Manufacturers are planning a hike of over 15 per cent in the second quarter of calendar year 2026, as memory prices shoot through the roof.
GenAI smartphones are mobile devices that leverage large-scale, pre-trained GenAI models to create original content or perform contextually aware tasks.
India's entry-level 5G smartphone segment, typically held to be those priced below 10,000, is set to bustle in the upcoming festival season as brands like HMD, Poco, and Lava launch their products.
The Apple iPhone comprises 44 per cent of the global smartphone market's revenues and it is the second most-such device to be shipped after Samsung. More than half of smartphones used in the US are iPhones. More than 7 million iPhones are expected to be sold in India in 2022, extending the user base to 20 million, according to market research and analyst firm Techarc. Hence, the news about Apple scaling down its production target for iPhone 14 in India has made news.
As many as 37 per cent of smartphones sold in India in 2022 cost Rs 15,000 or more.
Similar discounts compared to online led to a spike in demand for offline, where customers can get a more personal and hands-on product experience.
How dominant are Chinese firms in India's sub-Rs 10,000 mobile device market? The question has become relevant as the government has been thinking of reserving this price segment for domestic players who have not been able to battle the Chinese onslaught. However, telecom firms and others are concerned that such a move could stymie the effort to build affordable 5G phones in the sub-Rs 10,000 category.
Korean electronics major Samsung expects its new foldable devices Galaxy Fold 5 and Galaxy Flip 5 will enable it to capture half of the super premium smartphone segment in India, currently dominated by iPhone maker Apple.
The reason? Price of open cell panels has gone up 15%. One of the main components in the manufacturing of TV sets, open cells contribute to 60%-65% of the manufacturing cost.
Isha's stab at the bottom of the laptop pyramid shows she is a true Ambani.
The government is busy strategising ways to revive the domestic mobile device industry as Chinese firms have grabbed a large chunk of the handset market. The idea is to minimise competition from Chinese mobile players in the entry level or sub-Rs 10,000 category, according to a senior government official familiar with the plans. While discussions on the strategy are on, there's a growing consensus within the government that the lower end of the market should be reserved only for the domestic players, the official said.
Google's premium smartphone series Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro will be around 15-21 per cent costlier in India compared to other countries, according to the prices revealed by the company. The company has started pre-booking the Pixel 7 at Rs 59,999 ($729.36) and Pixel 7 Pro at Rs 84,999 ($1033.27) on the e-commerce portal Flipkart. The devices would be available from October 13.
Whoever can make acquiring smartphones more affordable will win the sales game.
Apple's decision to launch the eSIM-only iPhone 14 series in the US has American buyers puzzled. Surprisingly, it stumped some Indian folks, too, despite the availability of a physical SIM slot in the India-centric iPhone 14 series. This is because a large number of Apple consumers in India get their iPhones at considerably cheaper rates from the US through visiting relatives, friends, family, et al. Their apprehensions are mostly about compatibility with Indian networks and eSIM availability in India.
Seven months after it was launched in India, Apple is expected to start manufacturing the iPhone 13 at the Foxconn plant in Sriperumbudur near Chennai from April, according to sources. The phones will be for both the domestic and export market. The production of the iPhone 13 in the Chennai plant was meant to start from January but had to be postponed after Apple suspended production following protests in December by women workers about food poisoning. An Apple spokesperson did not respond to an e-mail query.
The onslaught of Chinese mobile brands is virtually obliterating Indian brands, especially in terms of value. According to industry estimates based on excise and Custom duty trends, the value share of Indian brands (across smartphones and feature phones, operator phone sales - which is mostly Jio phones - and the value of phones smuggled into the country) has dropped to a mere 1.2 per cent in January-October 2021 compared to 25.4 per cent in the calendar year 2015. In the same period, the Chinese have established their domination, hitting a value share of 64.5 per cent, up from 17.8 per cent.
In a major push towards 'Make in India', Apple Inc is manufacturing 70 per cent of the mobile phones, in value terms, that it sells in the domestic market, in India, according to sources aware of the development. This is a sharp rise from the figure of 30 per cent just two years ago and marks a major shift in Apple's strategy following the government's Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme that kicked off in FY'21. One of Apple's three vendors here, Foxconn, is currently manufacturing the best-selling model, the Apple 11, along with the Apple 10 and the Apple 12. Another contract manufacturer, Wistron, makes the Apple SE 2020. (The third, Pegatron, has yet to start production). The only models that are imported (they have limited volumes but high value) are the Apple 12 Pro and Pro Max.
By toxic, the reference is to material that whips up hatred, is discriminatory in nature and has explicit sexual and pornographic content.
Though leading brands like Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Oppo managed to absorb the initial lockdown shock and resumed their local production back to 60 per cent, they would likely suffer a 20-25 per cent loss of sales in the October-December quarter.
According to analysts, most of the growth in the smartphone space will come from existing users, who will be lured to upgrade their handsets as new features and technologies turn existing features redundant, says Arnab Dutta.
Meanwhile, TikTok said it has faith in the Indian judicial system.
People in the know said that from social and digital media campaign teams to communications specialists -- all hands were on deck, and every possible post or campaign with the potential to intensify the crisis, was being tracked.
Streamlining its delivery network and shifting focus back to the mass segment - at a time when competitors were struggling to restore normalcy in operations due to the pandemi - aided the firm's revival.
The US tech major is planning to begin local production of its upcoming iPhone 12 by next April - within six months of its launch.
The smartphone category as a whole was expected to spend around Rs 1,000 crore on marketing and promotional activities over the next six months, even as India unlocks gradually, said media industry experts. This spending is expected to come down, as firms temper their launches.
While the outbreak has forced most leading brands like Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Realme to rework their launch dates and pricing strategies, Samsung, which struggled to maintain its hold over the market last year, has taken the lead.
But it may come with a downside risk of further rise in prices of several products.
The move, however, is unlikely to prompt its rivals in India - Chinese manufacturers like Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi - to do the same.
The government gave clearance to five global and five Indian players that have made a commitment to a production value of 12.5-trillion phones in five years under the Production Linked Incentive scheme.
At least two of them - Lava and Micromax - are arming themselves against the Chinese rivals which made them insignificant in the local market over the past few years.
In spite of being attacked from all corners, a faltering supply chain and negative sentiments soaring high among the local consumers, top Chinese smartphone brands gained market share during the most critical phase - the April-June quarter of this year.
With its new line-up, the firm has managed to touch the right chords, but to regain market share from the established players, Micromax will have to fight a protracted battle.
Industry estimates suggest that the extent of value addition in the handset space remains at a mere 10 per cent. That effectively means, value-wise 90 per cent of all components used in making a handset continues to be imported.
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