Online festive sales to add 60 lakh 4G smartphone users

According to market research agency techARC, the online festive season will see users upgrading to 4G smartphones from existing 2G and 3G devices and an estimated 10 million smartphones will be sold during the festive season.

The installed base of 4G smartphone handsets to go up by 1.3 per cent to 72.9 per cent. Non-4G Smartphone installed base is still above 30 per cent of total smartphones in use.

"Riding on the attractive offers expected during online festive sales period, we expect existing 2G and 3G smartphone users to take advantage and upgrade to the latest commercially available technology in smartphones," Faisal Kawoosa, Founder and Chief Analyst, techARC, said in a statement.

"If these online sales platforms -- Amazon and Flipkart, play their marketing and advertising strategy well, they can significantly drive increase in overall 4G smartphone installed base across the country.

"However, it has to be primarily focused on states like West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Karnataka where installed base of non-4G smartphones is still above 30 per cent," added Kawoosa.