According to the latest report by The Economic Times, smartphones brands are likely to splurge discounts and deals and plenty of new phones to launch pushing their strategies aggressively to take advantage of the pent up demand globally once the COVID-19 pandemic is sorted and the restrictions on manufacturing and selling on non-essential commodities like smartphones at this moment is taken away.
Now that major smartphone brands have delayed the launch of their smartphones such as Vivo V19, Xiaomi Mi 10, Oppo Enco M31, Realme Narzo series where the stocks are currently on hold. Further, the research director at Counterpoint Research Neil Shah said that if the situation comes to normalcy by the end of this month, many OEMs will resume their major launches while devising marketing strategies and pricing to push sales.
However, it is expected that the market won’t come to normalcy just like that and organic growth will take time and for the time being, people might stick to buying refurbished phones which are new-like and cheap while conserving cash at the end to purchase essential commodities. It is also to be noted this situation in place, a large number of people might lose their jobs and so on which is one of the reasons why they might not be able to pull off buying phones.
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According to Counterpoint Research, the world’s smartphone shipments are expected to fall by 3% while another research company Canalys estimated it at 4.2% which is by far a huge difference from the expected 6-8% rise in the overall shipment.
On the other hand, India has imposed a hike in the GST on smartphones from the original 12% to 18% which means OEMs will face challenges on a short-term basis. AS per CyberMedia Research, the online channel could pick up speed in mid-to-late second quarter i.e. between April to June. Once the situation boils down, it is likely that the OEMs will target both online and offline channels to attract customers to buy their value for money or premium smartphones.
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