Reliance Jio effect? Smartphone sales growth slows to 14% in 2017
Trends like bundled offers, 4G-LTE feature phones could become mainstream in 2018 LATEST NEWS : Once growing at a breakneck pace, smartphone sales slowed considerably in 2017 to 14 per cent, analyst firm Counterpoint Research reckons. The phase that began in 2011 made India the fastest growing major smartphone market in the world by 2013, when the market more than doubled to 44 million handsets. Signs of a slowdown were visible by early 2016. During the year, growth in shipments fell to 18 per cent from over 61 per cent in 2015, in which year the market had crossed the 100-million mark. Shipments in 2016 were affected during the last two months because of demonetisation. Expect for the lingering effects of the note ban for a few weeks in January and early February, smartphone shipments in 2017 were normal but are likely to have remained at 130-135 million for the full year. This is 10-14 per cent higher than the previous year’s shipments of 118 million hands...