- According to Counterpoint’s India Market Outlook, cumulative 5G smartphone shipments will cross the 100-million mark in Q2 2023 and exceed 4G shipments by the end of 2023.
- The study found 5G has been a driving force and will continue to push smartphone demand in 2023.
- India’s smartphone shipments will likely witness a yearly decline in 2022 due to macroeconomic factors affecting consumer demand in the entry and budget segments.
- India’s 5G smartphone shipments will likely grow 81% year-on-year in 2022, driven by their expanding presence in lower price bands (<INR 20,000 or ~$244) and the launch of 5G networks in the latter half of the year.
- The availability of cheaper 5G chipsets from Qualcomm Inc QCOM and Media Tek Inc MDTKF has enabled OEMs to launch more 5G devices in the lower price segment. At the same time, the commercial launch of 5G services also drove demand.
- India’s telecom leader Reliance collaborated with Alphabet Inc’s GOOG GOOGL Google to launch a budget 5G smartphone.
- The Indian government aimed to push Apple Inc AAPL and Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd SSNLF to prioritize software upgrades to support 5G in the country.
- However, the component supply crisis, inflation, geopolitical conflicts, and other macroeconomic issues affected the growth by delaying 5G device launches in the budget segment.
- Though OEMs have brought more 5G devices for lower price bands, they dropped or downgraded vital features to reduce the impact of higher component costs.
- The feature downgrade affected the consumer demand for 5G within this price tier.
- The limited availability of 5G networks has also impacted the demand.
- Counterpoint expects these constraints to ease by the end of 2023, leading to the mass adoption of 5G.
- Better availability of networks in significant areas will also facilitate 5G smartphone growth in 2023, which is estimated to be 62% Y/Y.
- Price Action: GOOG shares traded lower by 0.51% at $88.50 in the premarket on the last check Friday.
- Photo By Marco Verch Via Flickr
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