Slowdown hits sales of cars, biscuits in 2019, but not smartphones
The economic slowdown may have clipped sales of cars and biscuits in 2019, but smartphones bucked the trend as urban and rural users continued to buy, and even upgrade to, expensive handsets - a trend likely to pick up pace in the coming year. The growth in smartphone adoption was further fuelled by the government's push to position the country as a global hub for manufacturing and coax Apple and other leading brands to produce and export more phones from India. Experts say that phone shipment is expected to see high single-digit to double-digit growth in India as smartphones aiding everything from shopping to banking to social media and, yes, perfect selfies! Counterpoint Research Associate Director Tarun Pathak expects India's smartphone market to grow by 9 per cent this year, and in double digits (by 12-14 per cent) in 2020. By 2022, over 700 million people are expected to have a smartphone in India, and over a billion devices will be sold over the next four-f