Feature Phones are here to stay

4G Android smartphones have proved to be a game changer for the industry and have opened the floodgates for innovative products. The mobile penetration in India has reached to the next level, where the focus has moved from the Metros to Tier 2 & Tier 3 markets, and also to rural parts of the country. According to the latest TRAI reports, India has over 500 Million subscribers only in Rural India; while 60% of the Rural Market still comes under the new untapped Consumers. This clearly underlines Why Rural Market is now one of the key focussed areas for several Mobile Brands. Understanding the Indian rural consumers, the needs are fairly simple, needs affordable handsets with the basic calling. For them, investing in high-end, costly devices might be a wasteful and an unaffordable expenditure, while a dual sim bar phone saves that money.

New Feature Phones are here to stay!! The coveted factors why India still needs new feature phones are; India is a price sensitive market and hence consumers (especially in tier II, III cities and rural areas or maybe overall) display a very cautious spending behavior. One of the possible reasons is affordability and socio-economic behavior of Indian consumers, while the urban population is increasingly growing tech savvy. Consumers from smaller towns and rural areas are still marginally exposed to the technological advancement that India and the world have moved towards.

Understanding about this dual sim bar phone further, not only does feature phone serve the purpose of low-income groups but also holds the aspirational value of owning the new feature phone. Price is an important point of concern for them and feature phones in India turn out to be an attractive buy. Now feature phones though have a strong rural Market, but let’s not miss the Urban Population who too owns the new Feature phone as their second phone. Recent studies suggested that among the Urban consumers 56% of them also own Feature phone as the second phone. Having said that, the majority of the new bar phone or feature phones still owes it to the rural population.

Having said that, the future for Feature Phones is bright. Even if the world is moving towards a 4g mobile phones called a smartphone, the Feature phones shall be the stepping stone for India to go Digital.