Demand for 5G smartphones nosedives in Southeast Asian countries

Bengaluru: As India plans to usher in the 5G era, the demand for 5G-compatible devices has nosedived in Southeast Asia as practical uses of 5G have yet to be seen amid rising inflation, a new report said on Monday.

5G deployment in developing Southeast Asian markets has been abysmal, ensuring the hype for 5G has dwindled, and demand has shifted to more practical aspects of smartphones such as battery life, storage, processor speed and camera quality, reports Canalys.

“The demand for 5G devices has come to a standstill. 5G devices experienced their first sequential decline to 18 per cent of overall smartphone shipments in Q2,” said research analyst Chiew Le Xuan.