Indians to buy connected devices worth Rs 3.25 lakh in 2020: Report

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Moving beyond smartphones, Indians are expected to buy connected devices, like smart consumer electronics, worth Rs 3.25 lakh crore ($45.7 billion) in 2020 — an 11% growth over 2019, a new report said on Friday.

Smartphones, however, will continue to lead the sales of connected devices both in value and volume, said market research firm techARC in its first “India Connected Consumer Devices Report”.

“Users are moving to connected solutions which, apart from making them ‘smart’, substantially increase the utility of such devices. This is being driven by two trends — creating a connected cluster around smartphones and adding connectivity in consumer electronics led by smart TVs and smart speakers,” elaborated Faisal Kawoosa, Founder and Chief Analyst techARC.

Smart wearables led by wireless buds (wearables) will see ultra-growth with many brands likely to foray in the segment after Apple’s success in the category. Realme has already launched its wireless buds.

Smart speakers will see high growth in sales as both devices as well as content being made available through them is on the rise.

“There is a lot of work happening in enabling many use cases through smart speakers. Enablers like Amazon’s Alexa are expected to play a greater role in expanding the voice computing market opportunities,” said the report.

Tablet PCs and smart feature phones are two categories expected to show continued decline in sales outlook for 2020.

Among ‘Other Connected Devices’, smart home solutions have started to pick up. These include smart bulbs, fans and other electronic devices for homes.

“However, the penetration is still very low. The other segment within these includes of peripherals and accessories where the wireless connectivity is increasingly creating new use cases as well as adding to the digital lifestyle of consumers in India,” the findings showed.

The growth for connected consumers’ devices in 2020 will be driven by cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity to consumer electronics for mass markets.

“However, government must intervene to ensure standardisation and quality control of such devices and go beyond the present quality checks and balances in the interests of consumers,” said the report, adding the biggest concern will continue to be security as there will be several endpoints vulnerable for exploits for hackers.