grow 116 fold to reach 6 Mn in 2022 from 51.5K in 2017
• Smartphones will average 17.5 GB per month by 2022 from 3.5 GB in 2017
• Data consumption  to reach 13.9 GB per capita by 2022
• India will have 1.2 Bn IPv6-capable fixed and mobile devices by 2022

India’s Smartphone Market: The Battle Of The Best

Two of the prime players in the Indian smartphone market, Samsung and Xiaomi shipped 9.4 Mn and 9.2 Mn units respectively in the year and accounted for almost half of the total market as the top five vendors continued to post strong growth in Q3 2017.

According to a Canalsys report, these top five vendors include Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo Oppo and Lenovo.

These statistics provide testament to the online as well as offline sales war between major players like Samsung, Apple, and Xiaomi. Meanwhile new budget-phone players like OPPO, Vivo. Realme, OnePlus, and Micromax continue to grab market share with attractive specs and pricing..

The competition has claimed many established brands such as  Taiwan-based consumer electronics company HTC, which had to exit the Indian market. Global premium smartphone maker Apple has also had a tough time to standing its ground with only 2.5% share in the Indian smartphone market at the end of December 2017 period.

In a report, research analysis firm RedSeer revealed that ecommerce companies account for more than half of the smartphone sales in the country. This is driven by the behaviour of users who prefer to buy standardised electronic goods with a reliable delivery experience.

[With inputs from Bhumika Khatri and Aditya Kondalamahanty]