4G devices account for 25% of all searches for mobiles; demand to grow as prices come down

NEW DELHI: Wider adoption may still be a few years away but consumers increasingly want their phones to be 4G-enabled.

Surveys from online price comparison sites show 4G devices account for around a fourth of all searches for mobile phones.

Of the 4.7 million searches over a month for cellphones on mysmartprice-.com, over a million were for smartphones supporting 4G LTE (long-termevolution) technology, which will allow playing videos without buffering due to much faster download speeds than 3G.

91mobiles.com, which specialises in price comparisons of mobile phones, added that 32% of all searches on the platform were for 4G smartphones, and 11 4G smartphone models priced under Rs 10,000 accounted for a fourth of the total searches for 4G devices.

“We are seeing an encouraging growth across our 4G product portfolio and demand for 4G-enabled smartphones continues to grow,” said Asim Warsi, Vice President, Marketing, Mobile & IT, Samsung India.

The number of 4G smartphones available in the fastgrowing market is expectedly outpacing the 4G network availability, with most carriers still rolling out 3G services. Mukesh Ambani’s flagship telecom venture, Reliance Jio Infocomm, is widely expected to launch 4G services from mid-July while the country’s No. 1 carrier Bharti Airtel is expanding the reach of its still nascent 4G offerings. Vodafone India and RCOM have also announced launches on the technology towards end of 2015.

“With operators in India currently rolling out 4G LTE networks, the demand for 4G devices is only going to increase,” Warsi said.

Handset makers want a first mover’s advantage as well as need to cater to increasing consumer demand for cellphones that support 4G, with network availability not a criterion, said Sitakanta Ray, cofounder of MySmartPrice.

As of April-end, 49 4G-enabled models have been launched by home-bred and MNC smartphone brands, which is about 30% higher than the number of launches in 2014. In 2013, only six smartphone models were 4G-enabled, data from 91mobiles.com shows.

Insights reveal that the most popular devices searched by users on his site are Apple iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy E7 and Apple iPhone 5S, indicating the brand and aspirational value attached.

The demand for 4G phones will only grow as prices come down. Industry insiders say the number of 4G phones in the affordable smartphone segment — under Rs 15,000 — is set to jump in 2015 as handset makers such as Xiaomi, Gionee, Meizu, Microsoft and Intex, to name a few, place their future bets.

“4G phones are still expensive, but then it’s a matter of time as handsets prices go down and data plans become affordable,” said Satish Babu, founder of retail store chain UniverCell Mobiles, who added that consumers must be shown the USP of using 4G service over their existing 3G or 2G plans. MySmart-Price’s Ray added that as prices of 4G phones will continue to drop sharply — moving well into the budget sub-Rs 10,000 range.