Indian smartphone sales to double by 2020: Report

US smartphone market will shrink in the coming years, letting India overtake it in 2018, says report

Smartphone sales in India will double to 200 million a year by 2020 but they will be less than half the number sold in China, according to Euromonitor International.

The US smartphone market will shrink in the coming years, letting India overtake it in 2018. India will become the world’s second largest smartphone market by value in 2019.

India’s smartphone sales will touch 231.5 million in 2021, up from from 102.4 million in 2016. Sales in the US will shrink to 127.3 million from 147.9 million this year and Chinese sales will grow marginally from 440.3 million in 2016 to 460.4 million in 2021.

Most handsets sold in China and the US now are repeat purchases, unlike in India where sales are driven by buyers switching from feature phones to smartphones. Most handset makers, including market leader Samsung, have launched cheap smartphones in India to tap this segment.

“India and Indonesia provide untapped opportunity for smartphones due to the huge pool of feature-phone upgrades,” said Wee Teck Loo, head of consumer electronics at Euromonitor International.

Other emerging markets will push mature markets down the pecking order. The UK will drop two places to the 10th spot smartphone market rankings in 2021 and Japan will shed a rank be 8th. Russia will climb three slots to 6th place by 2021.

The Indian smartphone market is expected to grow to Rs 1,52,700 crore by 2021 from Rs 92,400 crore now but the average price of smartphones will drop 27 per cent to Rs 6,600. Manufacturers have launched 4G handsets in India at prices as low as Rs 2,300.

The average price of smartphones in China is expected to rise to Rs 17,800 in 2021 from Rs 16,600 in 2016.