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Market watch: Indian millennials are looking to buy 5G smartphones, local MBOs gear up

Research is showing that Indian millennials are the most 5G aware consumers looking forward to buy 5G smartphones. Meanwhile, local Multi Brand Outlets (MBOs) will play a major role in the promised high sales of 5G smartphones.

While the 5G buzz has been around for the past two years, it doesn’t get real until you walk into the local MBO to see 5G smartphones displayed in style.

As that has started happening in India, the awareness of this newfangled smartphone tech, which promises speeds that you can only dream of, is on the rise. Indian consumers are not only looking forward to buying 5G smartphones, local MBOs are ready to leverage this new market player.

While the 5G buzz has been around for the past two years, it doesn’t get real until you walk into the local MBO to see 5G smartphones displayed in style

The many offline smartphone MBOs have proved resilient throughout the pandemic and are all set to sell 5G smartphones, which are predicted to up sales revenue by 50% by 2025.

How 5G Aware is India?

Millennials, who are the most aware group when it comes to 5G, are queueing up to make a purchase, according to analytics firm PredictiVu’s report, MBO: Smartphone India Overview Part 2.

The report found that nearly one out of four MBO customers surveyed (78%) claimed familiarity with 5G. 34% of the consumers showed high awareness, with millennials aged 21-30 showing the most intention to buy a 5G smartphone.

Millennials, who are the most aware group when it comes to 5G, are queueing up to make a purchase

The report also indicates that what will further fan the flames of 5G interest among consumers are a better gender ratio in sales staff in MBOs, hyperlocal marketing, social media for CX, and enterprise-wide IT adoption. These would be critical drivers for offline retail MBOs to succeed in 2021.

The Purchase Potential of 5G

The purchase potential for 5G phones is also robust, with 73% interested in buying them. And this is an area where local retail stores are shining, as while 94.3% are looking to buy from local retail stores, only 4.7% shopped from MBO chains.

However, what will veer most Indian consumers (89%) towards the local MBO is a guarantee of cleanliness, an amicable staff, and ambience.

The report suggests that MBOs have high potential to educate consumers in-store on 5G technology enabled smartphones. Small and medium MBOs could learn from larger players, which are more adaptive and agile to changing consumer behaviour.

Indian Offline Smartphone MBOs are Ruling Smartphone Sales in 2021

Recently, PredictiVu also revealed in their MBO Smartphone India Overview Report 2021 data, that the many lockdowns and stiff competition from online sales during the pandemic had no negative impact on the Indian offline smartphone MBOs.

Offline retail emerged as the biggest sales channel in India contributing more than half of all smartphone sales despite the unprecedented pandemic triggered online boom

“Acting as influencers and guiding smartphone buying sentiments of consumers, offline retail emerged as the biggest sales channel in India contributing more than half of all smartphone sales despite the unprecedented pandemic triggered online boom,” said the report.

This trend is likely to maintain for 5G smartphones as well, a commodity with a promising market.

5G Smartphone Sales Revenue Over 50% by 2025

The future of 5G smartphones is quite bright. According to a new study by Juniper Research 5G-compatible smartphones will account for over 50% of smartphone sales revenue by 2025, rising to US$337 billion from US$108 billion in 2021.

5G-compatible smartphones will account for over 50% of smartphone sales revenue by 2025, rising to US$337 billion from US$108 billion in 2021

It’s no wonder that the market is flooding with them. Indian consumers can choose from Realme 8 5G, Samsung Galaxy A22 5G, OnePlus 8T, Poco M3 Pro 5G, and many more. Google’s Pixel 5a with 5G priced at US$449 (about INR 33,400) was released just yesterday.

The new research predicts that successful handset vendors will come with radios that are able to process large bandwidths and ultra-low latency to make sure that handset users are able to use cloud computing services efficiently, while remaining price competitive.

Android OS Handsets to Dominate in Emerging Regions

As emerging markets like Ïndia are gearing up to enjoy a chunk of the 5G smartphone pie, Juniper also says that increasing the availability of lower-tier 5G smartphones is key to spreading 5G handset adoption in such markets.

It predicts that by 2025, global Android smartphone prices will be 65% lower than global iOS smartphone prices. It also highlights that this lower average cost of Android devices will lead to Android dominating 5G handset markets in regions such as Latin America.

On the other hand, the research forecasts that the popularity of iOS devices in developed markets will make 40% of global 5G smartphone revenue attributable to North America and Europe by 2025.

Overall, the market for 5G is all set to shine.

Navanwita Bora Sachdev

Navanwita is the editor of The Tech Panda who also frequently publishes stories in news outlets such as The Indian Express, Entrepreneur India, and The Business Standard