Qualcomm dominates the premium 5G smartphone segment in India; MediaTek slowly catching up

A study from the CMR smartphone tracker revealed that Qualcomm dominates the premium 5G smartphone segment(from 25,000 INR and above), while Taiwan’s MediaTek has made in-roads into the value for money 5G smartphone segment(7,001 INR-24,999 INR).

Prabhu Ram, Head at Industry Intelligence Group(IIG), CMR, stated that demand for 5G capable smartphones is on the rise in India as consumers demand the best-in-class experiences, as 5G capable devices offer great gaming capabilities and modes for enhanced content creation as well. These devices make powerful experiences possible for consumers.

He further went on to say, “What’s interesting is the equal importance accorded by consumer cohort, such as mobile gamers, to chipset brands, alongside the smartphone brand imagery itself. This is a good leading trend for ecosystem players when it comes to enabling powerful mobile experiences.”

Indian smartphone users, especially gamers, are increasingly leaning towards 5G capable smartphones with an intent to experience its performance capabilities as well as future-proof themselves, according to the CMR study.

Mobile gaming in India is rapidly growing, driven by consumers who are staying at home amidst the pandemic. Gamers feel that 5G would enable them to experience better gaming opportunities, and enable refined multiplayer gaming experiences.

For a majority of the smartphone users, especially gamers, the chipset brand plays a key consideration in smartphone purchase, and is as important as the smartphone brand itself, the study reveals.

82% of gamers believe that 5G-enabled mobile gaming will enable high-quality graphics, 68% of them believe that 5G enables better multiplayer mobile gaming and faster downloads, amongst others.

As per the survey respondents, 5G will accelerate the adoption of Smart Home IoT devices. Amongst them, Smart TV will gain the most popularity driven by 5G adoption (29%), followed-up smart health systems(21%), and smart speakers(17%).

The top three expectations from 5G enabled phones are fast response time(70%), faster connection speed(67%) and cost-effective data plans(66%). Smartphone users believe that 5G enables better quality video calls(70% of them), 53% of them believe it enables better quality content, and 54% of them believe that 5G provides an immersive AR & VR experience.

5G is expected to enable consumers to watch more streaming videos(81%) via smartphones, similarly, consumers believe mobile gaming is anticipated to get a 74% boost with 5G.

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