The leading sellers of smartphones in India, Samsung and Micromax are now planning to discontinue 2G phones. They focus on devices which run on quicker 3G and 4G networks as costs have dropped sharply for such handsets in the past year. Then there is the Reliance Jio impact too.
Micromax Informatics chief executive officer, Vineet Taneja said, "The focus has shifted to 4G phones with telecom operators launching such services". He further added, "4G models already account for 30% of our portfolio with 14 models and will increase to 20 by March".
Here, it is noteworthy that Samsung, at present, leads 4G market of the country and out of the 25 models launched by the company this year, 16 are 4G enabled. While Micromax has already 14 models which support 4G.
The price factor Industry executives said the companies are planning to discontinue 2G smartphones after sales declined in the past year. In the July-September quarter, 2G devices accounted for 9% of total Indian smartphone sales compared with 25% in the same period last year, estimated by the Counterpoint Research.
“2G smartphone sales are now just 5% of total sales and further dropping due to lack of availability”, said Subhash Chandra, managing director of cellphone retailer Sangeetha Mobiles. Chandra further said, "Only the Indian brands continue to have 2G smartphones in their portfolio. And very soon they will also run out of them since there’s no fresh manufacturing or imports".