<\/p>

However, through these years one of the segments from price point has been important for brands to stay relevant and grow big. In the initial era of smartphones in India, it was all important to be in sub 10k price segment, then we saw the 5-8k becoming significant and finally the medium tier of 10-20k became the action arena. The strength of a brand in these segments would determine their market standing and being strong in these main opportunity buckets would actually define their leadership pecking order.<\/p>

Come 2018, the market will demand for a different characteristic from players who would want to be leaders in smartphones. The winners in the race would be the ones capable of serving the diversities. Diversity by way of catering to the lowest strata of users experiencing a smartphone for the first time as well as giving the best of experience to users wanting to move up towards a premium segment. The entry level will get the company volumes while the sales in premium segment the revenues.<\/p>

This will be a paradigm shift for the industry where so far, strength of a brand in the most happening price segments would determine its market standing. The reason to that being initially the opportunity was all for new users that shifted in recent years for upgrade and replacement markets. Now the market is in equilibrium in the context of opportunities. We have 400 million internet enabled mobile users, of which we have a substantial churn resulting in replacement and upgrade opportunities for smartphones and at the same time we have 450-480 million FeaturePhone users among which we have the opportunity of first time Smartphone users. No committed player, which is in the market with a long-term vision can ignore any of these market chunks and that is why the agility in terms of diversity is required from a brand.<\/p>

However, diversity would not mean being present in all segments. That won\u2019t pay off as there are very localized strong players in each segment. These localized strong players want to remain niche players. But for someone ambitious of becoming a market leader in the overall smartphone segment, these two diverse opportunity areas become very important.<\/p>

Focused diversity should be on the priority agenda of all such smartphone brands who are committed and for long term in the market. There could be some short term tactical decisions that may supplement the overall brand health, but to make a brand fundamentally strong, it is only critical that both the diverse segments are addressed with equal attention and focus. That would be my last TeleTalk for the 2017 and would be back in 2018 with new points of discussion. Till then signing off with new year\u2019s greetings and wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2018.<\/p>","blog_img":"retail_files\/blog_1512975055_temp.jpg","posted_date":"2017-12-11 12:20:58","modified_date":"2017-12-12 13:49:25","featured":"0","status":"Y","seo_title":"Only diverse smartphone brands to stay relevant in India beyond 2017","seo_url":"only-diverse-smartphone-brands-to-stay-relevant-in-india-beyond-2017","url":"\/\/www.iser-br.com\/tele-talk\/only-diverse-smartphone-brands-to-stay-relevant-in-india-beyond-2017\/2743","url_seo":"only-diverse-smartphone-brands-to-stay-relevant-in-india-beyond-2017"},img_object:["retail_files/blog_1512975055_temp.jpg","retail_files/author_1509706883_temp.jpg"],fromNewsletter:"",newsletterDate:"",ajaxParams:{action:"get_more_blogs"},pageTrackingKey:"Blog",author_list:"Faisal Kawoosa",complete_cat_name:"Blogs"});" data-jsinvoker_init="_override_history_url = "//www.iser-br.com/tele-talk/only-diverse-smartphone-brands-to-stay-relevant-in-india-beyond-2017/2743";">