Indian customers increasingly prefer smart device ecosystem: Study

New Delhi: Aspirations of users are moving beyond smartphones to a smart device ecosystem to enable a truly connected experience, most popular use cases being smart TVs, watches, hearables, and home appliances, a new study has found.
Though smartphones continue to be the ‘hub of being smart’, close to 52 per cent consumers are aspiring to buy a smart TV as OTT viewership skyrockets, 36 per cent want a smart watch/speaker, and 31 per cent are vying for smart home appliances, according to a survey report by research firm by techARC.

“Although the journey had already started long back with Tablet PCs, Smart Watches, IP Surveillance Cameras and others, it has really swung up since the launch of Smart TVs, Streaming Devices, Smart Speakers among others,” said Faisal Kawoosa, Founder & Chief Analyst, techARC

He added that in the past three months, TWS (True Wireless Stereo) and Smart STB (Set-Top Box) are two categories that have seen huge uptake within smart device categories.

“Though users still strongly believe that brand plays a vital role in delivering the experience, however, among the technical reasons, the role of a processor is seen as the number 1 reason in impacting the experience,” the report said.

The component ecosystem has proactively responded to this trend as they are making their products available for several form-factors beyond smartphones.

Google has developed form-factor specific versions of Android OS and Corning is also offering display glass for various Smart devices.

Among the chipset manufacturers, MediaTek has taken a lead in terms of adoption of its chipset solution by various OEMs across several devices including TVs, Smart Speakers, STBs, TWS among others. Compared to this Qualcomm’s chipset has not yet gone primarily beyond Smartphones and TWS, the report said.