Average smartphone selling price in India goes down by 16% from 2009-2018: Report

The average selling price of smartphones in India has declined by 16 percent during 2009-2018, as per the joint report by ICEA and KPMG.

The fall in prices can be attributed to the adoption of open source operating system (OS) by mobile phone makers, it said. In open source OS, the source code is free to download and is customizable and users can legally modify, re-distribute and re-invent it.

Indian consumer is getting more choices with more smartphone models available across price ranges with the retail price of an entry-level smartphone has fallen from Rs. 12,000 in 2009 to Rs. 1,400 in 2018.

RS Sharma, Chairman - Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), "The easy accessibility and affordability of smartphones has shrunk the digital divide between urban and rural India. The open OS ecosystem has further helped in the establishment of many small, medium and large enterprises. I would, however, wish that India has its own OS developed for our needs."

Open OS mobile operating system has expanded the market size of smartphones in India by reducing barriers to entry. No. of smartphones sold increased from 2 million units in 2009-10 to 117 million units in 2017-18, corresponding with the
increase in smartphone OEMs from 7 in 2009 to 80 in 2018.

Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman, ICEA said, "Post the smartphone revolution, brands created a holistic ecosystem in the country for many unicorn companies in the past one decade. Many apps/services are being accessed primarily on smartphones now.
Prevalence of the Open OS has also facilitated smartphones supporting multilingual capabilities and also led to the enhancement of the Skill India program by the government. The societal impact of this robust ecosystem has led to a growing number of entrepreneurs and start-ups in India."

Furthermore, the report pointed out that India overtook USA to become the second largest mobile phone market in the world in terms of a number of units, with the Indian smartphone market growing at a CAGR of 37 percent in value to reach Rs. 1,43,000 crores in 2017