Smartphone Proliferation And Internet Penetration in India

From being a luxury only a few could afford to a basic necessity, smartphones have evolved many folds in India. They have altered our lifestyle and changed the way we shop, communicate, work or even entertain ourselves. The entry of inexpensive Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Oppo, Huawei have made the smartphone market accessible to people belonging to all income levels, optimised to perform at low data speeds and bandwidth. Millions of Indians are existing smartphone users while a chunk of the population is part of the potential unexplored market who will eventually switch to smartphones.

India accounts for around 10% of the global smartphone sales and is the second-largest smartphone market in the world after China.

According to a study, even the least active smartphone user tends to spend around 90 minutes on their phones every day, while the most active one spends around more than four hours. Smartphones have led to a new ‘app economy’, where we have an app for everything from working out, buying groceries, finding directions and what not.

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In the rural parts of India, smartphones are an easy and more economical way to stay connected than devices like Laptops or Tablets. However, there’s a rural-urban divide in access to smartphones and internet. There is a difference in the growth rates and while urban India proceeds to explore Alternative realities, the rural areas are still struggling with poverty, loans and political agendas.

Clearly, Internet has not penetrated rural India deeply. Another reason for the disparity in growth is of the language barrier.

India is a culturally rich country with 122 major languages and to tap this vernacular market, it is necessary for smartphones to recognise this need and make the additions to expand their customer base. Efforts must be made to bridge the gap and ensure digital equality between Rural and Urban India. With initiatives like the Digital India, which is a campaign launched by the Government of India to ensure the Government's services are made available to citizens by improved online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity. Its basic aim is to make every citizen digitally empowered and every information digitally available, thereby making a socio-economic change in the country. The campaign is a step forward towards a technologically-advanced nation but still has a long way to go.

From 2017, the advent of affordable telecom providers, like Reliance JIO, have played a revolutionary role in the use of internet and increased demand for smartphones by launching 6-months-free access to 4G services and free SIM cards. This compelled other networks like Airtel and Vodafone to lower their mobile internet prices. As a result of which, India enjoys some of the cheapest data globally. The internet penetration in India is being driven by mobile internet due to the affordability and accessibility of mobile internet services. The Ministry of Telecommunications is aiming to roll out 5G in India by 2020 which will be a great milestone in the Internet and Smartphone Revolution. Evidently, the combination of smartphones and internet have changed the game for major industries in India. With some Infrastructure improvements in mobile services and connectivity India can become a top player in the global market.