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Analysis: Smartphones retain primacy among Indonesian consumers
âBeating a dead horseâ is an old English saying about stubbornness and futility, and while this author is in no way comparing Indonesian consumers to this majestic animal, this English idiom seems relevant to many device manufacturers in the Indonesian market today
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'Beating a dead horse' is an old English saying about stubbornness and futility, and while this author is in no way comparing Indonesian consumers to this majestic animal, this English idiom seems relevant to many device manufacturers in the Indonesian market today.
While devices like the desktop evolved to notebooks, and feature phones have continuously evolved to smartphones, the next 'pot of gold' was seen in the tablet market as a natural progression for Indonesian customers to grow within their own digital ecosystem, and to find relevancy in how all three of these devices played a critical role in their daily lives.
The answer at present is: 'They are nice to have, but they can be done without'.
Despite the healthy growth of shipments seen in the tablet device market, the International Data Corporation (IDC) Indonesia's consumer survey data has shown that the smartphone is still the ultimate gadget of choice, and was selected as a 'primary' gadget even above the PC when it came to work and leisure.
The obvious fact is that the smartphone may not fare as well as the PC when it comes to productivity tools such as word processing, project management and others ' but the rise in importance of email communication has made the smartphone an irreplaceable part of an Indonesian consumer's life for both 'work' and 'play'.
The commoditization of these devices has also made it easier to own one, but with tablets being priced almost on a par with smartphones in the market today, is the primacy of the smartphone now being challenged?
The answer based on IDC Indonesia's surveys is a resounding 'no'.
There are many reasons why the tablet has been unable to dominate the lives of Indonesian consumers, ranging from the device being of shared ownership to the screen size being too big for daily consumption.
There is a preference for you, the consumer, to not want to carry too many devices, and this is where the 2-in-1 proposition becomes compelling.
The question this author has for the consumers out there, is whether a personal 'digital ecosystem' makes sense to you today?
With the introduction of 'wearables' into the Indonesian market by many vendors, and the recent hype over the Apple iWatch, the key question remains whether these things are a few years too early for the country.
Let's be honest and state that the success of these gadgets in enhancing one's life is based on if a larger ecosystem exists outside your own personal 'digital ecosystem', if connectivity holds up and if a true high-speed network connection can be provided.
At present, the opinion of this author is that these items end up being fairly expensive fashion accessories, more so than being a practical part of our lives.
Our surveys have continued to show that Indonesian consumers are increasing their understanding of the technology provided to them within all these gadgets ' but price sensitivity has continued to reduce.
Quarter on quarter, IDC Indonesia has witnessed between 25-30 percent on average 'first time buyers' across three main devices; notebooks, cell phones and tablets, which lends the country to a widening base of 'first time users' in the future.
How long this user base will persist depends largely on how fast the digital migration can occur ' and in staring at the current scenario, the rate of digital consumerization is not moving as fast as expected, as these devices have not impacted the lives of villagers, farmers, fishermen, traders and the like as much as we want them to.
Moving forward, IDC Indonesia foresees that the emphasis on digitalizing Indonesia is going to play a critical role in how digital migration continues to occur.
The smartphone is expected to be the first access device for any given consumer introduced to the digital world and will continue to move ahead.
It's the easiest entry point for most Indonesians, one that the PC and tablet will not threaten ' and despite the optimism of vendors in viewing the future of connected devices, being that which is relevant to Indonesia, this still seems many years away as the fundamentals will need to be planted.
Ultimately, the goal is for information technology to not just be 'part' of one's life, but to be one's 'way' of life ' and for dependency on interconnectedness to be the driving force for the proliferation of these devices.
However, while everyone is selling a product, who here is selling quality of life?
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The writer is country director of IDC Indonesia
