The Indian touch screen phone market has become more competitive with the entry of all major mobile handset vendors such as LG, Apple, Nokia, Samsung and Fly, among others. According to IDC, India?s touch screen device shipments in 2007 was a mere 0.7% of total mobile phone shipments. However, in 2008, it went up to 1% of total mobile phone shipments or 1.08 million, thus registering a growth of 85.9% over 2007.

Interestingly, last year, the worldwide sales of touch screen phones increased by 40% and reached 64 million. Touch screen is a relatively new feature in mobile phones. Though initially there were a few touch screen phone models available in the market, such devices were largely popularised in India by HTC.

The latest in the touch screen race has been Samsung?s Ultra Touch which was launched on Wednesday. Ruchika Batra, GM, corporate communications, Samsung South West Asia mentioned, ?Indian consumers are getting familiar to the use of touch screen phones which has boosted its growth. For this year, we expect our touch screen and multimedia phones to together comprise approximately 40-45% of our total sales volume.? Early this year, Nokia and RIM launched 5800 XpressMusic and BlackBerry Storm model respectively which has fuelled the growth of touch screen phones in India. LG?s recent offering in touch phone has been KP500 Cookie which is priced at Rs 13,990. ?We have received great response for the products and so far successfully sold close to 30,000 units in just two months of launch. We are looking forward to a sale of 70,000 units by this year-end,? said Anil Arora, business group marketing head, mobile communication, LG Electronics.

Indian customer is getting acquainted to the use of touch phones and the sensitive touch experience has led to the popularity of these phones in India. 3G is also expected to be one of the reasons for hi-end users to have deep pockets for touch screen phones.

However, pricing can pose a hindrance as these phones are available at Rs 14,000 onwards. The touch phone manufacturers are expected to roll out a multi-channel marketing programme to woo prospective customers.

The vendors are expected to use their extensive distribution network to reach ?B? and ?C? class cities, where pockets of affluent buyers can be targeted.

They said Chinese handsets with touch screen feature has been popular with the low-end users.

For them, the market is equally bullish and they believe competition is only set to grow with more and more manufacturers jumping on to the touch screen bandwagon. ?As this category gains popularity, IDC expects this market would become more competitive in 2009 with a wider portfolio of models from major players like Nokia, LG, RIM, HTC and other,? said Naveen Mishra, Manager, Communications Research, IDC India.

Shifting tone

• India?s touch screen device shipments in 2007 was a mere 0.7% of total mobile phone shipments. In 2008, it went up to 1%, registering a growth of 85.9% over 2007

• Last year, the worldwide sales of touch screen phones increased by 40% and reached 64 million

• The touch screen phones cost over Rs 14,000 in India