91mobiles Great Indian Smartphone Survey 2022: a summary

In our Great Indian Smartphone Survey, we asked over 15,000 people what smartphones they use, how satisfied they are with their current brand, and what they plan on buying next.

• By team91 -
Published On: September 8, 2022

Another year, another Great Indian Smartphone Survey from 91mobiles where we ask over 15,000 people what smartphones they use, how satisfied they are with their current brand, and what they plan on buying next, among other things. Our survey allows us to understand which smartphone brands are growing and the ones that are falling behind. Over the past few days, we talked about how iQOO is dominating in terms of user satisfaction, while Motorola seems to be making a comeback. Now, let's take a look at everything else we were able to understand from our survey.

The full report is embedded below for your reference.

The Great Indian Smartphone Survey 2022 by 91mobiles

The annual smartphone survey highlights trends related to smartphone ownership, brand loyalty, user satisfaction, how people purchase new phones, the features ...

Trends in smartphone ownership

• Xiaomi has overtaken Samsung as the top brand in terms of ownership share, with 19 percent of people owning its smartphones. Samsung's share dropped to 17 percent from 21 percent last year. That said, Xiaomi's year-on-year share has also been declining rather than improving as it was sitting with a 20 percent share in 2021.
• One of the reasons brands like Xiaomi, Realme, and Samsung are seeing a decline in ownership share is because people are increasingly preferring phones from other brands like iQOO, Apple, and OnePlus.

• From 3.2 percent last year to 5.9 percent in 2022, Apple has seen the most growth in ownership share. This is likely due to the launch of the affordable iPhone SE 2022 earlier this year and price cuts on older iPhone models following the launch of the iPhone 13 series last year.
• Apple is also expected to gain the most users in the future, with nearly 21 percent of people in our survey group looking to own an iPhone next. Meanwhile, Xiaomi could see a sharp drop in ownership share in the future.

User satisfaction

• When it comes to various aspects related to user satisfaction, iQOO is either at the top or amongst the top three brands, which is quite an impressive feat for a newbie. The company tops several aspects, such as user satisfaction with the phones' speed and battery reliability. It also overtakes OnePlus as the most value-for-money brand in 2022. People are also satisfied with iQOO phones' software, cameras, and display capabilities.

• Alongside iQOO, we have Apple and OnePlus taking the top three positions in customer satisfaction. While Apple users are the happiest with the iPhone's cameras and software performance, OnePlus has the highest user satisfaction for display capabilities.

• An interesting trend that we noticed this year is Motorola slowly making its way to the top in user satisfaction. Over 50 percent of Motorola users say they are happy with their phone's speed, battery reliability, and display capabilities. Motorola has also overtaken Apple to claim the third spot as a value-for-money brand.

Service quality

• Smartphone OEMs are trying to ensure they have a good network of service centres in the country, allowing their users to easily find them and take their devices for repairs. According to our survey, over 60 percent of people have visited a service centre to fix issues with their phone, which is a sizeable number. Most of them say they had a good experience with the quality of service provided.

• No surprise that Apple continues to have the best service quality in the country, leading with a significant margin over OnePlus which is in the second position. Meanwhile, newbie brand iQOO has already claimed the third spot in user satisfaction with service quality despite being just a couple of years old.

Brand loyalty

• Brand loyalty is an important factor for any company as it assures them that customers will keep coming back for more. And here, Apple continues to dominate by a massive margin. The Cupertino giant tops the list as the brand with the most loyal users, with close to 80 percent of iPhone users likely to stick with Apple in the future.

• OnePlus and iQOO take the second and third positions with 49 percent and 43 percent brand loyalty, respectively.
• That said, iQOO has seen the biggest jump in brand loyalty from last year, suggesting that the brand is doing well in customer retention. Realme, Tecno, Xiaomi, and Samsung all saw a drop in brand loyalty from last year.

Smartphone purchase preference

• A majority of people prefer buying a new phone during festive sales to get the best deals and discounts. In fact, 38 percent of people in our survey group said they plan to buy their next phone during the upcoming pre-Diwali sales on Amazon, Flipkart, etc.

• When it comes to the latest features that people want in their phones, high-resolution cameras and high screen refresh rate rank as the most important ones. 29 percent of people want phones with 64MP or 108MP cameras while 26 percent want screens that support up to 120Hz refresh rates. Wireless charging ranked low when it came to features people want in their smartphones.

• People are increasingly choosing online e-commerce websites over offline stores to shop for gadgets. Roughly 74 percent of people say they would buy some type of gadget (smartwatch, fitness tracker, headphones, tablets, etc.) during the festive sales if they get a good deal.

To wrap up our Great Indian Smartphone Survey, we see brand iQOO making major leaps and bounds in terms of customer satisfaction, beating several established brands in just a short period of time. Apple continues to have the most loyal fans and that's not likely to change anytime soon. With the pre-festive sales just around the corner and Apple dropping prices of older iPhone models following the iPhone 14 launch, you can expect more people to switch to or upgrade to a new iPhone soon.