Indian smartphone industry poised for stable growth this year

10. March 2022

Although the Indian smartphone industry has faced some obstacles due to the corona pandemic and semiconductor shortages, the industry is confident about this year. For example, estimates suggest that between 190 and 200 million devices could be shipped in 2022, many of them with 5G functionality. The increase in sales is attributed by experts to the continuation of working from home and that more time in general is being spent at home and therefore with a smartphone. For example, Counterpoint Research market researcher Shilpi Jain said the Indian smartphone market has seen steady growth over the past five years, with around 158 million devices sold in 2019. Although Jain said the market saw a slight decline due to the Covid 19 pandemic, she expects robust growth this year and a surpassing of the 200 million devices shipped mark this year. The prerequisite for the production and sale of smartphones on the Indian market is BIS certification, which is mandatory for many of the components and production equipment. In addition, TEC certification is also required for wireless products.

Analysts at CyberMedia Research (CMR) have a similarly positive view, with estimated smartphone shipments in the range of 187 million to 190 million devices this year. Smartphones with 5G functionality will see particular growth, according to CMR’s Anand Priya Singh. For state-of-the-art devices, she projects an increase to 64 million devices in 2022. That would represent 129 percent growth from the 28 million devices in the previous year. For the general smartphone market in India, Singh could see growth of 11 percent between 2020 and 2021. The number of devices shipped increased from 150 million to about 167 million.

Although 5G networks are not yet available in India, industry experts nevertheless expect consumers to opt for a 5G-enabled device when making a new purchase. According to surveys, buying a new smartphone equipped with a 5G radio module is among the top 3 priorities of future users. Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth said conversations around the adoption of 5G technology have been happening since 2019 and smartphone manufacturers launched the first 5G devices in early 2020. Test runs for the 5G wireless network are scheduled for this year, and spectrum auctions are expected to take place in the second half of 2022. Realme CEO Sheth therefore expects demand for 5G smartphones to increase this year. Realme aims to be a leader in the deployment of 5G and will therefore equip all of its smartphones above a retail price of 15,000 Indian rupees with 5G radio modules, as well as work to offer the technology in devices below 10,000 Indian rupees, Sheth added.
Electronic components or finished electronic devices require BIS certification in order to import them into India or bring them to market. Here, a distinction is made between BIS-ISI or BIS-CRS certification, depending on the product. TEC is the abbreviation for Telecommunication Engineering Center. TEC is the competent authority in India when it comes to TEC certification for telecommunications products. From 1991 to 2019, TEC certification was still possible as a voluntary product registration, but now it is mandatory for many product groups. As the product list is constantly expanding, we are pleased to help you with a first assessment.
If you are interested in understanding what requirements are needed for your product to be imported into India, please do not hesitate to contact us by email or phone (Europe: +49-69-271 37 69 261, US: +1 773 654-2673). There is no cost or obligation for us to check for you. If a certification need is discovered we can provide a quotation to make sure that all your certification needs are covered.
If you have any questions you can also use our chat-window in the bottom right. (Please check your browser settings if you can’t see the window)
For more information, please refer to our free brochures “BIS Certification Made Easy” and “TEC Certification Made Easy“.