Smartphones defy economic slowdown

Despite slowdown impacting sales of several industries from biscuits to automobiles, smartphone sales seem to have bucked the trend. Shipments for smartphones in India grew by around 10% during April-June, 2019 and are expected to improve even further in the September quarter as the festive season draws near.  Ranjivjit Singh, chief marketing officer and senior vice president for mobile business at Samsung India, opined, “We see absolutely no slowdown at all. In fact, there is a very positive momentum building up to the festival season. The smartphone category is one which has become like an essential.”

The industry is confident that the immense utility of the smartphone will ensure that it is the last segment to get impacted by the slowdown. In fact the quarter ending June 2019 witnessed the highest ever Q2 shipments of 36.9 million units.