In the smartwatch segment, Noise, Fire Boltt, boAt and Titan collectively have over 75 percent market share. boAt and Noise had a 34.3 percent and 11.5 percent market share, respectively, in the second quarter this year, which makes them bigger than Chinese rivals OnePlus and Realme which bagged 8.7 percent and 4.6 percent share, respectively. Look at the market dynamics in the segment. “Indian wearables players are now big brands,” he says, alluding to the dominance of boAt and Noise. “It’s not as far-fetched an idea as you would imagine,” says Navkendar Singh, associate vice president, (devices research), IDC India, South Asia & ANZ. Industry analysts and experts reckon that the government is serious about its intent this time. The government, he adds, might push them to make a transition to smartphones. “These players are dominating the wearables segment, are widely popular, and beating the Chinese at their game,” he contends. “What if boAt, Noise and others fill the gap?” he asks. The above-quoted official talks about a new permutation. The old breed of desi players have lost the plot, lack mass appeal and also are not strong enough to replace handsets which are same, if not superior, in features and technology. Once you are out of this, you start losing the game,” he contends, adding that once these players start losing volume, then it becomes an existential problem for them.īut if the Chinese exit the entry-level segment, who fills the gap? The game clearly is over for MILK. “Look at the market dynamics,” he points out. Does the move make sense? “Absolutely,” says a top ranking government official requesting anonymity. There are talks about shunting Chinese players out of the under $150 (Rs12,000) smartphone segment. This time, though, the strategy is aimed at focusing on supply rather than influencing demand. The government is reportedly making a fresh attempt to reign in Chinese players. Now comes the latest fantasy cookie, which is being baked. Everything boils down to demand and supply. The fact remains that the market is overwhelmingly loaded in favour of these players. Vivo, Oppo, Realme and Xiaomi, Bijoor points out, are classic cases in point. “He and she will rile the corporate brand but consume the consumer brand offering gleefully,” he contends. “In many ways, this new consumer is a wolf in sheep's clothing consumer,” he underlines, adding that the consumer speaks in two tongues. While consumer greed is personal, consumers’ ‘feel-good’ jingoism is a public factor. “There is good-for-country at one end and good-for-me at another end,” reckons Bijoor, who runs an eponymous brand consulting firm. Harish Bijoor explains the paradox in consumer behaviour. While Oppo and Vivo didn’t respond to a list of questions sent by Forbes India, the Xiaomi spokesperson couldn’t be contacted. The Chinese smartphone players continue their dominance and Indian consumers continue to buy Chinese handsets (see box). Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently informed the Rajya Sabha that the government is looking into cases of alleged tax evasion by Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi. Then there are serious allegations of tax evasions against the Chinese firms. Interestingly, it flames out in days, if not months. There is a clamour for banning and boycotting Chinese goods. The first one-and this is a recurrent theme-emerges whenever tension between India and China flares up. Now let’s talk about fantasy, and its multiple strong versions. Out of this, 66.3 percent is cornered by just four players-Xiaomi, Realme, Vivo and Oppo-according to the mobile phone quarterly data provided by IDC. In the second quarter (April-June) of 2022, over 70 percent of the smartphone market in India was dominated by companies from the Dragonland. Indian players got decimated and the smartphone market became synonymous with Chinese brands. Over the next eight years, a new fact emerged. The fantasy ended when Chinese players vanquished the Indian clones. The start was promising, MILK boiled, but it spilled after a few years. Analysts and industry observers predicted a MILK (Micromax, Intex, Lava and Karbonn) revolution across the country. The fact was the emergence of a new breed of homegrown players led by Micromax, which toppled Nokia and Samsung to take pole position. Back home, in 2014-15, India was in the midst of a fine interplay between fact and fantasy.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |