Buying a cellphone is still considered an investment in India with an individual spending more than half his monthly salary, while it is considered as a "commodity" in rest of the world, according to a study by a Swedish company.
The average amount spending on a handset in India equates nearly half the average monthly salary of an individual, one of the highest in the world, according to the study by SmartTrust, a company into mobile device management.
The average spent on handset in India as percentage of monthly salary stands at 42 per cent followed by China at 41 per cent, Brazil at 40 per cent and Russia at 38 per cent. However, in US, UK and Sweden it is below 15 per cent.
"In markets across the world, the handset has become a commodity with high-street price wars between retailers, often making it cheaper than a meal," according to the study, which focussed on Indian markets.
The cost of purchasing a cellphone remains consistent across all age groups, with an individual paying Rs 5,000 for a handset. The older users (35-49 age group) are the biggest spenders paying an average of Rs 8,500. People in the age group 25-34 are the least willing to make a "major investment in handsets".
One of the major barriers for telecom penetration in emerging markets is the handset price and the GSM Association (GSMA) is working with handset manufacturers to lower the cost of equipment. Bharti Tele-Ventures, BPL, BSNL, Idea and MTNL are members of GSMA's Steering Committee.
The most popular handset in the country is Nokia, according to the survey, followed by Samsung, Panasonic, Sony Ericsson and Motorola. Globally, even though Nokia and Samsung are the preferred brands, Motorola ranks third followed by Sony Ericsson and LG.
Indians are also conservative in terms of how much they spend on their mobile services.
According to SmartTrust, 58 per cent of all mobile users in the country spend less than Rs 500 on their mobile phone service every month. The country also reports lower than average penetration of handsets with advanced features.
Fifty-three per cent of Indians whose cellphones have internet access don't use it to surf the net as they feel it is too expensive. The slow pace of the Net, fear of viruses, configuration error and service, which are not used are some other reasons.
The usage of services like General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), multimedia messaging (MMS) and wireless access protocol are less than half as popular as text messaging. SMS, which contributes over 80 per cent of an operator's revenue, is the most popular data-oriented service.
