Festivals May Not End 3-Year Slump for Smartphones

India's smartphone retailers hope that the upcoming festival season will lift the largest consumer electronics category out of a three-year slump.

- Shouvik Das

That may turn out to be wishful thinking.

Retailers have reported muted sales volumes so far this year, while analysts don't expect much growth in the full year, even after taking the festive bump into account. And demand for costlier devices is not enough to offset this trend.

The first six months of this calendar year saw 68 million smartphones shipped to retailers, down from 70 million in the first half of last year, according to data from three market research firms-International Data Corp., Counterpoint and Cybermedia Research-analyzed by Mint.

Meanwhile, the average selling price of smartphones rose 6% during this period-up to $274 per unit from $259 a year earlier.

Demand so far could be a precursor to a fourth straight year of slowdown for the category. In 2021, the Indian smartphone market shipped 161 million devices—a scale that the industry has not been able to match since then. In 2022, this fell to 144 million and stayed almost flat at 146 million in 2023. In 2024, sales rose 3% to 151 million units.