Proliferation Of Open Os In Mobile Devices Has Enabled The Widespread Demand, Use And Affordability Of Smartphones: ICEA – KPMG Study

India Cellular and Electronics association (ICEA), in association with KpMG, released a detailed report, “impact assessment of Open OS Ecosystem for Devices in India”, capturing how the proliferation of Open OS in mobile devices has enabled the widespread demand, use and affordability of smartphones, which in turn has positively transformed the entire mobile ecosystem including handset OEMs, ODMs, allied industry manufacturing units, mobile application developers and consumers. With more than 330 million Indians accessing the internet and a host of online services on their handheld devices, it is also contributing to the government’s initiatives like Digital India, Startup India and Make in India.

Some of the key insights from the report include:

• India overtook USA to become the second largest mobile phone market in the world in terms of number of units, with the Indian smartphone market growing at a CaGr of 37% in value to reach INR 1,43,000 crores in 2017

• The number of manufacturing facilities for handsets and allied industries have increased from 3 in in 2014 to 268 in 2018

• Open OS mobile operating system has expanded the market size of smartphones in India by reducing barriers to entry.

Number of smartphones sold increased from 2 million units in 2009-10 to 117 million units in 2017-18, corresponding with the increase in smartphone OEMs from 7 in 2009 to ~80 in 2018

• An estimated 72% of mobile application developers in India are using open OS as the base of their development, and they are also getting access to user base of 152 countries via 300 app stores

• Indian consumer is getting more choices with more smartphone models available across price ranges with the retail price of entry level smartphone having fallen from INR 12,000 in 2009 to INR 1,400 in 2018. The average Selling price (aSp) of smartphones has reduced by 16% to reach INR 11,800 during the same period