Scope of Indian Smartphone Company To Venture Into Premium Smartphone Category

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON -
SCOPE OF INDIAN SMARTPHONE COMPANIES TO VENTURE

INTO PREMIUM SMARTPHONE CATEGORY
DISSERTATION
Submitted to CHRIST (Deemed to be University) in partial
fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Bachelor of Business Administration
By
Yashraj Hemant Mehta
Reg. No. 1823149
Under the guidance of

Dr. Senthilmurugan P
School of Business Studies and Social Sciences
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STUDIES AND MANAGEMENT

CHRIST (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY)
BGR CAMPUS
BANNERGHATTA ROAD, HULIMAVU
BENGALURU - 76
2020 - 2021
DECLARATION
I, Yashraj Hemant Mehta (Reg. No. 1823149), hereby declare that this project report titled
“An Empirical Study On – Scope Of Indian Smartphone Companies To Venture Into
Premium Smartphone Category”, submitted to CHRIST (Deemed to be University),
Bengaluru in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Bachelor of
Business Administration (Honors) is a record of original work carried out by me during the
academic year 2020-21 under the guidance of Dr. Senthilmurugan P, Assistant Professor,
School of Business Studies and Management, CHRIST (Deemed to be University),
Bengaluru has not been previously formed the basis for the award of any Degree, Diploma or
any other similar title of recognition to any candidate of this or any other University or
Institution.
Place: Bengaluru Yashraj Hemant Mehta

Date: Reg. No. 1823149
CERTIFICATE BY GUIDE
This is to certify that this project report titled “An Empirical Study On – Scope Of Indian
Smartphone Companies To Venture Into Premium Smartphone Category”, submitted to
Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru in partial fulfilment of the requirements for
the award of the degree of Bachelor of Business Administration ( Honors) is a record of
original work carried out by Yashraj Hemant Mehta (Reg. No. 1823149) during the
academic year 2020 - 21 under my guidance and it has not been previously formed the basis
for the award of any Degree, Diploma or any other similar title of recognition to any candidate
of this or any other University or Institution.
Place: Bengaluru Dr. Senthilmurugan P
Date: School of Business Studies and Management
Christ (Deemed to be University)
Bengaluru
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that this project report titled “An Empirical Study On – Scope Of Indian
Smartphone Companies To Venture Into Premium Smartphone Category”, submitted to
Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru in partial fulfilment of the requirements for
the award of the degree of Bachelor of Business Administration (Honors) is a record of
original work carried out by Yashraj Hemant Mehta (Reg. No. 1823149) during the academic
year 2020-21 under the guidance of Dr. Senthilmurugan P , Assistant Professor, School of
Business Studies and Management, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru and
it has not been previously formed the basis for the award of any Degree, Diploma or any other
similar title of recognition to any candidate of this or any other University or Institution.
Place: Bengaluru Dr. Joby Thomas

Date: Head of the Department
School of Business Studies and Management
CHRIST (Deemed to be University)
BGR Campus, Bengaluru
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I express my special thanks to Dr. Senthilmurugan P, School of Business Studies and

Management, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru for taking time to guide and
mentor me from the stage of selecting the topic till the submission of the research. His expert
advice and constant motivation helped me to conduct the study in a systematic and orderly
manner.
I would also like to thank Dr. (Fr) Abraham Vettiyankal M, Vice Chancellor, CHRIST
(Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, for having provided an opportunity to carry out a
research as a part of my curriculum of Bachelor of Business Administration
I would like to convey my gratitude to Dr. Joby Thomas, Coordinator, School of Business
Studies and Management, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru for providing me
the opportunity and the support to carry out such a research. This was instrumental in my
journey of studying and understanding the consumer behavior, especially in the smartphone
industry.
I would like to also sincerely thank all the students and respondents who were very much
instrumental in conducting this research. Their time and valuable conversations were extremely
helpful in providing the required information in order to carry out this study.
Finally, I would like to thank my parents and friends for their constant help and support. Their
motivation and advice were very helpful in enabling me to conduct the research and bring it to
completion.
Yashraj Hemant Mehta

CONTENTS
Sl. No. Title Page No.

Executive Summary 1
1. Introduction 2
Current trends in mobile industry 4
Current scenario of Indian smartphone company 6
Current scenario of Chinese mobile company in India 12
Need for the study 13
Scope of the study 14
Objectives of the study 15
Limitations of the study 16
2. Literature Review 17
3. Research Methodology 27
Introduction 27
Operational definitions/terms 28
Hypotheses 29
Sampling size and sampling techniques 29
Data and sources of data collection 30
Methods of data collection 30
Various techniques used in analysis of the data 31
4. Data Analysis, Interpretation and Discussion 32
Respondent’s profile 32
Proving Hypotheses 1 34
Proving hypotheses 2 36
Income generation calculation per customer 44
Exploratory data analysis 46
Keyword analysis 48
Strategic plan for Indian companies 49
5. Suggestions, Recommendations and Conclusion 51
Findings 51
Suggestions 52
Implications 53
Scope for future study 54
Conclusion 55
Bibliography 56
ANNEXURE 58
List of Tables, Illustrations, Figures and Images
Table No. Title Page No.
1 Customer likeliness to buy Indian smartphone 34
Analysis between satisfaction with current smartphone and willingness

2 34
to buy Indian branded smartphone
Willingness to replace customer’s current smartphone with an Indian

3 35
branded smartphone
4 Respondents’ perception towards Chinese companies 36
5.1 Correlation between Indian and Chinese company 37
5.2 Customer perception analysis towards Chinese companies 37
6 ANOVA – single factor analysis 38
7 General expenditure on a smartphone 39
Willingness of respondents to spend ₹30,000 to ₹50,000 on an Indian

8 40
branded smartphone
9 Yearly earnings per customer 45
10 Keyword analysis 47
Image No. Title Page No.
1 Evolution of smartphones 2
2 Growth of Reliance JIO 7
3 Growth of Oneplus 8
4 Growth of Mi 9
Illustration No. Title Page No.
1 Respondents’ annual income 32
2 Respondents’ age 32
3 Respondents’ gender 33
4 Respondents’ occupation 33
5 Respondents’ smartphone brand 33
6 ANOVA – single factor analysis 35
7 Respondents’ perception towards Chinese companies 36
Respondents’ willingness to spend ₹30,000 to ₹50,000 on an Indian

8 41
branded smartphone
9 Factors influencing purchasing decision 41
10 Purchase decision based on camera quality 42
11 Respondents’ likeliness to buy Indian gaming smartphone 43
12 Respondents’ perception towards JIO 43
13 Respondents’ annual income 44
14 Respondents’ frequency of purchasing smartphone 44
15 Reason for buying their current smartphone 46
16 Reason for buying a smartphone 46
Figure No. Title Page No.
1 Apple’s GVC strategy 49
2 Biggest consumer of GVCs around the world 50

Executive Summary
The smartphone industry is particularly significant these days because smartphones have
become an essential element of our lives. It is almost impossible for a person to carry out his/her
everyday routine without a smartphone. For all kinds of work, i.e., academics, industrial, office,
etc., people require smartphones.
The research is conducted to understand the scope of Indian smartphone companies to venture
into the premium smartphone category. There is a tremendous potential for Indian smartphone
companies to enter into the premium smartphone category.
After conducting the research, it was discovered that Indian customers were willing to buy
Indian branded smartphones for several reasons, including the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Indian customers are willing to pay ₹30,000 to ₹50,000 on an Indian branded smartphone,
which creates an excellent opportunity for future Indian companies to venture into premium
smartphone categories.
To understand customer preference, an analysis was conducted. According to the analysis, the
following factors were observed that influence the purchase decision in the customers firstly,
best camera quality on a smartphone is the most significant feature that the customers desired,
customers also wanted to have a bigger battery capacity on their smartphones, customers also
mentioned about the processor and wanted to get a better processor in order to have good
performance.
The research also mentioned the role of the Global value chain in providing strategic advantage
to Indian companies to maintain a competitive position in the market.
1|Page
Chapter 1 – Introduction
Smartphones are handy devices that are programmed to facilitate the user in various ways. Cell
phones usually contains a few metals–oxide–semiconductor coordinated circuit chips,
including different sensors that their product can utilize, for example, a magnetometer, vicinity
sensors, indicator, whirligig, or accelerometer uphold remote correspondences conventions.
Image 1
Phones have evolved over the years in terms of its appearance, weight, functionality and
method of usage. In the 1980s phones were simply used for calling purposes but as the time
passed the technology improved which helped in gaining more advance and convenient
features in the mobile phone. Currently the mobile phones are called smartphones because they
can do a lot more than just calling, the recent phones are so advance that they can compete with
the laptops. These smartphones are capable of performing tasks, gaming, accessing internet,
performing office tasks, streaming movies and TV shows, etc. smartphones have become an
essential part of the human being and it has it own merits and demerits. In today’s world
smartphones are so popular that there are various industries the depend on smartphones.
A University in California found that unprotected juvenile sexual action was more normal
among cell phone proprietors. An investigation directed by the Rensselaer Polytechnic
2|Page
Institute's Lighting Research Center inferred that cell phones, or any illuminated gadgets, can
truly influence rest cycles. A few people may be mentally connected to cell phones bringing
about nervousness when isolated from gadgets. There are certain issues related to the
smartphones like gambling a mishap simultaneously, an expanding social marvel. The issue of
sluggish cell phone clients prompted the transitory formation of a "versatile path" for strolling
in Chongqing, China.
The cell phone industry, making telephones with further developed figuring capacities and
availability than ordinary cell phones, has been essential for the cell phone industry since the
last part of the 90s, acquiring standard prevalence with the presentation of Apple's iPhone in
2007. The first cell phone running on Android was acquainted with the customer market in late
2008.
In the main quarter of 2020, Samsung was the main cell phone merchant internationally
dependent on shipments, with over 58.3 million units transported universally. By and large,
Samsung held an 18.8 percent portion of the cell phone market in the final quarter of 2019. The
organization's impact in the market crested in the second from last quarter of 2013 when it was
liable for 32.5 percent of all cell phone shipments, dispatching an aggregate of 85 million units.
Until the principal quarter of 2011, Nokia was the main cell phone merchant worldwide with
24 percent of the overall industry. Huawei is standing out, with about a fifth of worldwide
shipments. Samsung is the second-biggest merchant of cell phones around the world.
Generally, Samsung held an 18.9 percent cell phone piece of the pie in the final quarter of 2019
3|Page
Current trends in mobile industry:
1. Day to day work:

Mobile innovation, 4G, the Cloud, and different advancements imply that for certain
callings, work can happen anyplace, not simply in the workplace. Groups can be framed
among individuals who are not in a similar actual area, a business can fire up without
requiring premises, and business speed has accelerated.
2. Our companion:
Cell phones are turning into an expansion of our cerebrums – they recall things, so we do
not need to perform errands for our benefit, and because we have them with us practically
constantly, we are coming to depend on them profoundly and advantageously. The chance
may be that we begin to think carefully diversely as portable innovation turns out to be
much more inserted – we will not have to recollect telephone numbers, realities, figures,
and so forth because our telephones will do it for us. Could this let loose intellectual ability
for different things?
3. Learning:
Linking with the chance for changes to our minds, training is evolving as well. As opposed
to recalling realities, maybe the main thing to learn in the associated age is discovering
things and perceiving a dependable source. Likewise, making instruction fairer and distant
learning and autonomous taking in are going from solidarity to strength because of portable
innovation, carrying training to individuals and networks that would somehow not have
approached. Nokia's MoMaths program is one such model. It gives South African
youngsters from low-pay families admittance to top-notch training and has been famous;
in 2011, 8,000 South African secondary school understudies finished 2.5m activities
utilizing the application, with 82% of the action school or during the special seasons.
4. Health:
Many of us are, as of now, utilizing our cell phones to improve or screen our wellbeing and
wellness with applications that track our eating regimen, exercise, and rest. In the creating
scene, portable innovation has a much greater effect on medical care, with specialists
utilizing cell phone like gadgets to gather and track information and access clinical
guidance and records in far off networks. Watch this video to perceive how Nokia
innovation is helping battle dengue fever in Brazil.
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5. The 'Internet of things':
With the 'web of things,' portable innovation implies that regular gadgets can go on the web
and be improved. For instance, a web associated vehicle can disclose to you the closest gas
stations and their particular costs or cut your expenses with 'pay as you drive' protection.
Brilliant energy meters and web-associated switches send meter readings to your energy
provider and let you turn on the warming or AC before returning home.
6. Unified Endpoint Management: In the interim, Unified Endpoint Management

arrangements - which provide focal support to overseeing the two PCs and cell phones -
are likewise developing, as per Gartner. "UEM devices keep on developing as purchasers
move PCs from heritage customer the executive's apparatuses," Gartner said in a new
report. One eminent development in the UEM space incorporates coordinating UEM
arrangements with customers, the executive's instruments, and cycles the exploration firm
composed. "This is a result of the progressing relocation of PCs from inheritance CMTs to
UEM that Gartner observers in a larger part of end-client associations," Gartner said. As
per Gartner, the main UEM sellers are VMware, Microsoft, MobileIron, IBM, BlackBerry,
and Citrix.
7. New Battery Technology: This year, three researchers shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
for their jobs in building up the lithium-particle battery the standard battery innovation
utilized in cell phones and workstations. "They made a battery-powered world," The Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences said in summing up the accomplishment. In any case, the
lithium-particle cell phone battery could be getting some opposition when 2020. Bits of
gossip propose that Samsung could be hoping to present a cell phone, including graphene
battery innovation in the following year or two, as an approach to help both battery life and
charging speeds. "Lithium-particle batteries are suboptimal. Samsung is expecting to have
in any event one handset either one year from now or in 2021, I am told, which will
highlight a graphene battery all things considered," composed Evan Blass, who has a solid
history for spilled cell phone data, in a new tweet. "Equipped for a full charge in less than
a half-hour, they actually need to raise limits while bringing down expenses."
5|Page
Current scenario of Indian smartphone companies:
Micromax:
is an Indian worldwide electronic company having some expertise in cell phones, PCs, buyer
hardware, and home apparatuses, established in March 2000, central command in Gurgaon. By
2010, Micromax was one of India's biggest homegrown organizations making handsets in the
minimal effort highlight telephone section. As of Q3 2014, Micromax is the 10th biggest cell
phone merchant on the planet. The organization is confronting firm rivalry from Chinese
organizations that are entering the Indian market.
Micromax was initially very successful, and it was the second-largest company in India, but its
sales declined due to lack of innovation.
Initially, Micromax sold rebranded Chinese products in India to maintain a competitive

position in the market. OEM, also known as Original Equipment Manufacturer, is a Chinese-
based company that allows other companies to sell their products after rebranding them.
Micromax made use of this opportunity to sell phones in India.
After selling rebranded Chinese products, Micromax had earned enough money to start their
independent manufacturing unit in India. However, they lacked motivation and continued with
their old strategy, which led to the decline of Micromax.
In China, companies are currently making use of specific companies and GVCs to gain
manufacturing requirements. This strategy has enabled Chinese companies to maintain a
competitive position in the market and manufacture competitive products without any
manufacturing power.
Recently Micromax launched two new phones in Indian market that is priced under ₹15,000,
both the phones are made to capture the lower spectrum of the market.
6|Page
Reliance Jio: Reliance JIO is a company that is owned by Asia’s richest man named Mukesh
Ambani, he has various companies and JIO represents Reliance’s telecommunication. Jio has
a market share of 34.33% which is great considering it late entry in the market. When JIO was
launched in Indian it was an immediate hit among the customers because of the incentives that
were offered by the company. JIO has a huge scope to venture into premium smartphone
category in India because of its huge capital and brand image, these two factors are enough to
gain market share in India.
Image 2
Reliance JIO had a very aggressive entry in the market, JIO has been seeing massive success
in the market as the share price increases day by day.
Jio intends to dispatch premium cell phones. Ambani affirmed that the organization's freshest
association with Google would assume a focal part in its main goal. Dependence and Google
will work together on the product side to make another Android-based working framework for
Indian clients. Google gets a 7.7% stake for ₹33,737 crores in Reliance Jio – the two will
presently fabricate reasonable cell phones for India.
Google gets a 7.7% stake for ₹33,737 crores in Reliance Jio – the two will presently assemble
reasonable cell phones for India. One should realize that this is Google's initial raid into
building a moderate working framework incorporated with section level telephones. In 2017,
Google dispatched Android Go a managed down adaptation of Google's close stock
contribution Android One, directed at low-end ultra-spending telephones — joined by lighter
applications in the Play Store. The Android Go working framework is improved to run with
only 512 MB or 1GB RAM. The organization asserts that Android Go can open applications
15% quicker than ordinary Android and accompanies an information saver highlight to assist
clients with burning-through less versatile information.
7|Page
Oneplus:
OnePlus is a start-up company launched back in 2013, zeroing in on a client-arranged

association that will give the client what they needed and a good value line with the first-rate
blend of equipment and programming.
They Centre around consolidating O and Android in one gadget with a reasonable sticker price
to clients on the loose. This was their iOS essential mission when they start. Hence, their slogan
was and is "Never Settle."
Image 3
Image 1 shows Oneplus sales in the year 2019, Oneplus launched 2 phones this year i.e.,
Oneplus 6 and Oneplus 6t and both the phones were a big hit.
OnePlus One, which is very moderate and can rival Samsung and other standard brands'
semblance. Nonetheless, it goes poorly. They made just 10000 gadgets before dispatch.
However, the deals went up to million gadgets. They began with colossal achievement.
OnePlus is an auxiliary of Oppo. The equivalent "Selfie Expert" Oppo we as a whole know.
OnePlus dependability can measure up to trust—initially, a couple of focuses to keep, which
will repair whether OnePlus is based on trust. Oppo and Vivo are both the auxiliary of a Chinese
Multinational organization - BBK Electronics, which Duan Yongping established. Presently
OnePlus was established by Pete Lau and Carl Pei, and Pete Lau was the VP of Oppo before
OnePlus. After the dispatch of OnePlus, they said it is an altogether new pursuit, and he left
Oppo to acquaint OnePlus with the world to serve lead specs at a tremendous cost. Presently,
they say he left Oppo to begin OnePlus when Oppo possesses 100% of the stakes of OnePlus
8|Page
Mi:
Redmi is one of the global producers that have settled in India to present the Make in India
activity by the public authority. Mi has two assembling factories in India that helps the
company to provide cheap mobile pones in India.
Redmi Phones consistently figures out how to get the most recent Android adaptations
introduced on their new dispatches and future deliveries. The Redmi 4, 4A, and
Image 4
Mi is the fasted growing smartphone in India because of its positioning, Mi offers good quality
smartphones that are prices under ₹15,000.
Telephones from Redmi have consistently had the edge contrasted with OEMs like HTC or LG
as far as details. Redmi consistently outfitted their telephones with the best processors, Graphic
handling units (GPU), and RAM to rival what the best had to bring to the table—offering
nothing, not precisely a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, telephones from Redmi set heads
spinning of Samsung, LG, and HTC.
Gadgets from Redmi offer the most powerful incentive for cash to its clients. That is right.
Redmi offers top-tier particulars, highlights, optics, and show units on the lookout while not
begging to be spent. Redmi telephones are more than regularly sold as Flipkart selective or
Amazon restrictive. For the principal month, the retailer deals with supplanting the item if
necessary. Redmi consistently figures out how to get cutting-edge gadgets that include an in-
vogue plan and offer versatile and straightforward convenience. Things like Dual back camera,
Dual front camera, Bezel-less. The show, Display incorporated a unique finger impression
scanner and remote charging. These are the modern highlights that the makes of Redmi
telephones have up until this point.
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Apple:
Apple is initially successful because of its incredible advertising and gleaming items. Apple's
retail locations likewise assist them with succeeding showing that those sparkling items with
the incredible promotion are valuable. In any case, these are not the things that make Apple
extraordinary.
Various organizations produce items with robust visual plans, have great showcasing, and
virtually all purchaser items have a spot in retail locations. Microsoft has retail locations of its
own, much promoting, and will name on many glossy items. At this point, they despise the
affection, the 'significance,' that Apple does.
Apple is incredible because it conveys utilitarian items that produce excellent outcomes. Apple
frets about client experience. Apple makes one-button, no-bother, "one realizes how to utilize
it" items that do things well since they should do things well.
Apple's opposition makes items that get contaminated with malware all the more often crash
all the more regularly and frequently require a manual more than a recent highlights leaflet. An
Apple client gets firmly coordinated equipment and programming that has been exceptionally
thought to be, tried, and iterated. Various clients get parts and programming cobbled together
for great showcasing list items and tried to ensure it does not crash too early on the primary
boot.
Apple Understands what individuals need (and will figure out how to need) - and construct
gadgets just considering this. Innovation that is amazing, however not helpful, is overlooked.
This order to improve and think is unique to Apple.
Apple Understands how individuals associate. It is not what Apple gadgets do that is amazing;
however, what that feels like. Apple is centered around the client experience and instinct.
Accordingly, individuals experience supreme pleasure from utilizing them.
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Samsung:
Samsung is perhaps the most established organization in India with generous generosity among
individuals. Indian individuals trust the brand since they make great items on the whole field,
not to mention cell phones. Samsung has had a robust monetary foundation from the beginning,
and that is why it had the option to put a great framework into India as the business developed.
Samsung has consistently caused VFM items to be it their lead telephones, or their spending
finished results. Their telephones give the best highlights and assemble quality in their group
and their most recent spending telephones. Cosmic systems M10 and Galaxy M20 are
excessively useful for the opposition from Xiaomi and Oppo/Vivo. They are thinking about
evaluating from Samsung.
At that point, there is the valuing on their Flagship Galaxy S9/S9+ and Galaxy Note 9
telephones. The costs are equivalent in India and the USA/Europe (Converted from US Dollar
into Indian Rupee). for the Indian market, Samsung makes their telephones in India to give less
expensive telephones on the lookout. In contrast to Apple, which does not make its telephone
in India, that is why it costs them path higher than in the US since it needs to pay import charge
on the telephones.
Samsung has been in the market of essential, inventive, and premium telephones for a seriously
long time and has caught the market with its creative and easy-to-use mobiles. Samsung, as an
organization, knows the beat of its client and has delivered extraordinary items till now,
dependent on their statistical surveying.
Leaving alone the system of selling Samsung gives great help regarding fixes and substitutions
as its administration places are inescapable and are effectively congenial to average citizens.
Samsung has received Indian flavor by presenting nearby Indian dialects of UI, which was a
monstrous accomplishment as one does not need to know/learn English to utilize a telephone
any longer.
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Current scenario of Chinese mobile company in India:
BHK electronics which is the parent company of Oppo, Oneplus, and Vivo, has captured the
market in a significant way they have covered all the segments of the market, Oppo for the
below ₹14000 needs, vivo for below ₹30000 calls, and finally Oneplus that covers all the
premium segment of the market.
Each of these companies has its sub-brands to capture even more share in the market. Oppo's
sub-brand, which is Realme, is set to compete with brands like Poco, which is Xiaomi's sub
brand, Motorola, Redmi, etc.
iQOO, which is a Vivo sub brand is set to compete with flagship phones with the highest-level
processor and other features at a ₹30000 price point. Oneplus recently released Nord as their
sub-brand with 3 different categories, i.e., Nord, N10, and N100. These phones are prices at
₹30000, ₹20000, and ₹14000 respectively.
There is another major player in the market of the mobile industry which is very popular in
India, specifically in the ₹15000 - ₹20000 markets, i.e., Xiaomi, they have positioned their
phones in a way that they provide phones at a low price, which last longer, they were able to
achieve this by having perfect and efficient manufacturing system also they earn a lot from all
the sponsorships and bloatware they add in their phones.
They have recently entered into the premium category with their latest Mi 10 series. They
launched this phone to compete with flagship phones like Oneplus, Samsung, pixel, etc.
Currently, the Indian market is filled with Chinese companies and other companies like
Samsung, Apple, pixel, etc., because of such cutthroat competition in the market, and it is was
not possible for new Indian companies to venture into the premium smart phone category.
However, after the current pandemic situation, people are becoming aware of using Indian
products to boost the Indian economy and be self-sufficient. This is the perfect time for Indian
smartphone manufacturers like Jio, Micromax, HCL, etc., to venture into the premium
smartphone category.
Chinese companies highly dominate the Indian market below ₹ 50,000 because of their advance
manufacturing technology.
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Need for the study
Importance: The topic "scope of Indian smartphone company to venture into premium
smartphone category" has not been explored yet, and there is a huge potential for Indian
smartphone companies to enter into premium smartphone category. Currently, smartphone
companies like JIO and Micromax have only targeted the lower spectrum of the market, i.e.,
below ₹12000.
The smartphone industry is very significant these days because smartphones have become an
integral part of our lives. It is nearly impossible for a person to carry out his/her daily routine
without a smartphone. For all kinds of work, i.e., academics, industrial, office, etc., people
require smartphones.
Indian market is filled with foreign smartphone manufacturers, especially Chinese companies.
Recently Xiaomi became an Indian number smartphone company with more than 24% share
in the Indian market.
Benefits to the society: smartphone industry is one of the biggest industries, and having an
Indian smartphone company can help in various ways: -
1. Boost economy
2. Increase job opportunities
3. Reduction in cost as all the products are manufactured in the country
4. Less dependency on other countries
5. Development of the area in terms of infrastructure
Future of the mobile industry:

The smartphone industry is expected to grow and reach a turnover of 250 billion dollars in the
next two years, which is enormous, and companies should use this opportunity.
India has a vast scope in the smartphone industry because India is a developing country, and
smartphone users are increasing day by day, which offers excellent opportunities for
smartphone companies in India.
According to research, it was found that in 2021 there will be a 12% to 21% growth in the
smartphone industry in India which will lead to an increase in consumer spending and
consumer demand.
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Scope of the Study
The study focuses on understanding the current market condition in the smartphone industry
and to find opportunity for Indian companies in order to launch premium category smartphones
in the Indian market. The Study has potential because, after the current Chinese controversy,
people are avoiding Chinese products worldwide, this provides an opportunity for other
companies to enter into the market, and with the right strategy, Indian companies can capture
the market.
Recently Jio, along with google were planning to develop a premium quality smartphone to
launch in India. Many YouTubers, including the famous YouTuber "Unbox Therapy, " posted
videos on addressing this. Jio has enormous potential in launching premium smartphones as it
has all the resources it needs.
The Study also focuses on understanding current market trends, helping mobile companies
understand their target customers by knowing what they want. The Study aims to identify what
the customers want and why other companies cannot provide it. After understanding customers'
general needs, the Study will understand how now the company will establish brand equity
using customer perception.
Topics that will be covered are:
1. Understanding the current market condition in the smartphone industry
2. Understanding current trends in the smartphone industry
3. Identifying the opportunities for Indian smartphone companies in Indian markets
4. Understanding Customer's sentiment and perception towards Indian brand
5. Establishing brand equity using Customer's perception
The target audience will be students, professionals, businessmen, homemakers, people having
corporate jobs, middle-income group, high-income group, age group between 18 to 60 years.
The Study will be conducted in parts of the following cities, i.e., Surat, Mumbai, Bangalore,
and Pune. The Study will be conducted for two months by gathering the target audience's
opinion and analysing it using marketing tools.
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Objectives of the study
The study aims to understand why Indian companies did not venture into the premium
smartphone category. The potential reasons that stopped Indian companies to venture into
premium smartphone category which may be lack of advanced technology, manufacturing
units, no nearby source for small mobile parts, etc. This will help us understand the limitations
of Indian smartphone companies, which will help us find a potential solution.
The study also aims to Understand the reasons for Chinese companies dominating Indian
markets. This will help us in identifying opportunities for Indian smartphone companies in the
Indian market.
The study's focus is to identify an opportunity for Indian smartphone companies to venture into
the premium smartphone category. variables to be measured for this study are:
1. To understand customer’s perception towards Indian companies
2. To understand the requirements of Indian companies to venture into the premium
smartphone category
3. To understand which smartphone features influences purchase decision among
customers
4. To find an appropriate pricing bracket of Indian smartphones
5. To measure the advantage of manufacturing in India
6. To measure the advantage of being an Indian company
Steps to be involved in conducting the research:

1. Conducting surveys to get target audience preferences and opinions on various topics
2. Using a secondary source of data to get information about Chinese companies and other
reverent data
3. Using research tools and analysis to simplify the data
4. Analysing the data and studying the results
5. Identifying opportunities for Indian smartphone companies
6. identifying ways to establish brand equity using customers perception
limits of the study:

the study is limited to India, and the data is taken from few cities. The data available is limited,
and it might contain few inconsistencies. The study is based on a selected variable.
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Limitations of the study
All the research has certain limitations that cannot be avoided. Generally, these limitations
affect the research by about 5-10 percentage. In this research, there might be few limitations
these limitations are:
• Limited resources: resources available online about companies are not in detail, i.e.,
information about mobile parts and where they it from, cost of manufacturing, and other
information that only the company knows and it is not available to ordinary people.
• Human error: there is always a chance of human error. There might be some analytical
errors or errors in the secondary data, parallax error, etc. these errors are unintentional
and can be avoided by paying meticulous detail and rechecking the results
• Limited variables: the study is based on the selected variables, and there might be
other variables that affect the research, but it is not included in the research.
• Selective audience: the target audience is more significant than the selected audience,
which means the data that is obtained might be biased at a certain level
• Time constraints: the availability of time is limited due to the submission deadline
which may affect the results that are obtained.
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Chapter 2 – Review of literature
Zoyia Tanveer and Rab Nawaz Lodhi have performed an imperial study (2016) on the effects
of brand equity on customer satisfaction. The study focuses on brand equity and customer
satisfaction which is based on David Aaker’s brand equity model. To conduct the study data
from 75 respondents was obtained through surveys and the collected data was analyzed using
regression analysis. After performing regression analysis, the results shows that brand equity
had the highest beta coefficient which means that brand equity is highly sensitive towards
customer satisfaction. Zoyia Tanveer and Rab Nawaz Lodhi concluded (2016) that all the three
variables i.e., brand awareness, brand association and perceived quality have a positive linear
relationship to brand equity, which positively impacts customer satisfaction. The study
suggests that one must focus on customer satisfaction in order to maintain brand loyalty.
Amrit Mohan performed a research (2014) to understand the consumer behavior towards
smartphones industry in India. The study focuses on customer’s behavior while they are
purchasing a smartphone, this will help the study to understand the customer’s post purchase
behavior. After conducting the research, it was found customer decision making process is
influenced by the regulatory focus There are certain factors that influences the purchase
behavior for example customer’s perception, motivation, and lifestyle plays a major role. The
study also aims to understand customer’s attitude and perception towards brand image. Amrit
Mohan (2014) concluded that smartphones are an integral part of our life because It helps us
organize our daily life by adding calendars, having to do list for shopping, it also helps us
connect people around the world through various means, it has made lives easier by helping us
in fulfilling numerous needs from entertainment purposes to educational purposes to business
purposes.
Yuqing Xing has researched (2019) to understand the innovation by Chinese companies in
mobile phone industry. The research aims to understand how Chinese companies are able to
provide such good quality without having any manufacturing power. The analysis shows that
Chinese companies such as Oppo, Xiaomi and Huawei, follows a non-linear model of
innovation i.e., the focus on brand building rather than building technological capacity. Yuqing
Xing concluded (2019) that the Chinese companies are able to grab the market because they
focus on creating a value chain by providing products that are cheap and competitive, they
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were able to achieve this by making use of the existing technologies i.e., instead of developing
a new operating system they make use of Google’s OS that is based on android also unlike
Samsung they use the snapdragon chipset in their phones, they also make use of features that
were developed by other companies into their phone all these have helped Chinese companies
to maintain their competitive position in the market by saving on research and development
process.
Abdullah Sarwer, Ahasanul Haque and S. M. Ferdous Azam performed a research (2013) to
understand customer’s perception towards buying Chinese products. The research was
conducted examine how Chinese companies are able to provide cheap products at such good
quality, to explore the topic Abdullah Sarwer, Ahasanul Haque and S. M. Ferdous Azam
analyzed the buying decision of the Chinese companies also they gave an insight into how the
customers of Chinese product use and perceive their product. According to the research the
price and the quality are the most important element for the customers and other elements like
country of origin and product type have a very less impact on customer’s decision-making
process. the research gap in the study is, the sampling size was limited and only lower income
group was considered and the results may vary if we consider different segments of individual.
Revathy Rajasekaran, S. Cindhana and C. Anandha Priya (2016) have researched on

consumers’ perception and preferences towards smartphones. The aim of the study is to explore
the factors that are responsible for motivating customers to use and buy smartphones, the study
also focuses on the attitude of customer towards smart phone and why they use smartphones.
The objectives of the study are, to identify the reason behind the usage of the smartphones, to
know the level of satisfaction of customer towards smartphones and most importantly to
understand the reason why people buy smartphones. Revathy Rajasekaran, S. Cindhana and C.
Anandha Priya (2016) concluded that customers are much more interested in features like
camera, battery life, processing speed of a phone, they also found that features, price tag, peer
group and rand image are the key influencers for buying a phone. The main reason why
customers buy smartphones is for socialization and use of internet. According to the research
a new company can be easily establish in the market as long as they consider the above factors
and innovate in the industry.
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Makam S Balaji (2009) has performed an extensive research on the customer satisfaction level
with respect to Indian mobile services. The study investigates the factors of customers
satisfaction with Indian mobile services, to structure the research and measure the satisfaction
level, the American customer satisfaction (ACSI) index model was used. ACSI helps in
understanding the relationship among elements like customer expectation, quality of the
product, value preposition, satisfaction and customer’s loyalty. The study found that perceived
quality is a very important factor that contributes towards customer’s satisfaction which helps
in building trust and customer loyalty. Makam S Balaji (2009) concluded that trust, price,
quality and value of the service plays a vital role in customer satisfaction and the outcomes of
the customer satisfaction is word-of-mouth and good brand’s image which promotes the
company to grow.
Yuqing Xing and Yuzhen He (2018) have researched on how domestic value is added by
Chinese mobile phone companies. Through this research Yuqing Xing and Yuzhen He had
tried to evaluate the factors that contributed for adding domestic value in Chinese mobile phone
using data of two famous companies i.e., Xiaomi and Oppo. Through the analysis it was found
that Chinese companies do not manufacture printed board assembly which is the reason for
cheap smartphones by Chinese companies. It was also found that the cost associated in retail
service and gross margin profits are contributed mostly to the increase which is why Chinese
mobile phone industries increase the value chain and also helps in improving domestic value.
Yuqing Xing and Yuzhen He (2018) concluded that both the Chinese companies i.e., Oppo and
Xiaomi became successful because of Global value chain (GVCs) which is a global network
for manufacturing a product, both the companies do not have any technological facticity to
manufacture their phone on their own as the outsource components like processor, operating
system, sometimes display from other manufacturers in order to compete in the global market.
Joshi Sujata, Jog Yatin, Chirputkar Abhijit, Shrivastava Noopur and Doshi Ruchi (2016)
performed a research to identify the factors affecting Indian youth in their smartphone purchase
decision. The focus of the study is to understand the technological and hardware factors that
are affecting the purchasing decision. To conduct the research a primary data was collected
from 306 respondents to do the analysis. The research found that there are five main elements
that young students look for in a mobile phone i.e., technological factors, hardware factors,
brand identity, financial factor and basic factors. The research helps in getting a clear view on
what youth wants in their smartphones in terms of specification and build. Joshi Sujata, Jog
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Yatin, Chirputkar Abhijit, Shrivastava Noopur and Doshi Ruchi (2016) concluded that youth
are more concerned about the look feel of the phone as compared to the technological factors.
They also found that people also focus on the financial factors as look for sales, discounts,
COD options during their purchase decision.
Moses Kabeyi (2018) has performed a research and applied different concepts and strategies
to understand the competition in the global smartphone manufacturing industry. The research
is based on the fact that it is necessary for organization to strategically deal with competition,
in the study it was found that there is a cutthroat competition in the smartphone industry and
stakeholders like software companies, hardware companies play a vital role in it. According to
the analysis there is a saturation of growth of mobile companies in developed countries but in
developing countries like India and china have huge market growth rates. Moses Kabeyi (2018)
concluded that porter’s 5 force model is very effective and relevant in the competitive markets,
the research also found that differentiation and diversification is also a great strategy to gain
competitive advantage.
Cucuk Nur Rosyidi, Reza Rizkichani Akbar, and Wakhid Ahmad Jauhari (2014) have
conducted a research to analyze the make or buy decision which is based on tolerance design
which will help in minimizing cost and quality loss. The focus of the study is to minimizing
the manufacturing costs while keeping a high quality so as to maintain a competitive position
in the market. Since it is difficult to minimize the cost while maintaining the high quality the
company has to make a “make or buy” decision by outsourcing certain work to make the price
cheaper. Cucuk Nur Rosyidi, Reza Rizkichani Akbar, and Wakhid Ahmad Jauhari (2014)
concluded that in order to achieve the optimal set up for manufacturing one has to calculate the
cost associate in each of the scenarios using the model thy have developed and one should
choose the course of action that is very cheap.
Eshghi, Roy and Ganguli (2008) have done a research on service quality and customer
satisfaction that is based on Indian telecom companies. the Indian telecom industry has seen
huge growth in past few decades due to various factors including foreign direct investments
and the study is focusing on how to attract new customers for the industry as well as retain the
existing customers, the research attempts to identify the factors in the Indian telecom market
that are influencing customer satisfaction, customer’s propensity and customer’s repurchase
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intension. The research is important because it will help in identification of the factors that
leads to enhance customer satisfaction and them repurchase intention. Eshghi, Roy and Ganguli
(2008) concluded that relational quality, competitiveness reputation of a company, reliability
of a company and transmission quality are found to be very important in order to have a better
customer relationship.
Ha Ngoc Anh (2016) has done a research on smart phone industry to understand the new era
of competition in the market and strategies companies use to compete in the market. The
research aims to understand all the changes that have occurred over the years in the smartphone
industry and identifying the current trends in the smartphone market. The research showcases
the evolutionary pattern of smartphones and smartphone industry, starting from the first ever
phone to 2016, it talks about all the elements of a smartphone like features, hardware, operating
system and specifications. Ha Ngoc Anh (2016) concluded that according to the research apple
is a very popular brand and customers love their operating system (iOS). The research has
limitations as it was conducted using very small focus group of 20 participants that is not ideal
to generalize for other target audience.
Witold Chmielarz (2015) has done a research to understand smartphone usage from customer
point of view. The aim of the research is to analyze the use of smartphone by the target
customers this will help in understanding the common patterns in their usage and what
customers want from their phones. The results help in understanding the state of use of
smartphones, the relationship of the users to the quality of mobile applications and convenance
of usage of the stores with mobile applications. It also helps in understanding the method of
payment used by the customers for purchasing mobile applications. Witold Chmielarz
concluded (2015) that the market of the mobile phones and applications will continue to grow,
the research shows that the applications that are sophisticated and attractive will have a very
high demand. The research shows that gaming applications, office and business-related
applications, social media applications and entertainment applications are very popular and it
will continue to grow in the market as customers love their applications and are willing to pay
to get access.
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Dr. Vijay D. Joshi, CMA (Dr.) Ashok Panigrahi and Prof. Manish Pitk have done research
understand the role and significance of MSME under the initiative of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.
The research aims to understand the opportunities that are provided to the MSMEs under the
recent Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative in India. The paper includes financial and technical
aspects of the initiative which will help in building competitive market. The research is done
using secondary data only. Examination paper discoveries demonstrate that a precise structure
is needed to remember MSMEs for making the Atmanirbhar Bharat a reality. It could be
prompted that we need to comprehend our qualities and appropriately to raise and support the
business. It very well might be proposed to begin with agro-based MSMEs as horticulture is
India's solidarity and is the most significant business creating industry.
Ajay Massand, Lubna Ambreen and Mk Lodi (2020) have performed a research on the
economical, legal and social aspects of Atmanirbhar Bharat. Their research is important as due
to COVID-19 the Indian economy is facing various challenges including liquidity problem and
this will affect all the future and current industries in India. To boost up the economy and make
India independent, the government started an initiative called Atmanirbhar Bharat. The study
focuses on understanding the “Atmanirbhat Bharat” initiative in detail focusing on aspects such
as liquidity, legal and social aspects in India. Ajay Massand, Lubna Ambreen and Mk Lodi
(2020) concluded that there are various measures have been implemented in the Atmanirbhar
Bharat initiative but there is still a huge scope for RBI and the government to develop an
independent India, the research suggests that India needs a lot of reforms in order to support
manufacturing industry in India. According to the research the initiative is developed to support
the Indian economy by contributing to MGNREGA that helps in job opportunity, online
education, digital health mission which will help in becoming self-reliant society.
Bharat Patil and Nerita Patil (2020) have done a research to identify the change consumer
behavior due to COVID-19 pandemic. The research attempts to understand the effects of the
coronavirus on the buying decision on customers, in India COVID-19 was generally spread
through public transport like bus and trains and Indian markets were seriously affected. When
the lockdown was declared in India, the customers rushed to nearby stores to by essential goods
which led the sellers to take advantage of the situation and sold their products at higher rates.
Due to lockdown customers were worried and unsecured, they started to buy goods online
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which helped the digital industries to grow. Customers became more cautious for their health
and started practicing things that were good for their health. Bharat Patil and Nerita Patil (2020)
concluded that even though the customers were taking precautions but it was not enough as
they were not aware about the means of getting in contact with COVID-19. The research also
suggest that many people did not how to purchase products online and customers bought
alternative products if the original product was unavailable. Also, people had a tendency to
overstock their house with essential products.
Pravakar Sahoo and Ashwani (2020) have done research to understand the impact of COVID-
19 on the Indian economy considering aspects such as impact on growth, manufacturing
industry, trade and MSME sector. The research aims to make an assessment of coronavirus on
Indian economy and find factors that will help in stabilizing the economy. It is expected that if
all the measures are followed to in order to maintain the economy, then it is expected that it
might have a positive 0.5% growth but it could also face a 3% to 7% of negative growth. The
study suggests that manufacturing sector will have 5.5. to 20 percentage negative growth,
imports will have 25 percentage negative growth in the worst-case scenario, imports will also
have a minimum 13.7 percentage negative growth and MSME will have around 2.1 to 5.7
percentage downfall. The economy is heading towards recession. Pravakar Sahoo and Ashwani
(2020) concluded that there will be 10 percentage stimulus measure of GDP, the research
suggest that the government should adopt counter cycling fiscal policies.
Rekha Attri, Shreta Maheshwari and Vijit Sharma (2017) have performed a research on
customer purchase behavior for smartphone and how brands affect their decision-making
process. India has a big potential in the low-end smartphone market as India has a huge
population but only one fourth of India’s population is able to afford a smartphone which
provides companies a great opportunity to cater to such segment of customers. The research
focuses on the factors that are involved in the decision-making process of a customer while
purchasing a smartphone. Rekha Attri, Shreta Maheshwari and Vijit Sharma (2017) concluded
that hardware specification is very important to the customers ant it is at the top of their priority
list which is then followed by marketing communication which includes brand ambassador,
word of mouth, etc. people also focus on feature like size of the screen, battery backup, memory
size, sound quality and certain usability features such as ease of use, resolution and other
additional features. The research shows that price comes after these features which mean that
if the quality of the phone is good then people are willing to pay a little more.
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K.Vikram and Dr.K.V.Ramanathan (2015) have performed a research on smartphone industry
to understand its effects on Indian markets. Smartphones is a major element of people’s life
because of is multiple functionalities and use in various fields, in todays it is inevitable to use
a phone because life becomes very difficult without a phone. Smartphone is a one-stop solution
to functions like calling, emailing, internet access, audio playback, video playback, etc. in the
past few years there have been a massive growth in mobile development and it has evolved a
lot and has become more convenient and advanced. Mobile application industry has become a
major industry and people are investing a lot in it. K.Vikram and Dr.K.V.Ramanathan (2015)
concluded that there have been a huge growth in the broadband industry and internet service
provider business in the recent ears because of drastic increase in the use of mobile phones and
mobile phone applications this has impacted the laptop and computer market in India in a long
way as smartphones are nearly capable of everything and it is becoming advance day by day
in terms of features and technology.
Ding Ke and Hioki Shiro (2018) have done a research to understand the role of technological
platform in developing global value chain and understanding the innovations that are done in
the field. The study shows that the technological platform is able to facilitate innovation
through its modular architecture. The study shows that Chinese phone companies and they were
able to innovate its modular architecture by gaining support from QUALCOMM platform,
QUALCOMM was able to develop a strategy to create product differentiation which satisfies
the demand of Chinese companies, Chinese have developed strong capabilities to gain technical
support from QUALCOMM. Ding Ke and Hioki Shiro (2018) concluded that under certain
condition technological platforms can help firm to engage in innovation and value creation and
technological platform is a stable system and the design is considered modular.
S. G. Deshmukh and Abid Haleem (2020) have done on research to identify the changes in
framework of manufacturing due to COVID-19 in India. Due to COVID-19 there has been a
massive disturbance in the supply chains which has affected the manufacturing industry in
India in a massive way. According to the research COVID-19 has also provided great
opportunities to revisit the competitiveness in the manufacturing industry. Because of COVID-
19 there are opportunities to build capabilities and explore the international markets, the
research helps in identifying those opportunity in Indian markets in the perspective of
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stakeholders and how to tackle such issues and provides a conceptual framework to access
Indian manufacturing. S. G. Deshmukh and Abid Haleem (2020) conclusion is outlined in
different drivers and resulting ideas for upgrading India's assembling intensity. A few bearings
for future exploration are additionally recognized. This paper presents theoretical investigation,
might not have the viewpoints of the relative multitude of partners.
Jerry Watkins, Kathi R. Kitner and Dina Mehta (2012) has performed a research to identify the
usage of smartphone and mobile phone in urban and rural India. The research focuses on using
phones in urban and rural India by conducting two examinations directed at metropolitan and
rustic India destinations. Study A depended on a corporate ethnography of ''working-class
metropolitan client sections in Mumbai and Belgaum. Study B subtleties an improvement
correspondence project dependent on a six-month member perception of a local area radio
broadcast in the rural Bundelkhand district of Madhya Pradesh state. Study B's essential
objective was to investigate the cell phone's potential as a device for advancement
correspondence. The analysis suggests that low income, literacy and social norms constrains
individuals to use phones. Jerry Watkins, Kathi R. Kitner and Dina Mehta (2012) concluded
that even though smartphone industry is targeting urban and higher income group people, there
is still scope for manufacturing companies to cater to rural segments.
Shruti Agrawal, Anbesh Jamwal, Sumit Gupta (2020) have done research on the effects of
COVID-19 in the Indian economy and how it has impacted India’s supply chain. Due to
COVID-19 there have been many difficulties that countries around the world had to face, the
pandemic has stopped the import and export of goods around the world which has affected
disturbed many industries in India especially the manufacturing industry. The paper focuses on
the effects of the pandemic on Indian economy and its effect on the supply chain in India. The
research has found a total of eighteen barriers that affects the supply chain in India, and the
study is expected to develop a strategy to overcome the current scenario. The analysis shows
that the pandemic has also affected the global value chain in a big way their workforce had to
cut short to manage the finances, the production was reduced and other essential product line
were developed, their profit margin were decreased, alternative source of supply was identified
because of lockdown, the evaluation of current inventory was done to avoid losses, a need to
optimize the production and distribution capacity was created in order to minimize the losses,
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a need to manage finances and identifying logical capacity was developed. Shruti Agrawal,
Anbesh Jamwal, Sumit Gupta (2020) concluded that Coronavirus is influencing our supply
chains and assembling tasks day by day. also there have been some major changes made in the
supply chain in order to reduce Chinese influence in the Indian supply chain.
Sonam Gupta and Ishneet Dhillon performed a research (2014) to study Xiaomi potential the
capture the global market, the research is based on an innovated service business model.
Xiaomi is co-founded by Lei jun, the company came into existence in 2010 and since then it
has changed the mobile industry with their extremely low-price tag. The research focuses on
analyzing company’s innovative business model as they do not have any technological
facilities to develop a smart phone but uses global value chain to manufacture their products.
Research shows that Xiaomi is merely providing a service as they sell their phone on online
platforms that reduces the inventory cost, they outsource manufacturing of mobile components
and they major focuses on marketing their products, this has enabled them to maintain their
competitive position in the market. Sonam Gupta and Ishneet Dhillon concluded (2014) that
Xiaomi’s competitive strength lies in their marketing strategies and strong product line that
caters to middle and low level of the market.
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CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In India there are no Indian smartphone companies that is manufacturing premium
smartphones. The objective of the study is to understand the opportunities that the Indian
companies have in order to establish a premium Indian smartphone company in India, the
parameters that are considered for establishing an Indian company are, customer’s willingness
to accept Indian company, government cooperation and support, identification of supply chain
that provides competitive advantage in the market, opportunities for Indian companies due to
COVID-19 situation, etc.
To identify and analyze the above parameters the following study is conducted, which will help
in establishing premium Indian smartphone companies in India. The following are the steps
considered for the research
• Research is conducted first by identifying the study objectives which is to identify scope
of premium Indian smartphone companies in Indian market
• Then the sampling size and sampling techniques are selected based on the objective of
the research, the selected sampling size is 160 and sampling techniques that is
considered is convenience sampling and judgmental sampling.
• Now the data is collected and for the research which is both primary and secondary data
because of the research requirement.
• After all the data is collected, it is analyzed using analytical calculations like regression,
cluster analysis, chi-square, descriptive analysis, etc.
• The interpretations are drawn from the data and the hypotheses is tested.
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Operational definitions/terms
Certain terms that are used in the research are mentioned and explained below, this section
contains in depth explanation of the certain technical terms and measurements used during data
collection process. the following are the terms used-
• GCVs: it stands for Global Value Chain which are independent operating organizations
that are setup across the world and they provide specialized components of a particular
product for example snapdragon is a GCV that provides android processors to 32% of
the global market. These fragmented units of production are known as global value
chain.
• MSMEs: it stands for Micro- Small and Medium Enterprises which are nothing but
entities that are small in size, the size is defined in term of their investment. These
entities are very important because they contribute a lot towards output, employment,
export etc. to our economy.
• Snapdragon: it is the most famous processor that is available in the market usually
android phones uses this processor. The processor is provided by the international
company Qualcomm. All the leading companies like Oneplus, Samsung, Mi, Vivo, etc.
uses this processor.
• OS: It stands for operating system which is nothing but an updated software that is
usually developed by companies and each company usually have different OS which is
based on the original operating system like Android, Windows phone, RIM blackberry
and IOS.
• Flagship quality: this means that the smartphone has all the best and latest
specifications i.e., best processor, camera, ram, stock android experience, display, etc.
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Hypotheses
H0: Indian smartphone companies have no scope of launching premium category smartphone
in India.
H1: Indian are ready to accept premium Indian smartphone company if it delivers flagship
performance.
H2: COVID-19 has created a negative impact on Chinese smartphone companies in India
H3: Indian customers are ready to spend over ₹40,000 on a smartphone made by an Indian
company
H4: Smartphone company being Indian has a positive impact on consumer loyalty in India
Sampling size and sampling technique
1. Target audience: For the study I have collected data from all the segments of individual
in order to gate an overall idea of customer’s opinion. Currently in India there are no
Indian smartphone companies except Micromax. Micromax has reentered the market
by launching their two new phones that are under ₹12000. Collecting such data will
help in understanding the opportunities that smartphone companies have.
2. Sampling method: The sampling method used for the study are convenience sampling
and judgmental sampling method, as it is the most convenient and quick method of data
collection. Since google forms are made available online, every individual can access
them to give a response.
3. Sample size: Base on the research objective and the considered hypothesis the ideal
minimum sampling size is 230 respondents which I could achieve though Google
Forms, I used various sources of social media to get higher reach and collect more data.
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Data and the sources of data collection
The research aim is to identify the ways in which Indian companies can be established in Indian
market. To perform the research there are various data required that can be of different nature
like opinion based, technical based, general information, speculative or there can be certain
suggestion in a particular area.
For the research there are two type of data collection techniques that are adopted i.e., primary
data collection method and secondary data collection method.
• Primary data is collected through google forms which is collected online, in the current
pandemic scenario google forms is the best and the most efficient way of data collection
also it is the fastest mode of data collection techniques. For the research certain
questions were asked that will help in the analysis part of the research. Initial questions
asked about the respondent’s demographics later the questions were designed to
understand their current preferences in the smartphones later the questions were
designed to understand customer’s openness towards buying premium Indian
smartphone, lastly the questions were designed to understand their perception towards
existing Indian companies
• Secondary data is collected from online sources like ResearchGate, google scholar,
ProQuest, etc. For this research relevant data was collected like consumer behavior
towards Indian companies, impact of COVID-19 on manufacturing industry, Indian
customer’s preferences in smartphones, reason why Chinese companies are able to
manufacture cheap mobile phones, etc.
Methods of data collection

The primary data was collected through questioners on Google Forms. In order to get more
responses, I had made use of various social media channels like Telegram, WhatsApp,
Instagram, Oneplus community, LinkedIn and Facebook. I had joined various Facebook tech
groups in order to target larger audience as these groups consist of thousands of participants.
For the secondary source of data, I made use of Google Scholar to gain access to research
articles published by other authors. I selected articles that were helpful in data analysis and
aligns to my objectives and aim of the research.
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The various techniques used in analysis of data:
For the analysis various different techniques were use, the analysis started by understanding
respondents’ demographics which was analyzed using pie chart. Pie chart are the best option
because it shows the respondents demographics in proportion to the whole audience.
To prove the hypotheses 1 a frequency table was generated that showed the willingness of
respondents to purchase Indian smartphone if it provided good quality product, this method is
very effective as it shows the percentage of customer that are likely to by an Indian smartphone.
An analysis between willingness to buy Indian branded smartphone and satisfaction level
towards current smartphone was done to understand how these elements affect purchase
decision making process
For proving hypotheses 2, correlation and opinion analysis was done on the Indian company
(JIO) and Chinese companies using respondent’s perception towards Indian company and
Chinese companies.
An ANOVA analysis was done on willingness to buy Indian branded smartphone, willingness
to spend 40,000 on an Indian branded smartphone and general expenditure on a smartphone.
The analysis helped in proving hypotheses 3 which states that customers are willing to spend
₹30,000 to ₹40,000 on an Indian branded smartphone.
For proving customer loyalty of the respondents toward Indian company, various bar graphs
and pie charts were made to understand their perception along with ANOVA analysis is done.
Later in the research various horizontal bar graphs were analyzed and various key words were
obtained to understand what features Indians want on their phone.
To calculate average per customer expense on a smartphone per year a descriptive analysis was
conducted. Lastly a strategic operating system was suggested using secondary data in order to
maintain competitive position in the market.
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CHAPTER 4 – DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION
For the research an online questioner was developed and circulated to obtain responses a total
of 160 responses were obtained. Using google form’s analytics information about the
respondent’s demographics were obtained, here are the visual representation of the collected
data about the respondents.
Respondents’ annual income
Illustration 1
According to the data 46.8% of the respondents has an income that ranges from 5 lakhs to 15
lakhs, followed by 30.1% respondents with 15 to 30 lakhs income bracket and finally 17.3%
respondents had annual income that was below 5 lakhs.
Respondents’ age
Illustration 2
In the above illustration there is a pie chart depicting data of the respondent’s age, it can be
seen that there is almost equal participation among all the age group starting from 18 to above
50 years except the below 18 categories. This means that the data that is collected has
considered all the age group equally which will provide vast variety of opinions.
32 | P a g e
Respondents’ gender
Illustration 3
Among 160 respondents, 71.8 percentage respondents are male, 27.6 percentage respondents
are female and the rest 0.6 percentage respondents preferred not to say which makes this data
more influenced by male as compared to female.
Respondents’ occupation
Illustration 4
In illustration 4 data about respondent’s occupation is represented, it can be noticed that vast
majority of the respondents have 3 main occupation i.e., self-employed (52.6%) when is then
followed by students (19.2%) and lastly corporate employee (12.8%).
Respondents’ current smartphone brand
Illustration 5
Data shows that there are Apple (31.3%) users, Oneplus (25%) users, Samsung (21.9%) users
and Mi (12.5%) users. If we divide the data into android and iOS then 31.3 % respondents use
iOS and the rest 68.7 % respondents uses android.
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Proving Hypotheses 1
The table 1 represents the respondents’ data about Customer’s likeliness to buy an Indian
smartphone considering it provides good quality
Rating N Frequency Percentage
1 160 7 4.375
2 160 6 3.75
3 160 30 18.75
4 160 53 33.125
5 160 64 40
Table 1
The above table represents that among 160 respondents only 4.375% respondents felt like they
would not buy Indian smartphone at all, 3.75% respondents gave a 2-star rating which mean
that more or less they would not prefer Indian smartphone, 18.75% respondents were neutral
towards Indian smartphone company, 73.125% people gave a positive rating of 4 and 5 which
shows that customers are ready for Indian smartphone company.
Would you prefer Indian brand over your current mobile phone Brand?
1. Yes (N = 110)
Satisfaction with their current phone Willingness to use Indian branded smartphone
1.745454545 1.836363636
2. Maybe (N = 32)
1.90625 1.3125
3. No (N = 18)
1.944444444 1.111111111
Table 2
Table 2 represents three different responses from the respondents about switching their current
smartphone with an Indian branded smartphone. Each type of response means has two sub-
variables expressing their satisfaction with the existing phone and their willingness to use
Indian branded smartphones. The data shows that respondents who answered “yes” (110
respondents) had a satisfaction level of 1.745454545 out of 2, and their willingness level was
1.836363636 out of 2, which shows that majority of respondents liked their current smartphone.
Still, they are more willing to try Indian branded smartphones. Also, there is a common trend
in the data. In contrast, the satisfaction level increases, the level of willingness decreases, which
means that the Indian smartphone company has an opportunity to identify a need in the market,
so that customer satisfaction level with their current smartphone decreases, and willingness to
buy Indian branded smartphones increases.
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I asked the respondents if they were willing to buy an Indian smartphone if it was of similar
built quality and at similar price point of their current smartphone, illustration 6 shows the
responses of the respondents
Illustration 6
Option Frequency Percentage
Yes 110 68.75
No 18 11.25
May be 32 20
TOTAL 160 100
Table 3
The above table and the pie chart represent the data about customer buying decision, 110
respondents that constitute 68.75 percentage of total respondents responded positively and said
“yes” to buying an Indian smartphone and 20 percentage respondents were not sure and said
they might buy and Indian smartphone and a very small percentage of respondents said not i.e.,
11.25 percentage of respondents said that they will not buy an Indian smartphone.
From table 1, table 2, table 3 and illustration 6 it is clear that customer is willing to buy an
Indian smartphone if the smartphone provides good quality, which proves the hypotheses 1
true i.e., H1: Indian are ready to accept premium Indian smartphone company if it delivers
flagship performance.
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Illustration 7
In the questioner respondents were asked to express their opinion towards Chinese companies
after to the current COVID-19 situation. Illustration 7 shows that 38.8 percent respondents only
buy Indian products after the recent COVID-19 situation, 33.1 percent wanted to buy only
Indian products but there were no alternatives available to buy, 21.2 percent did not care about
country of origin and prefer buying any product that is good and the rest would only buy Indian
products even if they had to pay more.
According to illustration 7 among 160 respondents, 78.8 percent respondents tried to avoid
buying Chinese products which means COVID-19 had influenced the customer’s mindset in
buying Chinese products.
Respondents’ impression towards Chinese companies Frequencies Percentage

after COVID-19
1 - hate Chinese products 53 33.125%
2 - avoid buying as long as possible 32 20%
3 - neutral 40 25%
4 - doesn’t care about country of origin 22 13.75%
5 - love Chinese products 13 8.125%
Table 4
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Table 4 represents data about the respondent’s impression towards Chinese companies after
the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the table shows that 85 respondents had negative opinion
towards Chinese companies after COVID-19 while 35 respondents had a positive opinion and
the rest 40 respondents were neutral.
Impression towards Impression towards Indian

Chinese companies company like JIO
Impression towards Chinese 1

companies
Impression towards Indian 0.147242621 1

company like JIO
Table 5.1
Difference between the average of JIO (Indian company)

Customer opinion after COVID-19
rating - Chinese companies rating
I buy Indian products even if I have to pay

1.272727273
more
I do not care about country of origin as

0.970588235
long as the product is good
I prefer Indian products but there are not

1.226415094
many options available
yes, now I buy Indian products as much as

1.64516129
possible
Table 5.2
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Statical inference:
Table 5.1 represents correlation between respondents’ perception towards Chinese companies
and JIO (Indian company), according to the analysis the correlation value is 0.147242621,
which shows that there is a very weak linear positive correlation between the two variables.
Through the analysis it can be inferred that country of origin do play a role in purchase
decision because there is no correlation between the two variables.
Table 5.2 represents four different types of consumers and their corresponding values
represents the difference between the average rating of JIO (Indian company) subtracted from
Chinese companies rating. Through this analysis customer’s perception towards Indian
company will be identified. According to table 5.2 it was found that all the four types of
customers i.e., (1) I buy Indian products even if I have to pay more, (2) I do not care about
country of origin as long as the product is good, (3) I prefer Indian products but there are not
many options available, (4) yes, now I buy Indian products as much as possible. Showed a
positive response towards Indian companies as all the values that were obtains were more
than 0 i.e., ((1)1.272727273 (2) 0.970588235, (3) 1.226415094, (4) 1.64516129). Table 4, 5.1
and 5.2 and illustration 7 proves that Indian customers are influenced by country of origin
and they prefer Indian company over Chinese company which proves hypotheses 2 i.e., H2:
COVID-19 has created a negative impact on Chinese smartphone companies in India
ANOVA – Single Factor:
SUMMARY
Groups Count Su Average Variance
m
Willingness to buy 160 64 4.00625 1.1383254
Indian branded 1 72
smartphone
Willingness to spend 160 56 3.525 1.5088050
40,000 on an Indian 4 31
smartphone
General expenditure 160 49 3.11875 1.7153694
on a smartphone 9 97
ANOVA
Source of Variation SS df MS F P-value F crit
Between Groups 63.162 2 31.58125 21.717765 9.3998 3.0146255
5 04 E-10 76
Within Groups 693.63 47 1.4541666
75 7 67
Total 756.8 47
9
Table 6
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To understand the relation between the three variables (i.e., willingness to buy Indian branded
smartphone, willingness to spend 40,000 on an Indian branded smartphone and general
expenditure on a smartphone) an Anova single factor analysis is conducted. In order to simplify
the data and perform the analysis all the data was converted into Likert scale i.e., categorising
the data into 5 different intervals. according to table 6, the obtains P-value is 9.3998E-10 which
is less than 0.05. Based on the P-value the null hypotheses can be rejects as the data is
statistically significant. also, if we consider the averages in the summary output, all the first
two variables are greater than 3.5 which shows that customer are willing to spend Rs 40,000
on an Indian branded smartphone. The F 21.71776504 is grater then the F crit 3.014625576
which means that the null hypotheses can be rejected.
General expenditure on a smartphone
Mean 40687.5
Standard Error 1104.314989
Median 40000
Mode 30000
Standard Deviation 13968.60248
Sample Variance 195121855.3
Kurtosis -0.910662886
Skewness -0.137959471
Range 45000
Minimum 15000
Maximum 60000
Sum 6510000
Count 160
Confidence Level (95.0%) 2181.017922
Table 7
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Table 7 represents data about respondents’ general expenditure on a smartphone, according to
the analysis respondents generally spend ₹40687.5 while buying a smartphone. Also, the mode
of the data is at ₹30,000, this mean that if a new Indian smartphone company launches a phone
in India, then ₹30,000 to ₹40,000 price point is perfect.
willingness of respondents to spend ₹30,000 to ₹50,000 on a smartphone
Mean 3.525
Median 4
Mode 3
Kurtosis -0.51955697
Skewness -0.532639996
Range 4
Minimum 1
Maximum 5
Sum 564
Count 160
Table 8
The data that is represented in table 8 shows the customer willingness to spend on a
smartphone, according to the analysis the average willingness was found to be 3.525 out of 5
which is pretty good. From the data it can be interpreted that on an average customer are 70
percent respondents were convinced to spend 30,000 to 50,000 on an Indian branded
smartphone.
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Illustration 8
Illustration 8 represents the customer willingness to spend 30,000 to 50,000 on an Indian

branded smartphone, the data is divided into a scale of 1 to 5, as the value on the scale increases
the customer willingness to spend 30,000 to 50,000 on an Indian branded smartphone increases.
29.4 percent respondents were neutral and 53.2 percent respondents showed a positive response
which support and prove the hypotheses 3. Table 6,7,8 and illustration 8 proves the hypotheses
3 i.e., H3: Indian customers are ready to spend over ₹40,000 on a smartphone made by an
Indian company.
Illustration 9
Illustration 9 show the factors that affect the buying decision among customers, according to
the analysis it was found that brand plays the most vital role in buying decision.
41 | P a g e
SUMMARY
Groups Count Su Average Variance
m
Perception 160 239 1.49375 0.4527908
towards JIO 81
Loyalty towards 160 252 1.575 0.4723270
Indian brand 44
willingness to 160 276 1.725 0.2886792
buy Indian 45
smartphone
ANOVA
Source of SS df MS F P-value F crit
Variation
Between Groups 4.4041666 2 2.2020833 5.4426309 0.0046011 3.0146255
67 33 14 05 76
Within Groups 192.99375 477 0.4045990
57
Total 197.39791 479

67
Illustration 6
To understand the relation between the three variables (i.e., Perception towards JIO, Loyalty
towards Indian brand, willingness to buy Indian smartphone) an Anova single factor analysis
is conducted. In order to simplify the data and perform the analysis all the data was converted
into Likert scale i.e., categorising the data into 3 different intervals. according to illustration 6
the P-value 0.004601105 is less than 0.05 which indicates that the values that are obtains are
statically significant also, F 5.442630914 is greater than F crit 3.014625576 which mean that
the null hypotheses can be rejected. all the three variables are grater then 1.5 out of 2 which
indicates positive attitude from the respondents towards Indian brand and also it shows high
level of loyalty towards Indian brand.
Illustration 10
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The above illustration shows that customer will like to buy an Indian branded smartphone if it
provides good camera quality. According to the data 100 percentage of respondents voted
positively towards buying the smartphone.
Illustration 11
Illustration 11 shows respondent’s willingness to buy an Indian branded gaming phone,

according to the analysis 4.8 percent respondents were neutral and 94.2 percent respondents
showed positive response towards buying Indian branded gaming phone.
Illustration 12
43 | P a g e
Illustration 12 represents respondents’ opinion towards JIO, according to the data majority of
the respondents i.e., 59.3 percent respondents showed positive response towards JIO and 30.6
percent respondents were neutral and a very low percentage of respondents hated JIO this
shows that people like Indian company like JIO.
After analyzing illustration 6, illustration 9, illustration 10, illustration 11 and illustration 12 it

was found that that Indian do like Indian companies and they are pretty loyal towards them by
using their products for a very long period of time also it can be seen that respondents really
wanted to use Indian branded smartphones with various different features. The above analysis
proves the hypotheses 4 i.e., H4: Smartphone company being Indian has a positive impact on
consumer loyalty in India.
Income generation calculation per customer
Illustration 13
Illustration 14
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Yearly earnings per customer
Mean 13369.79167
Median 12000
Mode 10000
Kurtosis 3.475805347
Skewness 1.645019691
Range 47000
Minimum 3000
Maximum 50000
Sum 2139166.667
Count 160
Table 9
Using illustration 13 and illustration 14, table 9 is generated that shows descriptive statistics of
customer expenditure on smartphones per year. To obtain the data variables like average
spending on smartphones and frequency of purchase is considered. According to the analysis
on an average a single customer spends around ₹13370 on smartphone every year which is a
huge amount and Indian companies must use the opportunity capture the market.
The data shows huge potential for Indian companies to launch premium smartphone in Indian
market.
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Exploratory Data Analysis:
Illustration 15
To understand the purchase behavior of the respondents, certain questions were asked that will
help in understanding the important factors that are influencing purchase decision of the
customers. According to illustration 15, we can see that respondents needs good features which
includes all the hardware and software features, secondly customers want good operating
system – a good operating system would have clean and user-friendly UI, no bloatware, no
advertisements and popups, bug free experience and convenience will be a major factor while
designing the OS. Respondents were very price sensitive and for certain customer, price was a
major factor but respondents were willing to pay more if they feel the product is value for the
money. Surprisingly the element of status symbol got least number of votes.
Illustration 16
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The above illustration represents respondents’ preferences of different features, according to
the side bar graph respondents are very fond of camera and they would like to have professional
level photography on their smartphone which is why respondents love using apple smartphone
as it provides best camera quality. This means if Indian company is able to deliver professional
camera level of photography on a smartphone, then a huge number of customers would prefer
buying their phones. Also, 40 percent respondents said that they are aware of all the features
that are available on their phone and they use all the important features which mean respondents
are making complete use of their phones. Also, respondents are fine with having a bulky
smartphone as long as it packs a bigger and long-lasting battery.
Order Unfiltered word count Occurrences Percentage

1. camera 50 16.1290
2. better 14 4.5161
3. battery 11 3.5484
4. good 8 2.5806
5. speed 8 2.5806
6. call 7 2.2581
7. security 6 1.9355
8. quality 6 1.9355
9. processor 5 1.6129
10. auto 5 1.6129
11. and 4 1.2903
12. with 4 1.2903
13. screen 3 0.9677
14. best 3 0.9677
15. life 3 0.9677
16. operating 3 0.9677
17. performance 3 0.9677
18. data 3 0.9677
19. more 3 0.9677
20. easy 3 0.9677
21. for 3 0.9677
22. android 3 0.9677
Table 10
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Keyword analysis:
To understand what features and specifications customer wants in their phones, a questioned
was asked in the questioner which stated “which is the one feature that you wish your current
smartphone had”? customer had to respond with a one- or two-word answer. The purpose of
this question was to get new ideas and understand customer’s problem with their current
smartphone.
According to the data that was collected it was found that camera was major concern among
respondents nearly 50 respondents mentioned something related to camera. Currently in
smartphone industry various different companies are trying to provide best camera
performance and only few companies are able to provide good camera performance. Recently
Oneplus invested $150 million in their camera by Collaboration with Hasselblad company.
Indian company can have a Collaboration with such companies like Sony to provide good
camera quality to customers.
Another major feature that respondents were concern about is battery as 11 respondents
mentioned that they require better battery life and they are willing to have a bulkier phone as
long as it provides longer battery life. On an average phone have around 4000 mAh battery
capacity and as the phone is used the maximum capacity reduced to internal wearing of battery.
Indian companies can attract customers by providing bigger battery in their phones.
Many respondents also mentioned that they require a faster performance on their phones which
means better processor must be provided, in the market the best processors are provided by
snapdragon company, there are other companies that provides processor like Samsung,
MediaTek, Kirin, etc. Indian companies can make use of the global value chain to gather such
mobile parts instead of manufacturing it, this will help Indian companies to say competitive in
the market and provide best performing product to the customers.
From illustration 15, illustration 16 and table 10 it was found that features and factors like
camera, battery life, performance, operating system, value of money, convenience, etc. plays a
vital role in the decision-making process while buying a smartphone in India.
If Indian companies give importance to these factors and features in their smartphone then
Indian customers will love to buy such phones and the company will become popular among
customers.
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Strategic plan for Indian companies:
The global value chain is nothing but an international product sharing system where various
organizations manufacture different parts of a single product. This practice has been
implemented for years as it helps in the mass production of a single product. The GVCs are
spread across the world beyond national boundaries and make various products. The product
does not have any value unless all the components are assembled to use.
Figure 1
Figure 1 shows the Apple’s use of Global value chain in order to manufacture their iPhone 4,
from figure 1 it can be seen that the operations are carried out across the world which helps in
obtaining best quality product at a very low price.
According to a recent study it was found that Chinese companies do not manufacture printed
board assembly and other mobile parts which is the reason behind cheap smartphones by
Chinese companies. It was also found that the cost associated in retail service and gross margin
profits are contributed mostly to the increase which is why Chinese mobile phone companies
are able to stay competitive in the market by offering competitive features at competitive
pricing.
Chinese companies became successful because of Global value chain (GVCs) which is a global
network for manufacturing a product, companies like oppo and vivo do not have any
technological facticity to manufacture their phone on their own as the outsource components
like processor, operating system, sometimes display from other manufacturers in order to
compete in the global market
49 | P a g e
Agricultural nations, for example, India, essentially take an interest in Global value chains.
Regardless of this reality, India's software industry explicitly in Bangalore has become a
noticeable piece of IT worldwide worth chains.
India's product industry has a similar benefit because of the following reasons:
1) assembling a global standing for quality and conveyance

2) overhauling human resources
3) defeating market entrance expenses and boundaries
4) adding new business sectors and new customers.
Figure 2
Considering all the facts about Global value chains and India’s potential, it can be inferred that
India can make use of these Global value chain in order to launch Indian branded smartphone
in India. Indian companies can have a tie-up with such Global value chains for different
smartphone components like processor, camera technology, display technology, other
smartphone components from GVCs like snapdragon, Samsung, MediaTek, Sony, etc.
GVCs will help Indian companies to focus on marketing and sale part which will help them in
increasing their visibility among customers and provide value to the customers. GVCs will also
help the company in maintaining a strategic position in the market by having the ability to
change the product quality immediately without incurring any loss.
Figure 2 represents the use of Global value chain by different countries, according to the data
china is the highest consumer of the GVCs.
50 | P a g e
Chapter 5
Findings:
After conducting the research, the following observations were made:
According to the data that was collected it was found that camera was major concern among
respondents nearly 50 respondents mentioned something related to camera. Currently in
smartphone industry various different companies are trying to provide best camera
performance and only few companies are able to provide good camera performance. Recently
Oneplus invested $150 million in their camera by Collaboration with Hasselblad company.
Indian company can have a Collaboration with such companies like Sony to provide good
camera quality to customers.
Respondents are very fond of camera and they would like to have professional level
photography on their smartphone which is why respondents love using apple smartphone as it
provides best camera quality. This means if Indian company is able to deliver professional
camera level of photography on a smartphone, then a huge number of customers would prefer
buying their phones.
Also, 40 percent respondents said that they are aware of all the features that are available on
their phone and they use all the important features which mean respondents are making
complete use of their phones. Also, respondents are fine with having a bulky smartphone as
long as it packs a bigger and long-lasting battery.
An analysis was conducted to measure the average annual spending towards smartphone per
customer, according to the analysis on an average a single customer spends around ₹13370 on
smartphone every year which is a huge amount and Indian companies must use the opportunity
capture the market.
According to the analysis 38.8 percent respondents only prefer buying Indian products after
the recent COVID-19 situation, 33.1 percent wanted to buy only Indian products but there were
no alternatives available to buy, 21.2 percent did not care about country of origin and prefer
buying any product that is good and the rest would only buy Indian products even if they had
to pay more.
After conducting the analysis of customer willingness to but Indian branded smartphone, it was
found that among 160 respondents only 4.375 percentage respondents felt like they would not
51 | P a g e
buy Indian smartphone at all, 3.75 percentage respondents gave a 2-star rating which mean that
more or less they would not prefer Indian smartphone, 18.75 percentage respondents were
neutral towards Indian smartphone company, 73.125 percentage people gave a positive rating
of 4 and 5 which shows that customers are ready for Indian smartphone company.
According to the secondary data it was found that, GVCs will help Indian companies to focus
on marketing and sale part which will help them in increasing their visibility among customers
and provide value to the customers. GVCs will also help the company in maintaining a strategic
position in the market by having the ability to change the product quality immediately without
incurring any loss.
Suggestions:
The current study focuses on the scope of Indian companies to venture into the premium
smartphone category. To analyze the scope, specific variables were considered like customer
acceptance, market opportunities, strategies, etc. The future study could focus more on the
application part, i.e., parameters to consider while establishing an Indian company, government
support for establishing an Indian company, profitable tie-ups with other companies to gain
competitive advantage, etc.
The current study had a minimal number of responses which is a limitation of the research.
Such limitations can be avoided in future studies, and a larger target audience can be considered
for performing the research.
The current research was performed under time constrain, which might have affected the
outcome of the research. Suggestions for the future study would be to give enough time to carry
the research to obtain accurate results.
Also, for the current research, a limited number of variables were considered, which means a
specific variable that influences the research might have been a specific variable. However, it
was not considered in the research. For future research, my suggestion would consider all the
variables that could influence the research, which will help obtain accurate results for the
research.
52 | P a g e
Implications:
The research concentrates on the smartphone industry's new market condition and the
opportunity for Indian companies to launch premium category smartphones in the Indian
market. The research is beneficial and relevant because people worldwide are avoiding Chinese
products after the current Chinese controversy. This provides an opportunity for other
companies to enter into the market, and with the right approach, Indian companies can capture
the market.
Recently Jio, alongside google, was planning to develop a premium smartphone to launch.
Many YouTubers, including the famous YouTuber "Unbox Therapy, " posted videos on this in
India. Jio has enormous potential in launching premium smartphones as it has all the resources
it needs.
The research also focuses on understanding current market trends, helping mobile companies
understand their target customers by knowing what they want. The research aims to identify
what the customers want, their preferences and their usage pattern.
Illustration 6
The research is fundamental because customers will buy Indian branded smartphones, and
currently, in the Indian market, there is no premium quality Indian branded smartphone
available. According to illustration 6, 88.8% of respondents positively responded to buying
Indian branded smartphones, which is a massive number.
The research is precious for the companies who want to start a mobile company in India. The
research provides data regarding customer’s preferences, operational strategies, and data about
the current market condition, which can effectively start their business.
53 | P a g e
Scope for future study:
The smartphone industry is expected to grow and reach a turnover of 250 billion dollars in the
next two years, which is enormous, and companies should use this opportunity.
India has a vast scope in the smartphone industry because India is a developing country, and
smartphone users are increasing day by day, which offers excellent opportunities for
smartphone companies in India.
This massive growth opportunity makes the smartphone industry very important and
opportunistic for Indian companies. Hence, this research is fundamental as it helps companies
get a better picture of the Indian market and their customer’s preferences.
The future study could focus more on the application part, i.e., parameters to consider while
establishing an Indian company, government support for establishing an Indian company,
profitable tie-ups with other companies to gain competitive advantage, etc.
For further study on strategic operation, my suggestion would be to analyze companies like Mi
and Oneplus because they have a very different value proposition and business strategy,
helping them maintain a competitive position in the market. For future study, I would suggest
that segment-wise research be conducted to understand the customer’s preference in each
segment individually. This will help the companies to understand their customers more
effectively.
For the current research, a confined number of variables were analyzed, which means a specific
variable influencing the research might not have been considered. For future research, my
suggestion would be to consider all the variables that could influence the research, which will
help obtain accurate research results.
54 | P a g e
Conclusions:
The research is conducted to understand the scope of Indian smartphone company to venture
into premium smartphone category. There is a huge potential for Indian smartphone companies
to enter into premium smartphone category. Through this research Indian companies can
recognize the opportunities that are available in the market. Currently, smartphone companies
like JIO and Micromax have only targeted the lower spectrum of the market, i.e., below
₹12000.
The smartphone industry is very significant these days because smartphones have become an
integral part of our lives. It is nearly impossible for a person to carry out his/her daily routine
without a smartphone. For all kinds of work, i.e., academics, industrial, office, etc., people
require smartphones.
after conducting the research, it was found that Indian customers were willing to buy Indian
branded smartphones for various reasons including the current COVID-19 pandemic. Indian
customers are willing to pay ₹30,000 to ₹50,000 on an Indian branded smartphone, which
creates an excellent opportunity for future Indian companies to venture into premium
smartphone categories.
According to the data collected, it was found that camera was major concern among
respondents nearly 50 respondents mentioned something related to camera. Indian company
can have a Collaboration with such companies like Sony to provide good camera quality to
customers.
Another major feature that respondents were concern about is battery as 11 respondents
mentioned that they require better battery life. They are willing to have a bulkier phone as long
as it provides longer battery life.
Many respondents also mentioned that they require a faster performance on their phones, which
means better processor must be provided. Indian companies can use the global value chain to
gather such mobile parts instead of manufacturing it.
55 | P a g e
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ANNEXURE
Google form Questioner (used to collect primary source of data)
1. Age
a) below 18
b) 18 - 24
c) 24 - 30
d) 30 - 40
e) 40 - 50
f) 50 and above
2. Gender
a) Female
b) Male
c) Prefer not to say
3. Occupation
a) Student
b) Corporate employee
c) Self Employed
d) Unemployed
e) Retired
f) Gaming channel
4. Household income annually
a) Less than 5 lakhs
b) 5 lakhs - 15 lakhs
c) 15 lakhs - 30 lakhs
d) More than 30 lakhs
5. State
a) Gujarat
b) Maharashtra
c) Karnataka
d) Delhi
e) Tamil Nadu
6. which is your favourite smartphone brand
a) Apple
b) Oneplus
c) Mi
d) Samsung
e) Asus
f) Other Chinese companies
58 | P a g e
7. why do you like this smartphone brand
a) Economical
b) Status symbol
c) Good features
d) Great operating system
e) Great built Quality
f) Value of money
8. what influences you the most while buying a smartphone

a) Price
b) Flagship specifications
c) Brand
d) One that my friends/family suggests me
e) One that is easily available
9. Would you prefer Indian brand over your current mobile phone Brand? (if they offer
similar Quality and at similar price point)
a) Yes
b) No
c) May be
10. On a scale of 1 to 5, how likely are you to buy an Indian smartphone considering it
provides good quality. (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest level of willingness)
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
11. Has the current COVID-19 situation influenced your purchase decision
a) yes, now I buy Indian products as much as possible
b) I do not care about country of origin as long as the product is good
c) I prefer Indian products but there are not many options available
d) I buy Indian products even if I have to pay more
12. Are you willing to spend ₹30,000 to ₹50,000 on an Indian smartphone considering it
provide best experience and flagship quality? Show it on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being the
lowest and 5 being the highest level of willingness)
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
59 | P a g e
13. which is the one feature that you wish your current smartphone had? (one word
answer)
Your answer
14. How much do you generally spend on a smartphone?

a) less than ₹15,000
b) ₹15,000 to ₹30,000
c) ₹30,000 to ₹40,000
d) ₹40,000 to ₹50,000
e) ₹50,000 and above
15. Select things that is right for you

a) I need best camera quality
b) The phone must deliver best gaming experience
c) I don't mind if the phone is heavy as long as it has good battery backup
d) I use phones mostly for business/academic purposes
e) I know and use all the features on my phones
f) I am willing to pay more to get premium quality
g) Price tag is a major factor for me
16. Your impression towards Chinese companies after COVID-19 (the scale is from
worst to neutral, 1 being worst and 5 being neutral)
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
17. How often do you purchase smartphone?
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
18. What do you think about JIO? (rate it on a scale of 1 to 5)
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
60 | P a g e
19. What do you think about Micromax? (rate it on a scale of 1 to 5)
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
20. How satisfied are you with your current mobile phone?
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
21. How likely are you to buy an Indian smartphone if it offered among the best camera
quality with various modes?
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
22. Will you buy an Indian GAMING smartphone with all the flagship features and
performance (show it on a scale of 1 to 5)?
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
23. According to you do Indian smartphone companies have any scope in Indian
markets. (show it on a scale of 1 to 5)
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4
e) 5
61 | P a g e

Scope of Indian Smartphone Company To Venture Into Premium Smartphone Category

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Scope of Indian Smartphone Company To Venture Into Premium Smartphone Category

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AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON -

SCOPE OF INDIAN SMARTPHONE COMPANIES TO VENTURE

Bachelor of Business Administration

Under the guidance of

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STUDIES AND MANAGEMENT

Place: Bengaluru Yashraj Hemant Mehta

Place: Bengaluru Dr. Senthilmurugan P

Date: School of Business Studies and Management

Christ (Deemed to be University)

Place: Bengaluru Dr. Joby Thomas

I express my special thanks to Dr. Senthilmurugan P, School of Business Studies and

Yashraj Hemant Mehta

Sl. No. Title Page No.

1 Customer likeliness to buy Indian smartphone 34

Analysis between satisfaction with current smartphone and willingness

Willingness to replace customer’s current smartphone with an Indian

4 Respondents’ perception towards Chinese companies 36

5.1 Correlation between Indian and Chinese company 37

5.2 Customer perception analysis towards Chinese companies 37

6 ANOVA – single factor analysis 38

7 General expenditure on a smartphone 39

Willingness of respondents to spend ₹30,000 to ₹50,000 on an Indian

9 Yearly earnings per customer 45

Image No. Title Page No.

2 Growth of Reliance JIO 7

Illustration No. Title Page No.

1 Respondents’ annual income 32

6 ANOVA – single factor analysis 35

7 Respondents’ perception towards Chinese companies 36

Respondents’ willingness to spend ₹30,000 to ₹50,000 on an Indian

9 Factors influencing purchasing decision 41

10 Purchase decision based on camera quality 42

11 Respondents’ likeliness to buy Indian gaming smartphone 43

12 Respondents’ perception towards JIO 43

13 Respondents’ annual income 44

14 Respondents’ frequency of purchasing smartphone 44

15 Reason for buying their current smartphone 46

16 Reason for buying a smartphone 46

Figure No. Title Page No.

1 Apple’s GVC strategy 49

2 Biggest consumer of GVCs around the world 50

1. Day to day work:

6. Unified Endpoint Management: In the interim, Unified Endpoint Management

Initially, Micromax sold rebranded Chinese products in India to maintain a competitive

OnePlus is a start-up company launched back in 2013, zeroing in on a client-arranged

Future of the mobile industry:

Steps to be involved in conducting the research:

limits of the study:

Revathy Rajasekaran, S. Cindhana and C. Anandha Priya (2016) have researched on

Sampling size and sampling technique

Methods of data collection

Respondents’ annual income

Respondents’ current smartphone brand

Option Frequency Percentage

Yes 110 68.75

TOTAL 160 100

Respondents’ impression towards Chinese companies Frequencies Percentage

2 - avoid buying as long as possible 32 20%

4 - doesn’t care about country of origin 22 13.75%

5 - love Chinese products 13 8.125%

Impression towards Impression towards Indian

Impression towards Chinese 1

Impression towards Indian 0.147242621 1