If you look at the current budget smartphone market in India, there are not many decent options to choose from if your budget is around Rs 15,000. Himanshu Tandon, Country Head, Poco India in an exclusive interaction with Debashis Sarkar of News18 shares market insights on why brands are unable to decode the budget 5G smartphone market due to the ‘5G tax’. Watch this detailed video interview to know what’s going on in the minds of smartphone brands and also how is Poco planning it out, considering it’s a major budget smartphone brand.
A couple of years back, the under Rs 10,000 smartphone market along with the sub-15000 segment was the most happening price segment which all major brands tried to crack. Going back to 2017, you could easily find a good smartphone to buy if your budget was around Rs 10,000. But in 2022, it’s widely accepted that budget smartphones are dead. The push towards smartphones in the Indian market was mostly dominated by Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Redmi, Poco, Vivo, Oppo, Realme and others.
Given the present market conditions, established brands are just not interested in launching affordable phones and they are merely present in the under Rs 15,000 for the sake of it. Increasing costs, fluctuating Rupee, chip shortage among other reasons have forced brands to look ahead and focus on the above Rs 20,000 market in India. The budget smartphone doesn’t make business sense any longer.
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With 5G coming into the picture, the situation has just worsened. Brands are no longer able to deliver a good 5G phone under Rs 10,000. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising to see that no established Chinese brand launched any 5G handset under Rs 12,000 in India. The primary reason has to be costs while another concern is definitely the fact that the government may ban Chinese 5G smartphones under Rs 12,000 to help promote domestic brands in future.
So, if you wish to buy a 5G smartphone that performs well then you will have to keep a budget of around Rs 20,000 in India.
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