<div><em>Capabilities once seen only on unaffordable devices are making their way to budget phones, <strong>Mala Bhargava </strong>writes</em></div><div> </div><div>Recently when a reader told me she had Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 to spend on a phone and asked me to recommend one, I found myself more than a bit stumped. I couldn’t think of a strong reason to recommend one of the flagships, which would stretch her budget a little actually, over everything else that was available. And nor could I encourage her to pick up something in the price category she specified that would be really worthwhile. Where once I would have said — increase your budget a bit — I actually told her to consider a smartphone less than half </div><div>the price.</div><div> </div><div>Not long ago, one could have been fairly certain of getting something special when paying a premium for a top-end smartphone. A great camera, a unique metallic design, an unbeatable stylus, stock Android, etc. But over the past year, both attractive design and sought-after specifications have crept down to budget phones. </div><div> </div><div>The Android phones around me right now, in fact, all have features and capabilities you would have had to pay through your nose for, a little over a year ago. </div><div> </div><div>The just-launched OnePlus 2 runs on the Snapdragon 810 processor and while that’s had some history of getting too hot, is still something you’d have seen first maybe on a Samsung flagship costing Rs 45,000 and above, not a Rs 24,000 device as it is now. </div><div> </div><div>A while ago, it was the USP of Sony top-end devices that they were waterproof. And now, the third gen Moto G, one of the most popular budget phones of recent times, can be submerged in three feet of water for half an hour. </div><div> </div><div>At one point, 2GB RAM on a smartphone was a big achievement that you had to pay for, but I have next to me the Zenfone 2 from Asus, a company we never really associated with smart phones until recently, and it has a 4GB RAM (more than my Rs 58,000 Samsung Note 4) as well as a rather nice stylised design at Rs 19,999. One of its variants has a pretty good camera, as does the Rs 9,999 Lenovo K3 Note and quite a few others. The cameras still don’t surpass the ones on the Samsung flagship, but it may not be long before we see that too.</div><div> </div><div>Both Apple and Samsung are being squeezed by Chinese and local players. Despite the Galaxy S6 being an excellent phone, it isn’t selling as well as it should and may see a price drop. Samsung’s profits have been plummeting for the past several quarters. But Samsung has said that its smartphone market share in India was over 40 per cent in June, up from 35 per cent in January. The claim was based on data from market research firm GfK.</div><div> </div><div>Samsung remains the world’s biggest smartphone maker but it is Apple that is raking in most of the rewards. All the same, even the mighty Apple can’t take continued dominance for granted — in China, Xiaomi has just unseated it to become the number one player there. There is also the idea being put forward that iPhone’s sales may take a hit in the near future because the droves who bought the iPhone 6 will not upgrade to the iPhone 6a as readily. This may give the budget players a window of opportunity to grab some more market share. An unfazed CEO Tim Cook is confident his company will retain its dominance. </div><div> </div><div>mala@businessworld.in,</div><div>@malabhargava</div><div> </div><div>(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 07-09-2015)</div>
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