Techarc released its report “India’s Best 5G Smartphones” capturing the consumer understanding, interpretation, preferences, and hindrances regarding 5G smartphones in India.
Among the notable highlights of the report, it is worth noting that 57% of the respondents plan to buy a 5G smartphone in this calendar year itself. This is good news for the industry, especially when the beginning of the year did not see the expected results. Also, most (72%) of the respondents surveyed who are planning to purchase a 5G smartphone over next couple of years, want to purchase the device in the price range of Rs 10,000 – 30,000. This marks a major change in the structure of the smartphone market, with now maximum opportunity lying in the middle segments as against earlier trend where it lied in the entry to basic segments.
However, the buyers have a few hindrances before they could make the purchase decision. Pricing seems to be alright with the respondents with just 13% of them not able to find a 5G smartphone in their preferred price zone. The major hindrance is about identifying a smartphone that could deliver the best 5G experience.
Elaborating on this, Faisal Kawoosa, Chief Analyst and Founder Techarc, said, “Consumers are currently perplexed about being able to find the best 5G device for themselves. As there is no application or use case to act as a reference point, they are looking at other critical factors like the device being able to work across locations and operators defining best for them. The third critical factor is configuration of key specifications that are important in a 5G era.”
“Contrary to 4G where video streaming became an acid test for masses to understand the quality of a device, we are yet to have something like that in 5G scenario,” Faisal explained further.
Basis the interpretation of users surveyed, Techarc developed a 3C framework that absorbs all the important attributes and factors users want in the 5G smartphones making them their best which they could purchase with ease of deciding. The framework captures attributes and measures them for connectivity (in terms of the bands supported giving users a hassle-free experience in any location), coverage (in terms of operators supported irrespective of the architecture adopted, and, capability (in terms of key specifications critical in delivering good 5G experience).
Using the framework, Techarc evaluated the entire 5G portfolio of the smartphone brands identified by users which are in their zone of consideration for the purchase of a 5G smartphone in Rs 10,000 – 30,000 price range. These included Motorola, OnePlus, OPPO, POCO, Realme, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi (including Redmi), ordered alphabetically.
As per the weighted score factoring parameters identified in the 3C framework, Motorola stood at rank 1 with 983/1000 points, followed by Samsung (966/1000) and OPPO (937/1000) respectively making them the top 3 best 5G smartphone brands of India.
Since the framework captures what users are looking for in the price range that will see maximum 5G smartphone purchases, it is expected that the market standing of these brands will further strengthen giving them an edge over others in the segment. However, as the use cases and 5G apps appear on the scene along their adoption, the priority within 3C framework could change as users would want to give more significance to the capability attributes in times to come.
To access the complete report, please click here.
