Rural user hangs up on smartphone-buying plans

New Delhi: The digital divide between rural and urban areas has been widening, with smartphone sales in smaller towns and villages stagnating at 35-40% of total since mid-2021 amid rising prices and few takers for 5G devices.

Two independent research studies have found that a spending weakness has resulted in slowdown in smartphone sales in rural areas, with the top-tier cities still constituting a major proportion of smartphone sales. However, inflation has not dented data consumption in the rural regions.

In 2022, 35-40% of the 122 million smartphones sold in the country were bought in rural India, according to research firm IDC India.