In the year 2020, which arrives in just 11 days, Indians are expected to collectively invest a whopping $45.7 billion (Rs. 3.25 lakh crore approx.) in smart consumer electronics and new-age "connected devices", a report by market research firm TechArc said on Friday.
The "India Connected Consumer Devices Report", predicts a growth of 11 per cent in purchases of smart devices including TVs, wearables and speakers in 2019 in India, with smartphones leading the chart in terms of both value and volume.
"This is being driven by two trends -- creating a connected cluster around smartphones, and adding connectivity to consumer electronics led by smart TVs and smart speakers," said Faisal Kawoosa, Founder and Chief Analyst at techARC.
The wireless earbuds segment in the wearable category is expected to see sharp growth along with that of smart speakers in India next year.
The demand for and sales of smart home devices like internet-enabled bulbs and fans controlled by Home devices from Google and Amazon will also witness an increase in the coming months.
The growth of demand for smart products is further driven by the penetration of WiFi services across the country.
Earlier in June, reports revealed that India sold over 204 million wi-fi-enabled consumer devices in 2018, and sales are expected to grow by 8 per cent to 221 million units this year.
"However, the government must intervene to ensure standardisation and quality control of such devices, and go beyond the present quality checks and balances in the interests of consumers," said the report, highlighting the possibility of potential cyber-attacks.
As nations around the world are plagued with concerns over the security of internal data, India is moving quickly to draft a road-map to segregate information as personal and public and relocate data-storage within the country. It's aimed to safeguard private information from misuse.
Earlier in December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet gave its go-ahead to the "Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019" that will identify which data can be classified as personal, sensitive or critical, despite strong opposition from the US.
Amid modern technological advancements, the sales in two product categories – feature phones and PCs – will continue to decline in the coming year in India, according to the report.
