As one of the thought leaders in personal technology space, 91mobiles has taken the onus of understanding and analysing consumer expectations, and matching them to what brands have in their current and future portfolios. The latest effort in this quest comes in the form of the 91mobiles Smartphone Buyer Preferences Survey 2019, which aims to unearth insights related to how often users upgrade their phones, what matters most to them while selecting a new daily driver, how they research for handsets, and their preferred buying modes and price ranges.
Smartphone brands popular among users currently
The current ownership patterns reflect the market standings of brands, with Xiaomi leading the game (with a share of 24.8 percent), and Samsung coming in second (with a share of 18.9 percent). Vivo is a distant third, with 6.2 percent share. Motorola, Honor, and OPPO follow with 5.5 percent, 5.4 percent and 4.9 percent share respectively. OnePlus sits at seventh spot with a share of 4.7 percent, followed by new entrant Realme at 4.6 percent.
Here are the findings related to current smartphone ownership, divided by demographics
- When the responses are split by age, it emerges that Xiaomi and Realme smartphones are more popular among younger people, while Samsung, OnePlus, Motorola and ASUS are more preferred by older folks. Vivo, OPPO and Nokia aren’t too popular among users above 44 years of age.
- When the data for current ownership is divided by location, Xiaomi’s split looks even across all four regions. For Samsung, the percentage share of its users in South India is the lowest when compared to its users in other regions. The same thing holds true for OPPO as well. For Honor, West India seems to be a weak spot. The percentage share of Motorola and OnePlus users seems the highest in the South as compared to other regions. For OnePlus, East India seems to be particularly weak.
- Dividing the current ownership patterns by gender, it appears that brands like Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo and OPPO are the ones more preferred by the fairer sex. Other brands like OnePlus, Honor, ASUS, Motorola and Nokia are more preferred by men, as the percentage share of their male users is higher.
- Dividing the data by occupation, it seems that Xiaomi and Realme have a higher number of users that are students, as compared to those who’re working. For Samsung, OnePlus and Nokia however, it’s the other way around.
Smartphone brands likely to be popular in the future
A good 11 percent respondents have said they don’t have any specific brand preferences, and will buy the best available phone that fits their budget.
How often users change their smartphones
Here are the key insights on smartphone upgrade frequency, when divided by demographic factors:
- Younger people (below 35) upgrade their phones more frequently than those above 35, and older folks generally seem to be more conservative.
- As far as the same data divided by location, people in the North and East upgrade their smartphones more frequently than users in other regions.
- Men upgrade their smartphones more frequently than women (~40% men upgrade within a year, vs 30% women).
- Among those upgrading their smartphones within 1 year, the share of students is marginally higher than working people. Of those that upgrade to a new smartphone within 1 to 2 years, the share of working people is higher than students.
How users decide which phone to buy
Based on the responses, it appears that most users (over 56 percent) plan to buy phones priced between Rs 10,000 to 20,000. About 15 percent are looking for phones priced between Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000.
Here are the key highlights on research and buying preferences, divided by demographics:
- Younger people generally prefer cheaper phones.
- Men generally prefer pricier smartphones as compared to women.
- Almost 80% of respondents use online channels (gadget sites, eCommerce sites, YouTube) to research their smartphone purchase, regardless of whether they plan to buy online or offline.
- When it comes to getting more info on smartphones they’re interested in, about 44 percent respondents refer to gadget websites, 22 percent use e-commerce websites, 20 percent prefer visiting offline stores, 11 percent favour YouTube videos, while 3 percent consult with friends and family.
- The relative importance of different research platforms is similar for smartphone buyers, regardless of whether they buy their devices online or offline.
- 44% of all respondents said they would prefer to buy a phone online, while 40% would prefer offline, and 16% are unsure. However, if their phone of choice costs Rs 1,000 more offline, 60% of people will prefer buying online, while only 23% will buy offline.
- People in the South prefer buying smartphones online, while those in the North prefer taking the offline route.
- Women prefer buying phones online, while more men prefer offline.
The aspects that matter most to users while choosing a new phone
A significant 17 percent said they consider performance as the most important aspect, while 10 percent said the camera capabilities of a smartphone are of utmost importance to them. 8 percent users laid emphasis on the battery, 4 percent on design, and 2 percent on the display.
When analysed by demographics, it appears that the younger people give more weightage to performance and camera capabilities, while older users focus more on battery and display. Splitting the data based on gender, the men prioritise performance over other parameters, while ladies lay more emphasis on camera, battery and design.
How people evaluate performance and camera capabilities
When it comes to evaluating camera capabilities, 34 percent respondents said they consider camera resolution as most important. A significant chunk (31 percent) said they look at AI capabilities, and this is interesting as AI has come up as a recent addition to the camera features on smartphones. 18 percent feel the aperture is most important for smartphones cameras, 9 percent consider the number of rear cameras, while 8 percent said they’d just focus on the selfie capabilities.
We also asked users about the latest and upcoming smartphones and the ones that interest them the most. Among those who prefer affordable smartphone or mid-rangers, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 got the most number of votes (28.7 percent), followed by the Samsung Galaxy M series (17.3 percent) and the Realme 3 (9.1 percent). Among flagship phones, the OnePlus 7 garnered the most interest with 13.2 percent votes, while the Xiaomi Mi 9 got 11.7 percent. The Samsung Galaxy S10 range got 10 percent votes, with the (rumoured) POCO F2 got a shade lower at 9.9 percent.
The above findings, we hope, should act as points of reference for smartphone brands to follow, and help take these companies a few steps closer to the Holy Grail – a satisfied set of customers. Watch this space for more of these insights.