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"Premium flagship smartphones are seeing heaviest discounts in the lead-up to the upcoming festive season sales, with market trackers expecting nearly 52 million smartphones to be sold during the period, raking in around Rs 1.44 lakh crore in revenues for the smartphone industry. Nearly 38% of volume sales are likely to comprise premium 5G smartphones in the Rs 25-50K price range, while the luxe segment (Rs 50K and above) is slated to garner almost 67% of total revenues during the September/October festive season till Diwali, according to TechArc.\"With the heightened interest in 5G-enabled devices amongst consumers across the country, our priority is also to strengthen our product portfolio with 5G offerings,\" said Anuj Sharma, CMO, Xiaomi India.The research firm said the highlight of this year's festive season sales is a shift towards the premium segment with brands such as Apple, Samsung, OnePlus, Vivo, Oppo, Realme and Xiaomi likely to be aggressive in that category.TechArc expects the seven smartphone brands to collectively garner close to 90% of total volume sales during the festive season.\"OnePlus will be introducing lucrative offers and discounts across its 5G-ready product portfolio to make the signature OnePlus experience more accessible to consumers,\" a company spokesperson told ET.TechArc also expects 65-68% of the sales volume to happen through online marketplaces. Offline retailers ET spoke to said smartphone brands are maintaining similar pricing for the offline segment.\"After our meetings with the top leaderships of the brands, we have been assured of parity in prices between the online and offline segments, and adequate stocks for both channels\", Navneet Pathak, general secretary of All India Mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA), said.He added that Xiaomi and Samsung have already communicated the discounted rates to retailers and heavy discounts on premium devices are already visible.\"Over the years, we have been working towards maintaining a 50:50 ratio across the online and offline presence. With consumers at the center of everything we do, we roll out similar offers and discounts across both channels to ensure we meet consumer demand across the country,\" Sharma said.The premium segment -- above Rs 40K -- has been the fastest growing this year, with IDC India computing an 83% on-year growth, with market shares dominated by Apple (53%), OnePlus (19%) and Samsung (15%).The segment has been the focus for smartphone brands this year as most consumers using a mid-range or budget smartphone are expected to move up the price ladder and chase premium devices.\"With organic conversion of feature phones users to smartphones now having practically stopped due to inflation, brands are targeting users of mid-range devices to upgrade to their premium offerings,\" Navkendar Singh, associate vice president, device research, IDC India, said. Brands have accumulated inventories of older models in the premium segment that will see the heaviest discounts during the upcoming festive season, IDC's Singh added.Festive season to fetch over $18 bn in smartphone sales; 15.6 mn 5G phones likely to be sold: TecharcDuring the period, it is expected 15.6 million 5G smartphones will be sold, which will be 30.2% of the total smartphone sales volumes for the period. In terms of revenues, this will translate to 66.7% of the total monies earned by the industry during festival period.See More DetailsHeavy discounts on older models of iPhones, Samsung and Xiaomi are already being advertised on e-commerce platforms.\"Premium smartphones allow for more headroom for brands to slash prices as margins in that segment are higher. More sales of premium smartphones also help brands move to a higher ASP (average selling price) and enjoy increasing brand loyalty\" said Prachir Singh, senior analyst, Counterpoint Research. Counterpoint's Singh said brands were leveraging the PLI (production linked incentive) schemes and Make-in-India policies to assemble premium smartphones locally. “This will help them bypass duties and pass on the benefits to the consumer.”By comparison the entry and mid-range segments aren’t seeing discounts on the scale of the premium one, though market analysts predict most of the sales volume to be in those segments. Market analysts attribute this to high input costs that diminished margins for brands in the entry/mid-range segments. The segment has also been at the receiving end of increasing inflationary pressures forcing consumers to cut back on discretionary spending and hold back on their purchases.\"Keeping in mind the response during the festive season last year and the initial predictions for this year, we are optimistic that the festive season will help us go back to pre-covid growth,\" Sharma said.That said, TechArc expects around 59% of volume sales to occur in the entry-level segment (Rs 6,001-Rs 12,000) while highest revenues are expected in the mid-range segment (Rs 12,001-Rs 25,000).Follow and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Youtube"
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