5G smartphone launches on Flipkart up over 1.5-fold in H1

As 5G services in India are expected to be rolled out in phases starting from October, e-commerce firm Flipkart seeing over 1.5-fold increase in the number of launches of 5G smartphones on its platform in the January to June quarter (H1 2022) over same period last year (H1 2021). 

The platform also witnessed a nearly two times increase in searches for 5G smartphones on its platform in the first half of 2022 over the same period last year, it said.  

Customers are looking to experience faster internet speeds for quicker downloads, have a smoother gaming experience, video calling and high-definition (HD) movie watching experience. The Flipkart report noted that Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are the top five states where customers are looking for 5G smartphones.  

This trend is further expected to intensify with the recent spectrum auctions as India joins an elite list of countries including the US, China, and the UK to have deployed the 5G network, it said.   

“Over the past few quarters, we have witnessed an increasing demand for 5G smartphones that will offer higher internet speed across metros and smaller cities, with nearly 75% of the searches coming from tier 2 and beyond cities,” said Kunal Gupta, Senior Director, Mobiles at Flipkart.  

He added that over the past few quarters, multiple brands including Motorola Samsung, OPPO, vivo, realme, and POCO, among others have launched an extensive range of 5G smartphones across various price points starting from ₹12,999 which enables Flipkart to cater to the varied customer demand across the country.   

According to platform sales trends, the demand for 5G smartphones in the ₹10,000-15,000 segment has seen nearly a four-fold growth in the first half of 2022 as against the same period last year.   

While India’s overall smartphone shipments have declined 5% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), a Counterpoint Research report published in July has pegged the current 5G smartphone penetration at 29%, which is expected to go up to 38% by the end of 2022.   

Navkendar Singh, director of research for mobile devices at market research firm IDC India, told Mint that India is expected to have 90 million 5G smartphone users by the end of 2022, and add a further 100 million in 2023, suggesting that the demand for 5G phones will continue to increase.  

To lure more customers with a wide selection of 5G smartphones, Flipkart said, it is offering 60-minute doorstep delivery in more than 10 cities (Bangalore, Chennai, Gurugram and Ghaziabad, Hyderabad, Kolkata, New Delhi, Noida, Mumbai and Pune), and has also introduced several interventions such as affordable payment constructs (no cost EMI, Airtel exclusive offer, buy now pay later), open box delivery, complete mobile protection and product exchange to the increased sales of smartphones.