by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Markets, Technology
San Francisco : Taking on Apple and Google, Microsoft and Chinese electronics major Xiaomi have signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered budget speakers and smartphones.
The companies would work closely in Cloud computing, AI and hardware. Since they have chosen to sign a memorandum, their partnership is not legally binding and it is unclear if any financials are involved, the Verge reported late on Friday.
Microsoft is planning to allow Xiaomi to use its Cloud computing products, including Azure, to develop upgraded phones, laptops and smart devices.
At the same time, the partnership will also give Microsoft more reach and access to the Chinese market.
According to the Chinese player, it stands to benefit from “Microsoft’s globally leading technologies in Cloud computing and AI.”
Xiaomi might also integrate Microsoft Cortana with the Mi AI speaker — a budget speaker with a modern look.
So far, Microsoft has only developed one Cortana smart speaker “Harman Kardon Invoke” that has struggled to compete with other popular digital assistant speakers from Amazon, Google and Apple.
Microsoft and Xiaomi are also in talks about projects that will use several Microsoft AI technology, including conversational AI and speech and services like Bing, Edge and Skype, the report said.
Microsoft and Xiaomi have ties that date back to 2015, when they signed a deal to test Windows 10 on Xiaomi devices.
Last year, Xiaomi was the world’s fifth most popular smartphone company, shipping 92.4 million phones, trailing the likes of Apple, Samsung and Huawei, according to numbers released by market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC).
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Markets, Medium Enterprise, Sales, Technology
Manu Kumar Jain
By Nishant Arora,
New Delhi : Xiaomi, the Chinese electronics and software company, does not have big, secret warehouses in India where it is dumping unsold inventory and is actually selling smartphones faster than any other brand in the country, Xiaomi India Managing Director and Global Vice President Manu Kumar Jain has emphasised.
The exponential growth of Xiaomi in India, especially in the last two quarters, when it dethroned Samsung from the top spot, has alarmed the South Korean giant — a market leader for years — which registered 27 per cent growth in its mobile business revenue for the financial year 2016-17, touching a mammoth Rs 34,300 crore.
Reacting to a question that its arch rival believes that “shipments are important but they don’t tell the final market share”, Jain said Xiaomi has the leanest distribution system network in place and whatever is being produced locally or being imported into the country is fast going off the shelves.
“Whatever is being produced locally or shipped into India from us is actually being sold faster than any other brand, unless I am building big, secret warehouses and accumulating the unsold handsets there,” Jain told IANS.
“We don’t have even a week’s inventory anywhere in our system, unlike other brands who at times have two-three months of inventory. We are selling stocks coming in the second week of January right in the third week,” Jain mentioned.
In a recent interview with IANS, Asim Warsi, Samsung India’s Global Vice President, refuted reports that Samsung’s market share has slipped in India.
“German research firm GfK reports final consumption which is the most important measure of market share. Shipments are important but they don’t tell the final market share,” Warsi had told IANS, adding that “the real share is what I sold out to my customers and here, we are pretty strong”.
According to Jain, Xiaomi believes in the International Data Corporation (IDC) reports because they track overall shipments — both online and offline.
“The online smartphone market today has grown to 35-40 per cent in India. The other vendors are neglecting the online market and sharing reports that only tracks offline numbers. It is not fair,” Jain told IANS, without naming Samsung.
“I won’t comment on a particular brand but IDC is one research firm that gives actual numbers: Both from online and offline,” the Xiaomi executive added.
According to the IDC, Xiaomi shared the top slot with South Korea’s Samsung in India, with a market share of 23.5 per cent, in the third quarter of 2017.
In the fourth quarter, Xiaomi emerged a clear leader with 26.8 per cent market share, with Samsung second at 24.2 per cent market share.
For the entire year, however, Samsung, with 24.7 per cent share, was the leader and Xiaomi with 20.9 per cent stood second.
But Xiaomi is fast catching up.
The Beijing-based smartphone maker today has 57 per cent market share in the online segment in the country. It is also the second-biggest offline brand with 11 per cent share. The company shipped nearly 9.6 million “Redmi Note 4” handsets last year.
“We launched eight smartphones in 2017 and all did exceedingly well. In some of the quarter results, the top three smartphones were Xiaomi units,” Jain said.
Xiaomi last week launched two devices — Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 and Note 5 Pro.
Redmi Note 5 is a successor to Redmi Note 4 while Redmi Note 5 Pro is the first Xiaomi device to come with the “Face Unlock” feature and the latest Snapdragon 636 processor.
Samsung, which is gearing up to take on Chinese rivals in the online segment, in January launched two back-to-back “online exclusive” handsets — Galaxy A8+ and Galaxy On7 Prime.
“We will launch six-eight smartphones this year to continue the same legacy that we introduced in 2017 — great specifications and amazing quality at incredible price. We will try to cover all price points this year too,” the Xiaomi executive informed.
With Mi Homes, Xiaomi is fast building its oflline network across the country.
“We started going offline aggressively about nine months ago and now, we are second-biggest offline brand at 11 per cent. We have only reached 20-25 cities so far — unlike big brands who are present in many cities. We will continue to build on innovative models to reach more users via offline expansion,” Jain said.
Xiaomi has also tripled its services centres from 250 to 750 last year in the country.
“We will continue to provide superlative experience to Mi fans. If we continue on building great products, expand offline and improve customer services, we will sure grow much further this year,” Jain said.
(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Markets, Medium Enterprise, Online Marketing, Sales, SMEs, Technology
By Faisal Kawoosa,
Are all smartphones in India sold online? Not really. This is something which should come as a surprise to the cyber-savvy buyers of gadgets and gizmos.
A study from Google, published in 2012 but still relevant, says that 70 per cent of Indians decide about the brand and variant during an online search before going to a retail store.
Although the study was done in major cities and would have sampled a few people researching online before going shopping offline, both the parameters — the number of people researching online as well as coming prepared with their choices — must have gone up considerably by now, especially for a category like smartphones.
Smartphone sales haven’t crossed 40 per cent through online channels in any of the best seasons so far in the country. There are still limitations to online channels in India.
ROPO (Research Online Purchase Offline) is no alien concept to the smartphone industry. This is an established trend how smartphones are purchased across the globe, including in India.
In 2017, one of the key focus areas for all emerging smartphone brands has been to expand offline (the latest example being Xiaomi which has a great online presence but is now trying to make inroads into the offline segment).
With smartphone purchases being mostly replacement or upgrades in nature, exposure to online research has increased, making ROPO impact even stronger in India.
In such a scenario, will the massive offline expansion plans help smartphone manufacturers?
The biggest challenge in the offline space would be to mirror the exact online availability of models. Online is just a catalogue, be it Flipkart or Amazon, and with a robust logistics back-end, a person can choose any model, variant and colour and that will be delivered as per the shipping policy, irrespective of from which warehouse the online seller has to deliver.
This is not going to be the case in offline. There are going to be situations, especially when a brand has several variants in specifications and colours, where the particular model and variant for which a buyer visits the store may not be available.
ROPO could efficiently be taken care of by handful of brands like Apple, Google and OnePlus, where the users are evolved, models and variants are few and inventory can be exactly mapped offline.
For other mass-market brands, it’s going to be challenging. This becomes even more significant in a case where buyers tend to be impatient and would not want to visit the store again till the retailer arranges for the desired model and variant.
Streamlining the lag between availability of a new launch throughout the length and breadth of the country via offline is also going to be challenging to match the online expectations. This may eventually lead to a different connotation of ROPO with regard to the India market — Recce Offline Purchase Online.
What usually stops someone researching online from clicking that ‘Buy’ button would be an interesting research to undertake.
As offline expands, should the online players like Flipkart and Amazon be worried? To a certain extent, because the brand that was so far enticing people to purchase online with discounts and other offers would not tell buyers to visit stores.
Creating smartphone experience zones also won’t help much because it wouldn’t make sense for someone to experience a smartphone offline and then buy it online.
What are the options for e-tailers like Flipkart and Amazon?
What they and others could do is to take the showcase right to the doorsteps. A prospective buyer can select a few models that are in his/her zone of consideration.
The delivery boy could be doubled up as a brand in-store promoter, answering queries from the buyer. For more technical queries, a video call could be initiated with the technical sales executives. Once the buyer is fully convinced, he or she may purchase the smartphone.
A single channel won’t work for any brand. It has to be an omni-channel approach that is going to bring sales. However, as ROPO is triggering expansion into offline, the online mediums also have to look into reasons why the final call is not made in the cyber domain.
(Faisal Kawoosa is the General Manager-Research & Consulting with CyberMedia Research. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at releases@cmrindia.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Large Enterprise, Markets, Medium Enterprise, Sales, Technology
New Delhi : When it comes to smartphone sales, there was a three per cent decline in India in the fourth quarter of 2017 owing to a proliferation of low-priced 4G feature phones, like Reliance JioPhone that hit smartphone sales hard, German research firm GfK said on Thursday.
“Emerging Asia saw smartphone sales of 58.6 million units in 4Q17, down one per cent year-on-year,” the market research firm said.
This was dragged by a three per cent decline in India, where a proliferation of low-priced 4G feature phones likely cannibalised smartphone sales,” it added.
In 2017, 232.7 million smartphones were sold in the Emerging Asia region, an increase of eight per cent compared to 2016. GfK forecasts regional demand growth to improve to nine per cent in 2018.
“The outlook for 2018 is positive as GfK forecasts global smartphone demand to rise by three per cent compared to 2017, driven by Emerging Asia and Central and Eastern Europe,” said Yotaro Noguchi, product lead in GfK’s trends and forecasting division.
“With saturation in developed markets, consumer retention will be a key focus for smartphone makers, which, alongside increased commoditisation, will encourage greater innovation and differentiation in order to spur sales,” he added.
Sales in “Developed Asia” hit 18.5 million units in 4Q 17, a fall of nine percent year-on-year, dragged by a 21 per cent decline in South Korea.
Smartphone sales in the region totalled 68.5 million units in 2017, a fall of six per cent compared to 2016.
However, GfK forecasts a return to growth of two per cent in 2018, driven primarily by improving fortunes in Japan.
Global smartphone sales reached 397 million units in the fourth quarter of 2017 — a one per cent increase year-on-year.
Demand was primarily driven by Middle East and Africa, which experienced eight per cent growth, and Central and Eastern Europe, where demand grew seven per cent.
“Smartphone year-on-year demand growth moderated for the fourth consecutive quarter, rising only one per cent to 397 million units in 4Q17.
“However, sales value increased by 11 per cent year-on-year in the quarter, which is exceptional growth for such a mature technology category,” said Arndt Polifke, Global Director of PoS telecom research at GfK.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Faisal Kawoosa,
Given the current market conditions in India for smartphones, it appears that Steve Jobs, the late Apple co-founder, was prophetic: He did not consider this country a significant opportunity.
Let’s take a look at the Apple story since its entry into India in 2008. A lot has changed in the market — changes that have been favourable for consumers and the industry but, perhaps, not so much for Apple.
In the decade since its arrival, almost all the segments — barring the $100 to $200 segment — have seen a decline in the competitive and price-sensitive Indian market. But what should concern the Cupertino-based iPhone-maker is the steep fall in the $400-and-above market.
In 2008 and 2009, this segment used to account for 30 per cent of the total smartphone shipments. From 2010 onwards, around the time domestic brands made their entry in the ring, helping to expand the sub-$100 category, the premium segment fell to half at 15 per cent.
Barring a spike in 2011, the $400-and-above market has been on the decline in terms of shipment contribution. In the period, whatever growth took place in the smartphone market, happened at the lower end of the price strata.
Since 2013, the $400-plus market has been in single digits, and this is obviously not a good sign for a premium brand like Apple in India — even if the iPhone SE is taken into account, which is more of a mid-premium smartphone and is now being assembled in Bengaluru.
The big question now is: Has Apple’s poor performance in India been on account of some loose ends in its strategy? Or is it merely because of the segment/s in which the Cupertino-based iPhone-maker operates?
Let us examine the market share of Apple in the segments it operates in.
Over its decade-long presence in the country, Apple has been operating in three price segments. Among these, $400-plus has been the staple where the tech giant has performed superbly.
From just over five per cent share of the segment in 2008, when Apple said ‘Namaste’ to India, it currently enjoys over 47 per cent share in the $400-and-above smartphone segment by units.
In terms of revenues, Apple has also seen consistent growth despite pressures like shrinking opportunities in the premium segment as well as falling average selling prices — not the forget the “forced” downward movement to cater to the mid-premium segment.
In 2017, till September end, there has been a 21 per cent revenue decline compared to the calendar year 2016.
But then, Apple has witnessed good annual growth rates since 2010 — its average annual revenue growth rate has been 116 per cent in its first decade of presence in India.
Both from the revenue as well as volume aspects, Apple has seen a consoling India story so far.
The real issue is the growth in the premium segment with several players, incluing from China, now offering devices. This segment is going to see some difficult times ahead owing to the fact that, after Jio surfaced on the landscape, the opportunity now shifts towards the entry-level players to let a user have his or her first smartphone experience.
In the era of “Desh Ka Smartphone” and “Mera Pehla Smartphone”, it would be challenging for any premium smartphone brand, including Apple, to grow like in the past.
The overall declining growth in all price segments of smartphone over the last decade or so, Apple’s consistent growth in revenues as well as its increasing growth in market share in the segment(s) it is present, has an interesting story to tell.
For Apple, revenues as well as its market standing is on the rise so far, as it faces the peculiar nature of the domestic market.
Was Jobs able to foresee this peculiarity of the Indian smartphone market or was his interpretation something different?
Whatever his interpretation, the impact for Apple is more or less the same.
(Faisal Kawoosa is the General Manager-Research & Consulting with CyberMedia Research. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at releases@cmrindia.com)
—IANS
