As per reports and statements coming in from various quarters, it seems that price of smartphones and feature phones can witness an increase of upt0 10% in the coming days.
This change in the dynamics of pricing can be witnessed in the next 15 days.
What is the reason?
Mobile Phone Prices Can Increase By 10% In India
Due to the outbreak of Coronavirus in China, mobile manufacturing firms can soon be forced to raise prices in India.
The price hike will be done, since China is the hub of mobile manufacturing, and due to the outbreak of the virus, lesser employees are returning to work.
This will lead to scarcity of components, and labor, and a mismatch between demand and supply.
And this translates to higher prices.
While feature phones can witness an increase of 10% in the overall price, while smartphones can witness 6-7% increase in prices.
Xiaomi has already increased the price of Redmi Note 8 in India, and others are expected to follow suit.
Premium Smartphones Won’t Be Affected Much
Another interesting angle that is coming up: the price of premium smartphones won’t be affected much, and the reason that there is not much demand of this category of smartphones in India.
Smartphones costing between Rs 10,000 to Rs 30,000 can witness this surge in price, due to low supply, and high demand.
At the same time, smartphones that are fully imported from China, such as iPhones can witness a short supply, which can lead to higher prices.
None of the brands have confirmed this, but based on the market sentiments, this seems a possibility.
Analysts are assuming that this phase of surge pricing can be active upto 180 days.
Which Smartphones Will Be Impacted The Most?
An NCR based wholesaler of Samsung phones has informed Live Mint that stocks of Samsung mobile can start dwindling in the month of March.
As per this wholesaler, sales of Samsung phones has increased due to this factor, and he is expecting that Oppo and Vivo stock will take a beating soon, due to the coronavirus impact.
However the top 5 brands: Xiaomi, Realme, Oppo, Vivo and Samsung would be able to absorb the increased costs for another three months, and ensure that their customers are not hassled.
At the same time, OnePlus is confident that their supply chain wont be hampered.
Vikas Agarwal, the India head of OnePlus said, “We are well covered because we have the entire production in India, we already have enough stock, and even going forward many of the components will anyway be coming directly from other markets,”
S N Rai, the cofounder of Lava said, “Those disruptions were already planned, but if it [the virus’s spread] gets prolonged, then for March and April production, we will have serious trouble.”
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.