Prabhu RamGrowth opportunities and scalability offered by the India smartphone market has started to appeal to the Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Infinix and Realme and Korea’s Samsung as the companies are increasingly taking an “India-first” approach to differentiate and grow business in the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market. These brands are also leveraging local research and development centers to bring these “India-first” devices in a quick manner to capture user mindshare and market share.
Analysts believe that the handset vendors’ India-first approach shows that the country is offering plenty of headroom for growth and scale beyond China. India is the second largest smartphone market in the world.
“An ‘India launch’ ahead of global launch, helps a brand garner enough eyeballs, and offers the right signal to such market constituents of the smartphone brand’s commitment to India,” Prabhu Ram, Head, Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CyberMedia Research (CMR) said.
CMR’s Ram said that beyond being a mere marketing play, such ‘India-first’ launches can also be strategic. India, as a test bed, can enable smartphone brands in gaining crucial product feedback and insights on missing features from demanding consumers. “This, in turn, would allow them to refocus and reinnovate, if required, for global markets.”
