Smartphone sales in November 2016 saw a mammoth 30.5% decline in the leading 50 cities of the country as compared to October last year, according to the data compiled by the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) monthly city level smartphone tracker.
According to the firm, the cross country demonetisation drive along with the cyclic lean period that succeeds the festive system formed a deadly combination that resulted in this slump that affected the smartphone market dearly.
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The smartphone makers based in the country were affected the most and saw a 37.2% drop in sales, a figure higher than both China-based (26.5%) and Global (30.5%) vendors.
Reasons such as low rate of investment in marketing as well as lack of good products have also contributed to the continued decline of Indian vendors while the Chinese smartphone business in the country is on a growth spurt (42.6% in Tier-I cities as compared to 38.7% in Oct last year).
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The data stated the reason behind this increase in the sales pertaining to Chinese smartphone makers is their relentless advertising and marketing along with credit line to distributors and top-notch channel management.
The demonetisation came on the heels of a hit festival season in Oct, during which the smartphone industry is expected to have sold around a third of entire years’ volume. Cash purchases make up a significant portion of these purchases in both online and offline channels, hence the impact seen was immediate and more in below $200 price range which still makes up a large portion of the market.”
– Navkendar Singh, Senior Research Manager, IDC India
