Smartphone Brands in India

P.C: Deccan Chronicle

The changes in smartphones came with the change in smartphone brands ruling the market in India. The giants of the past Nokia, Blackberry and Motorola were completely knocked out of the market. The rise of the Chinese brands began in the industry. The market leader consistently for many years was Samsung. The Chinese brand with the highest market share was Xiaomi, followed by Oppo, Vivo and Oneplus. The Chinese brands were slowly increasing sales and reducing Samsung's share in the budget segment. People were attracted towards the marketing of the Chinese brands and their give it every feature available strategy. This led to the decrease in sales of major players like Samsung and Apple. When we fast forward to 2019, we can observe the market is filled with majority of Chinese phones. Brands like Nokia and Motorola have caught up to the competition. Motorola's rise can be attributed to acquisition by Lenovo. The premium segment has been taken up by Oneplus from Samsung and Apple to a certain degree. All this has increased the market share of Chinese manufacturers greatly in India. All this has made brands like Samsung invest more time and money in producing good budget phones. Nokia is also increasing it's market share by launching good budget models. The rise in competition is a boon for the consumers but it may have impacted their life's in negative ways too. Though Chinese brands produce value for money smartphones, they cut corners to reduce costs. These are not generally looked upon by the consumers before they buy their devices.
The Chinese phones barring Oneplus are marred by bad software UI's (User Interface) and are generally not updated to latest versions of Android. They generally also have  high radiation levels when compared to other mainstream smartphone manufacturers. All this is not to say that Chinese brands are bad, but considering the availability of better smartphones overall, people should not just merely buy based on raw specs. People may argue on Samsung's software, lack of raw specs on other brands and unreasonably high prices of Apple, but people should also think about the cost involved in providing good quality smartphones. Affordability generally governs consumer choices in India but, people should also consider the quality, overall experience and personal requirements before buying their smartphone.

P.S: The video linked below explains the software scenario of budget smartphones in India.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFLaOPjg5hw

VAMSI KRISHNAN A