Trends to watch for in 2016 from industry experts

One more year has passed by in Information technology era, which brings the dawn of another new year and with it comes the time of speculations, calculations , new energy and new trends. So what will be New Year 2016 like? Let's try to find out with the vision of industry experts.

"Implementation of GST could again be a turning point for the smart device industry and might prove to be a barrier for an easy-India-entry strategy of  a lot of the chinese brands. GST will ensure taxation benefits for focus on distribution and for being present across the breadth of the country. 

"- Micromax

Micromax

Ecommerce has taken a very good shape in yesteryears and innovative solutions are coming up day by day which will make ecommerce accessible to more and more people. With launch of 4G LTE networks in India, more services can be availed with less hassle. From Paypal to Paytm we have come a long way. 2016 is expected witness even more growth on mobile wallets and services where these can be used with. Launch of offline digital cash solution such as PaySe is another giant step towards offline wallets.

“India is experiencing tremendous growth in the use of Internet as well as mobile. As per various estimates, there are a just under a billion cell phone connections in India and the country adds around 6 million new cell phones every month in usage. Although the number of Internet users is still low in comparison - around 200 million users, the conversion of cell phone users to mobile users is fast growing. As per telecom industry estimates, 65% of all new Internet users in India experience their first Internet surfing activity via mobile. I anticipate that many players will develop integrated mobile wallet apps, along with the usage of heavy online & offline marketing. In markets with a more advanced payments system, mobile wallets will have to do more than just execute a payment, they will have to add a value proposition beyond payments.” - Pradeep K Sampath, Chief Operating Officer at MMP Mobiwallet Payment Systems Limited

When talking about Ecommerce one cannot simply ignore the use of coupons , deals and comparision websites. Startups for online price comparison have seen a tremendous growth and similar services are expected to grow in 2016. Instead of looking specifications of hundreds of phone its now much convenient to do a simple search on such website for 2gb RAM mobile . A list of mobiles with required specifications with lowest price available helps user to take wise decisions backed by data. Similarly, using coupons and deals available on different platforms certainly saves one from spending too much.

Year 2015 has set an example for 2016 to follow. 2016 will be customer centric year with focus

on capturing each and every click of the user journey. We expect many more exclusive partnerships to get the best discounts for the users. India will overtake the US as the second largest market for smartphones in the world by 2016 as smart mobile devices become affordable, global research firm eMarketer has said. With Government of India’s ‘India Digital Plan’ that promises that by 2019, everyone in India will have a smartphone, the prospects of online shopping is only expected to grow. Overall, we expect to that digital coupons industry will grow 25% in 2016. - Ms Kulpreet Kaur, Co-founder, Shop Pirate Coupons

2015 also saw ecommerce playing on app only strategy but it seems that it didn't went as it was expected. 2016 will be a year of more focus on mobile platform but app only trend doesn't seem to follow at least at this time.

As mentioned earlier 2015 witnessed launch of 4G LTE services in India, and without any doubt 4G smartphones will be the new trend for 2016. Though 4G services have not gained that popularity but coming year is expected to see 4G becoming the common service to access internet among majority of Indian urban population.

With two 4G models from Lenovo featuring in the list of top 10 smartphones sold in 2015, Lenovo certainly emerged as the favourite smartphone brand of the year!

According to #FlipTrends, a year ender report by Flipkart, Lenovo A6000 plus and Lenovo K3 Note were the top two most sought after smartphones in 2015. Motorola closely followed with two smartphones, Moto G 3^rd Gen and Moto E 2^nd Gen featuring at the third and sixth position respectively. Xiaomi Mi 4i & Redmi Note 4G took fourth and fifth spots followed by Samsung Galaxy On7, Samsung Galaxy J7, Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 and Asus Zenfone 5.

As is the case with increasing mobile applications and penetration of smart phones with internet, the mobile led ecosystem is bound to grow at a faster rate. Brands such as Micromax , bringing affordable 4G smartphones to the market will be playing a major role in this revolution. 

“The ongoing trend of affordable smartphones will continue in the coming year as well with expected launch of more mid segment smartphones which will fit the budget and deliver the best in class experience to the customers. The innovative nature of the Smartphone industry has been steadily gaining ground in recent years and in a competitive market, manufacturers look towards providing users with features that give their products the cutting edge. Fast charging, better camera quality, fast data speed/quality and low-cost data connectivity options with introduction of 4G will be major game changers in 2016. At OPPO, we plan to launch 8-10 numbers of handsets in the coming year and are looking at 300% growth with more nation-wide channel partners.” -Mike Wang, CEO, OPPO Mobiles India

The Honorable Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ initiative gathered steam this year with not only the domestic manufacturers but also global brands investing hugely in local manufacturing which will further lead to his vision to ensure a smartphone in the hands of every citizen by 2019. Close to 30% of the handsets being sold monthly are manufactured or assembled locally giving a big boost to the Indian handset market as companies are now able to quickly bring the latest technologies to the market in a short span of time.

Within the handset industry, so far Samsung and Micromax have been the flag-bearers of “Make in India” by ramping up domestic manufacturing. In 2016, clearly a lot of additional capacity will come up as Chinese and Indian brands/ODMs drive investments into this space with continued policy incentives. This will be a key driver for new business models to emerge to ensure unit level profitability as operations ramp up. We may also witness the beginning of some key component level manufacturing as global component suppliers evaluate their business viability and setup establishments here.

Mobile led services will become mainstay and mobile internet ecosystem will grow beyond the 150-200 Mn smartphone users driven by a strong collaboration between the device, access and service eco-system. The entire mobile ecosystem will come with the launch of a number of services across sectors like entertainment, travel, healthcare and banking. The coming year will see the entire mobile industry joining hands with an aim to foster a culture of innovation, creating solutions that can take care of indigenous needs and building an empowered ecosystem for permeating technology into the nooks and crannies of the country. The key to this growth will be simplification through relevant services and availability of these in various Indian languages.

With prediction of such growth in Mobile ecosystem it is no surprise that mobile phones will dominate market share in terms of search data and other services. 

There’s good reason that mobile demands so much of our mindshare. Few technologic advancements have had such a profound effect on the way we live, work, play and socialize as mobile devices. We are likely to see a big shift in mobile search. With so much data available, and so many past browsing habits to draw from, we are likely to see highly contextualized search results. Results that use help of third-party apps to not just recommend a particular product, but find it in the customer’s preferred color, size, location, price range and much more. Also, mobile payments are on the rise around the globe. I expect this trend to take the mobile Internet by storm in the coming quarters. 360° Video is another trend I am bullish on. It will give users complete control over what they want to view and from what angle. Online shopping is likely to get a complete overhaul, giving consumers a real-time perspective about the products they are going to buy. In emerging markets, burgeoning smartphone and mobile Internet usage will fuel rise of regional and localised apps and games.

While we strived to keep up with breakthroughs in 2015, I expect 2016 to bring in seismic shifts. - Kenny Ye, MD, UCWeb India (part of Alibaba Mobile Business Group)

Implementation of GST could again be a turning point for the smart device industry and might prove to be a barrier for an easy-India-entry strategy of  a lot of the chinese brands. GST will ensure taxation benefits for focus on distribution and for being present across the breadth of the country. 

"Smart watches, Health monitors, Fitness trackers- The world of mobile is changing. The wearable landscape got a lot of attention this year, and it has helped fuel more talks about a future where every device or object could be connected. Today, the number of “things” that are connected to the Internet in a home have changed. While earlier, one would have a single desktop computers connected to the Internet, today the number of devices include tablets, laptops, gaming consoles, smartphones, Televisions and more.   

IoT will be a game changer and you will be able to see brands step out of their comfort zones, trying newer things. It can open up a new horizon and the possibilities are limitless. What is interesting is that Mobile will be at the center stage of this change. Everything that a user wants, will be and can be controlled through his mobile device. 2016 will be a beginning towards offering consumers this change. " - Rahul Sharma, Cofounder YU televentures