A New Battle Begins!
The Indian
mobile market has become more cut-throat than it has ever been before
OnePlus
will have to respond to the new challenge from Honor, or else they will lose
marketshare
The Indian mobile market
has been officially christened as the most aggressive, the most nimble, and the
most cut-throat. But within what was already a blood battle that has consumed
and destroyed most Indian brands, a new war has just broken out. New rules, new
players, and new strategies. Let me first give you a layout of the battlefield.
WHERE
WE ARE
Xiaomi dominates the
online market with OnePlus, Honor and Realme breathing down its neck. Samsung
dominates the offline market with Oppo and Vivo right next. The lines drawn in
the sand were quite clear and respected, till they all got completely muddy.
Xiaomi started to push an offline strategy, Honor already had a pretty good
footprint offline, Oppo and Vivo started releasing exclusive online phones, and
then the big daddy made its move. Samsung decided it was time to get into pure
play online mode and released the M10 and M20 with the M30 to follow. All hell
broke loose. More hell of a new kind was unleashed when the government put
their skin in the game (apparently to help a new super-aggressive e-commerce
entrant... sssshhhh) and implemented some serious new rules for e-commerce
players. Whatever you know of the Indian mobile market, whichever way you buy
your phones right now, and whatever criterion you keep in mind while doing that
– forget about it. It’s all about to change forever.
Let me take you through a
few phones that were released in the last few days and signal clearly that this
new war has begun.
SAMSUNG
GALAXY M10 AND M20
Great looking, big
screens, dew drop notch, dual cameras at the back, excellent battery life and
unheard of aggression from Samsung in price. Samsung truly threw down the
gauntlet with the M10 at ~ 7,990 and M20 at ~ 10,990. They charged no premium
for the Samsung brand and entered the online market in fire-starter mode. This
was Samsung announcing that they understood the online market and would play
the game. Initial sales took off like a rocket.
XIAOMI
REDMI 6 PRO
Xiaomi instantly reacted
and slashed prices. Samsung was invading directly into its coveted territory
and if Samsung tasted victory blood, it could kill it all. Xiaomi slashed
prices to directly hurt the M10 and M20. Redmi 6 Pro (4GB/64GB) prices were
slashed by ~ 2,000 to bring it right next to the price of the M20. The
lower-end Redmi 6 Pro price was brought near to the M10. Many other Xiaomi
phones received major price cuts. Knee jerk reaction from Xiaomi? Absolutely.
Necessary reaction to survive by Xiaomi? Absolutely.
OPPO K1
This is the phone that
signifies Oppo’s new strategy of online super aggression. This phone has
literally everything you expect from a 35K phone, but is priced at a shocking
16K. In-display fingerprint scanner, AMOLED screen (a very big deal at this
price), a colour gradient 3D glass sculpted body, incredible optics including a
25MP front camera. This is an incredible phone at an incredible price. With
this, Oppo has clearly announced that it’s coming in strong online and cannot
be taken as an offline player only.
HONOR
VIEW20
Honor tasted incredible
success with its parent company Huawei’s Mate 20 Pro. Heralded as the best
phone in the world, it sold out in India within minutes. Emboldened with that
success, Honor decided to go up the value chain with the View20. And boy, did
they pull out all stops. Multiple world firsts including an in-screen punch
hole camera, a 48 MP rear camera, the first 7nm processor and many, many more.
Add to that a stunning body and features. They then priced it right where it
would hurt OnePlus and hurt them good. Rupees 37,999. I would understand if
this was only an online phone. But Honor is also selling this through all
offline Reliance stores at the same price! Unheard of in the Indian market. A
troubling strategy for the competition that will need to respond. Initial sales
point to the View20 absolutely killing it in its category.
WHAT
HAPPENS NOW?
Everything! OnePlus will
have to respond to the new challenge from Honor, or else they will lose
marketshare fast, OnePlus will also have to determine if online only works for
them anymore. Xiaomi will have to be very careful with its next few phones and
pricing, or else they will lose their mantle fast and big. Samsung apparently
has another five online only phones coming out soon but they need to keep the
feature and price strategy super aggressive. Oppo, Vivo and Realme have new
phones slotted for release within days and each will need to rise above the
house with each. And each will now have to do it with the e-commerce rules of
no exclusive deals and no predatory pricing.
It’s a brand new arena,
untested strategies and billions at stake. Trust me, this battle will leave
quite a few companies in the dust. Which ones? Time and I will tell you, soon!
·
Rajiv Makhni is managing editor, Technology,
NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3
HTBR 17FEB19
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