Affordable technology redefining Indian consumer market

The rubric of consumer commerce in India is witnessing an overhaul. A smartphone worth Rs 251 only and the rapid rollouts of 3G and 4G services are a clear indicator of a whirlwind of change in the commercial consumption of products and services in India.

India is the second largest market for smartphones in the world after China. This has made the country an increasingly important market for global mobile companies like Apple. Smartphones are no longer a luxury for rich. Everyone from domestic help to unskilled laborers, to salaried chauffeurs, all of whom make less than Rs 15,000 a month have smartphones today and they have become as important as any other utility needed for everyday life.

On the one hand, we have low-cost smartphone manufacturers like MicroMax, Karbonn, and Lava who have taken the market by storm, taking as much as a quarter of all sales in smartphones in 2014. On the other, working almost in tandem with this is the rapidly increasing availability of mobile data.

With this increasing access to mobile technology and the Internet among the lower income group, a huge impact is expected on the existing mediums of commerce and the nature of the Indian economy in the coming years.

This affordability of data and smartphones is also bringing a revolution in access to technology on the go, whether it's social media/messaging, transportation, banking, or even domestic services.

Complimenting this development is the booming startup culture in India. Companies like Flipkart, OYO rooms, Practo, and Ola have already become household names and have multi-million dollar valuations, and are changing the way people buy and sell services.

Practo is the perfect example here. People have adopted this huge change in personal healthcare astonishingly fast, leaving behind the word-of-mouth system of finding doctors and calling to make reservations. Several startups are now able to target low-income group market segments with apps, something that was unheard of before.

Technology has seeped into many industries, and many experts reckon this will be India’s key to growth in the coming decades.

A report by McKinsey Global Institute shares this sentiment, “The spread of digital technologies, as well as advances in energy and genomics, can raise the productivity of business and agriculture, redefine how services such as healthcare and education are delivered and contribute to higher living standards for millions of Indians by raising education levels and improving healthcare outcomes.”

The Indian government has also realized this, implementing changes that allow for an easy and facilitative path for technology to flourish. Businesses, old and new, are adapting to these changes to survive in the marketplace and keep up with competition.

A booming tech startup culture with increasing jobs in the technology sector,lower costs for products and services on e-commerce platforms, and an increasing market size with large untapped potential are taking India higher up the ladder of technology consumption in the world very quickly and also adding to its repertoire as the leader in innovating technology.