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Google has previously tried to enchantment to characteristic cellphone customers by providing Android Go and different India-specific digital instruments. Despite that, we nonetheless have a bigger share of characteristic cellphone customers in India.
- Information18.com
- Last Updated: July 13, 2020, 6:07 PM IST
Google has hosted its Google For India 2020 keynote earlier immediately through a digital convention, the place CEO Sundar Pichai introduced an funding of Rs 75,000 crore as a part of Google For India Digitisation Fund to assist enhance startups engaged on digital ventures in India. On the sidelines of the larger bulletins, Google India highlighted a brand new promise of bringing “high quality, low cost” smartphones to progress India’s digitisation saga. However, a better have a look at this promise appears to recommend that attaining this objective could also be harder than what it’s on paper.
A lofty ambition
Speaking on the Google For India keynote, Caesar Sengupta, vp of product administration, funds and The Next Billion initiative at Google, mentioned, “We partnered with many Indian hardware manufacturers to create high quality smartphones running Android at various prices, to reach every Indian user. We will also focus on enabling more high quality, low cost smartphones, so more people can access the internet to learn, grow and succeed.”
The goal that Sengupta underlined will not be significantly new. According to knowledge from market analysis agency IDC, roughly 55 p.c of Indian cell phone customers nonetheless use characteristic telephones, which implies that there’s a nice scope available in the market for smartphone producers to broaden. Combine this with the truth that Apple, the one main smartphone maker on this planet proper now that doesn’t use Google’s Android OS as a platform, solely sells premium units, the Indian cellular trade is technically a profitable playground for a lot of smartphone producers who use Android in low price {hardware} to enchantment to the non-smartphone person demographic.
However, in a previous interview with Information18, Navkendar Singh, analysis director for cellular units, linked units and IoT at IDC India, mentioned, “There are about 550 million feature phone users in the market in India, and somewhere between 450-500 million smartphone users, which is less than half the mobile phone market size in India. The growth in the number of smartphone users is not happening. Whoever needs and can afford a smartphone right now, already has one — but, nobody is really doing anything for the so-called “next billion” demographic of India.”
The Next Billion: A curveball
Singh additional highlighted why this can be occurring. As he mentioned, “Not enough feature phone users are switching to smartphones. Typically, a feature phone user in India does not see the need or use of data connectivity on their devices. They buy a phone for about Rs 1,000, and use it for three to four years. This phone also gives them 2-3 days’ worth of battery life. If they switch to a very basic smartphone, they would have to spend at least 4.000-5,000, that too for a substandard experience. There is the risk of dropping the phone and damaging the screen, which in turn would cost an additional Rs 1,000. The battery life is not even one full day, so for many demographics, such as migrant workers from fringes of India, owning a smartphone is still not an intuitive experience.”
It is for that reason that OEMs like Samsung, Xiaomi and others exited the sub-Rs 5,000 phase, for the reason that margins are too low, and the variety of items promoting on this phase was far too low for enterprise to stay worthwhile. Singh additional referred to as for government-support motion so as to add sensible utility for sectors akin to agriculture, schooling and healthcare, with a view to actually present the enchantment of a smartphone to people that also use characteristic telephones. Google, as a part of its keynote from earlier immediately, tried to focus on simply that.
Google’s main emphasis remained on schooling, whereby Sapna Chadha, senior advertising director at Google India, spoke concerning the Teach From Home hub that goals to convey forth ‘blended learning’ in a post-pandemic world. While smartphones would be the superb candidate to spice up e-learning initiatives in fringe areas, the street appears lengthy and tough.
Not-so-encouraging precedent
Android Go was one notable transfer by Google to faucet into this very demographic of customers, whereby Google tried to offer a stripped down Android expertise on low price {hardware}, in order that such smartphones wouldn’t ‘lag’ an excessive amount of, and their efficiency remained extra constant than finances Android telephones of immediately. Over two and a half years after its launch, Android Go has not been a runaway success. What, then, will Google do otherwise this time that may flip their efforts of roping within the subsequent billion to be a hit? That reply stays to be seen sooner or later.
At final yr’s Google For India convention, Google highlighted quite a few digitisation efforts that included localisation of Maps, addition of extra companies to the Google Pay platform, and the refurbishment of ‘Jobs’ on Google to draw current smartphone customers. This yr, the corporate desires to convey extra customers on-line by promising really helpful utilities, and smartphones that may actually be a price addition to the lives of farmers, educators and healthcare employees based mostly in varied corners of India the place connectivity continues to be restricted.
The query is, low price Android smartphones have not likely seen the kind of success that many envisioned they’d, because of which India nonetheless has an enormous person base of characteristic telephones within the nation. With the federal government of India additionally backing Google’s digitisation efforts, it now stays to be seen how Google’s second tryst with affordability and utility works out in actual life.
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