Smartphones were the flavour of this season as shoppers bought the devices costing four times approx. more than regular phones, which signifies a slow and steady shift in India’s handset business long dominated by basic and low priced phones.
Every reputed suppliers from market leader Nokia, which sold more than 1.5 million units in all within four days preceding Diwali, to Samsung , whose sales volumes by as much as 50% over the same period. The festival cheer spread to other global handset makers such as LG Electronics and Sony Ericsson.
Analysts attribute this development to the fact that most domestic handsets makers had increased prices by 6 to 12% earlier in the last month due to the appreciating US Dollar. This is the reason that Micromax could match sale figure of previous Diwali only.
Nokia has taken advantage of its Dual-Sim handsets, which it launched just four months ago, accounted for approx. 37% total sales during the festival peroid. The response to Nokia’s smartphones in India is a significant boost to the company that is facing the heat globally in this category. Its fortunes are going to turn for better after launch of Lumia series smartphones on Windows platform.
Now, the customers are willing to pay a little bit extra for the smartphone experience. The spending pattern was different this Diwali as consumers spent more on branded and high-end smartphones. Consumers are following branded devices and look for efficient and professional after sales support. Local brands and imported low-end phones appear to have lost out in the market due to the low quality and poor after sales service.
