Mobile handset market India

Possibly the most competitive and dynamic market today is the mobile handset market. Broadly speaking the market has three primary segments based on customer requirements. First segment is the mass market at the lowest end within price range of INR 2000. All basic features such as sms, mms, FM radio apart from calling form this set of market. First time users, small business users (such as taxi drivers etc) comprise this demographic segment. Students often form a part of this segment in the form of an add on connection. Second segment is the middle income segment with requirements varying from access to internet over the mobile including various social networking sites frequently accessed by youthful consumers. This is the most interesting market with handset features varying from camera,video capture, push mail, internet, direct access to facebook, orkut, touchscreens etc. Price range is directly propostional to features, for example higher the mega pixels of a camera higher the price. Higher end users may find some of the options like push mail especially useful. On the last end of the segment are the smartphone users, essentially the corporate users. The smartphones include the blackberry to samsung galaxy or Motorola druid, that enable editing of documents, powerpoint or excel management etc.

The next wave of mobile handsets would bring smarter phones at lower price points. With 3G expected around the corner, better features would be expected by the customers. Smartphones capable of inter-connectivity between GSM/CDMA/WiMAx/LTE would form the next generation.