A few Indian Mobile facts to keep our thinking and perspective, honest.
90% of all mobile phones sold in India cost less than Rs. 5000 ($80 approx). 97.5% cost less than Rs.10000.
For perspective, there are a number of smartphones running Android Gingerbread, under Rs.5000, although Rs.6000 is a more effective starting point for 4.0 and above.
Less than 3% of smartphones sold cost over Rs.10000 or $160 approx.
A phone costing less than Rs. 5000 rupees ($91) is generally termed as low-cost and is also the last category as defined by CMRI, the company which is giving us these numbers. Unsurprisingly, 90.18% of the total shipments are in this (<5000) price range…
The next best selling category after 0-5000 range is the 5001-10000 range which accounts for 7.8% of the total sales. If we just look at phones costing less than Rs. 10000 ($183) then it would account to 97.44 %.
via India : 50 million phones shipped in Q1 2012; Smartphone’s drop though | Asian Correspondent.
So what do you get for Rs.5000 rupees? There are literally hundreds if not thousands of options. The most popular feature phones are still sold by Nokia (the Asha range) and today some of these will be WiFi enabled. Also consider that 2 out of 3 phones sold in India are dual SIM.
Or think Smart Phones where 75% of them are sold at under $160. So, despite the noise and the advertising on TV for the latest Samsung Galaxy Note III or equivalent (almost Rs. 50000 phone), it isn’t necessarily what people are buying, except in a niche. It’s effectively the halo effect of branding in this market, setting trends to big screens, and more features.
So yes, phones under Rs.5000 or approx $80 sell in the millions, while at the rarified top end, the market remains small and exclusive.