Indian telecom market sees 36% value growth in offline retail: Report

The Indian telecom market, which includes smartphones, core wearables, and TWS mobile headsets, witnessed a 36 per cent value growth in offline retail in 2022, according to a recent report. Experts forecast 2023 to be stable with value-driven growth for the Indian telecom market compared to 2022.

While the global telecom market closed 2022 with a 9.7 per cent decline in revenue compared to the previous year, India emerged as an outlier with a double-digit revenue growth in the same period over the previous year, said a report by market intelligence firm GfK.

"While the top-tier towns continue to have a significant share, the shift in consumer needs and changing lifestyles are pushing higher adoption of smart devices in Tier 3 and below towns, which contributed to 50 per cent of the smartphone sales unit in 2022," said Kartik Vasudevan, GfK expert for the Telecom market.

Vasudevan added that these regions contributed to 21 per cent of wearable sales during the year.

"Overall, the next level of telecom market growth will be driven by premium handsets, 5G, and wearable devices," he said.

The smartphone category, including phablets, saw a 15 per cent demand increase from January to December 2022, compared to the previous year.

This increase in revenue is also characterized by a rise in Average Selling Price (ASP) of smartphones in India. The ASP of smartphones was Rs 17,032 in 2022, which was a 17 per cent uptick compared to 2021.

This surge in the ASP was also due to a shift in the price band demand fuelled by changing needs of consumers. 37 per cent of Smartphones sold in 2022 were Rs 15,000 and above by units. This is an increase of 9 basis points in contribution when compared to 2021.

As such, demand for premium devices also increased, with the revenue contribution of 5G models moving to 44 per cent in 2022. At the same time, devices with a larger storage capacity – of more than 256 GB – grew 122 per cent in revenue in 2022.

The wearables segment continued its upward trajectory in India, growing by 127 per cent in terms of value over the previous year in offline retail. Within wearables categories in 2022, smartwatches grew by 93 per cent and wrist sports computers by 349 per cent over the previous year.

These shifts, the report says, have been driven by increasing consumer demand for more detailed control of their health, via smart features.

Accordingly, wearables with a sleep tracking feature – which grew over 136 percent as a segment – or blood oxygen sensors – which grew 208 percent – showed strong growth. This trend also led to developments in innovation, such as the new feature of stress level measuring (EDA) – which accounts for 5 per cent of revenue already.