Effects of the US export restrictions and the spin-off of Honor as a separate entity operating in the smartphone market cited as reasons.
Samsung is expected to retain its leadership, followed by Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Transsion this year.
Global smartphone production is expected to increase by 9% to 1.36b units this year compared to 1.25b last year.
Penetration rate of 5G smartphones is expected to increase to 37% in 2021 compared to 19% last year and reach 500m units.
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei is expected to tumble from third place in 2020 to seventh place in 2021 due to the effects of the US export restrictions and the spin-off of Honor as a separate entity operating in the smartphone market.
The aim behind this spin-off is to ensure the survival of Honor, which has become a major brand in the global smartphone market after years of labour. However, it remains to be seen whether the “new” Honor can capture consumers’ attention without support from Huawei.
Also, Huawei and the new Honor will be directly competing against each other in the future, especially if the former is somehow freed from the US trade sanctions at a later time. With the new Honor seeking to ramp up production, Huawei will have more difficulty in regaining market share for smartphones.
In 2021, Samsung is expected to retain its leadership, followed by Apple, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Transsion. Together, they will account for almost 80 per cent of the global smartphone market.
According to research firm TrendForce, the global smartphone production reached a mere 1.25 billion units in 2020 and Samsung remained the leader, followed by Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo.
The most glaring change from the previous year is Huawei’s market share.
Pandemic to remain the central variable
The global smartphone market is expected to gradually recover to 1.36 billion units, a nine per cent year-on-year increase as people become accustomed to the “new normal” resulting from the pandemic despite an 11 per cent decrease in smartphone production last year.
However, the pandemic will remain the central variable (or the biggest uncertainty) in the production projection because it will continue to exert significant influence on the global economy.
Besides the pandemic, the performance of smartphone brands during 2021 could also be affected by geopolitical instabilities and the lack of available production capacity in the semiconductor foundry market.
The Chinese government’s aggressive push for 5G commercialisation in 2020 helped the market to reach 240 million units, with 19 per cent penetration rate.
The Chinese brands accounting for almost a 60 per cent market share in 5G space.
5G to remain main topic
While 5G will remain a major topic in the smartphone market this year, various countries will also resume their 5G infrastructure build-out, and mobile processor manufacturers will continue to release entry-level and mid-range 5G chips.
As such, the penetration rate of 5G smartphones is expected to undergo a rapid increase to 37 per cent in 2021, for a yearly production of about 500 million units.
TrendForce indicates that smartphone brands’ recent bullish outlook towards the 2021 market and their attempt to secure more semiconductor supplies by increasing their smartphone production targets can potentially lead these brands to overbook certain components at foundries.
However, smartphone brands may adjust their component inventories from the second quarter of this year to the third quarter and reduce their semiconductor procurement activities if actual sales performances fall short of expectations, or if component bottlenecks remain unresolved, leading to a widening inventory gap between bottlenecked and non-bottlenecked parts.
Even so, TrendForce still forecasts an above-90 per cent capacity utilization rate for foundries in 2021.
First commercial devices powered by the Snapdragon 480 5G Mobile Platform are expected to be announced early this year.
Qualcomm Technologies in a bid to drive further proliferation of 5G has expanded it to 4-series mobile platform.
The Snapdragon 480 is set to accelerate 5G commercialisation to mass-volume smartphone segment in a bid to power in-demand productivity and entertainment experiences.
“Qualcomm Technologies continues to accelerate 5G commercialisation globally to make 5G smartphones more accessible, especially as people worldwide continue to connect remotely,” said Kedar Kondap, Vice-President for Product Management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
“The Snapdragon 480 5G Mobile Platform will exceed OEM’s and consumer’s expectations in delivering high- and mid-tier features at an affordable price.”
Adam Ferguson, global head of product marketing at HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, said that the new Snapdragon 480 5G Mobile Platform is a huge step towards global 5G access.
“We can’t wait to deliver advanced 5G capabilities to the mass market through upcoming device based on the new Snapdragon 480 5G Mobile Platform,” said Kinder Liu, Chief Operating Officer at, OnePlus.
The first commercial devices powered by the Snapdragon 480 5G Mobile Platform are expected to be announced early this year.
Key features:
5G and Connectivity: Snapdragon 480 features the Snapdragon X51 5G Modem-RF System to support mmWave and Sub-6 GHz 5G; Standalone (SA) and Non-standalone (NSA) modes; Time Division Duplexing (TDD), Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD), and Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) for top mobile performance and connectivity.
The Snapdragon X51 enables multi-gigabit 5G connections for near instantaneous uploads and downloads and supports multiple frequencies for flexibility and accessibility. With Qualcomm® FastConnect™ 6200, Snapdragon 480 also offers 2×2 Wi-Fi (dual Wi-Fi antennas) with a set of key Wi-Fi 6 features, such as 8×8 sounding with multi-user MIMO, for significant range and performance improvements, in addition to Bluetooth 5.1 and advanced wireless audio capabilities.
Snapdragon 480 features additional trailblazing wireless technologies such as support for Dual-frequency GPS and NavIC for accurate location positioning.
Performance and Battery: Snapdragon 480 allows smartphone users to stay productive longer and recharge faster. The platform, based on 8nm process, features the Qualcomm Kryo 460 CPU with up to 2.0 GHz, Qualcomm Adreno 619 GPU, and Qualcomm® Hexagon 686 Processor to deliver up to 100 per cent performance improvement in CPU and GPU, and up to 70 per cent AI performance improvement compared to the previous generation. Snapdragon 480 also supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology, a first in a 4-series.
Camera: Capture stunning photos and videos with Qualcomm Spectra 345 ISP – the first triple ISP in a 4 series. Capture from all three cameras simultaneously. Triple 13MP photo capture can deliver an image from the ultrawide, wide and telephoto camera all at once or capture triple 720p videos simultaneously.
Entertainment: The Snapdragon 480 upgrades streaming and gaming user experiences. The 120fps FHD+ display support provides incredible content clarity and quick, smooth graphics rendering. The platform offers fully immersive entertainment with Qualcomm aptX audio, optimized gaming experiences across popular titles, seamless streaming for HD content, and faster application load times.
Carriers in MENA will be continuing their work aggressively deploying Open RAN to expand their 2G, 3G, 4G footprints and modernise their networks to be more competitive in the next five years.
Once seen as an “emerging” technology, Open RAN is maturing. Open RAN, which has been touted as one of the most significant trends to transform the telecom industry, took off in ways no one ever expected in 2020.
The consolidation of the RAN supply chain and suppliers with security risks forced mobile operators around the globe to get creative and open up their network to Open RAN faster than any other new technology in the past.
This was possible by Open RAN driven innovation, a promise of TCO savings of up to 40 per cent, and enablement of supplier diversity with the disaggregation of hardware and software components.
Amrit Heer
From more Open RAN hardware to large Open RAN footprint buildouts and supporting brand-new user cases like urban deployments, here are nine Open RAN trends we predict for 2021.
Prediction 1: 2021 is the inflection point for Open RAN adoption. 2021 will be a year of “disillusionment” as there will be more trials, more deployments, and more findings of challenges and opportunities that are faced with deploying Open RAN. Open RAN will be deployed more widely for new use cases like very dense urban.
And that is where our next prediction comes in.
Prediction 2:Large scale deployments and urban deployments. There will be more large-scale deployments of hundreds of sites in brownfield, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks in MENA. As we know, many service providers in the MENA region have been steadily adding Open RAN to their already established 2G, 3G and 4G mobile infrastructure.
Carriers in MENA will be continuing their work aggressively deploying Open RAN to expand their 2G, 3G, 4G footprints and modernise their networks to be more competitive in the next five years, ensuring their overall network infrastructure is Open RAN, not just 5G. Proven in rural, Open RAN will be deployed in urban in 2021 with large-scale urban Open RAN deployments happening in 2022 across the region.
Prediction 3. Deployment cost will drive Open RAN adoption in emerging markets. We already see commitments from large operators like MTN, Etisalat, Zain, Orange, and Vodafone to use Open RAN to bring coverage in developing markets.
Those deployments will be accelerating in 2021. We will see Open RAN used in emerging markets for any new 2G or 3G or 4G deployments: vendor choice, lowest TCO, easy upgradability – will help emerging market MNOs to bring connectivity to more end users.
In addition, it will help them to realise network ROI much faster– and that is why Open RAN will become a leading technology in developing regions in 2021 and beyond. This is where our next prediction comes in, covering how the ecosystem will evolve to make this happen.
Prediction 4: Expanded ecosystem, beyond just hardware and software suppliers. To meet Open RAN deployment demands, more players will be joining the ecosystem. In addition to software and hardware players, we will see more system integrators and tower companies jumping in to support Open RAN as integrators or hosts. This will help to define new business and deployment models like neutral hosting, MORAN and MOCN.
What will be more critical is how an open RAN ecosystem is sustained through its market adoption curve. Today we have the innovators and possibly early adopters on board. But there is a chasm between these and the majority of operators buying this. True multi-vendor open RAN will require sustained investment from innovative operators and the building of strong partnerships and ecosystems between vendors, system integrators, regulators and local governments.
Prediction 5: CI/CD fuels edge computing and gets paired with Machine Learning (ML). Continuous integration and continuous development (CI/CD) will fuel edge computing, and mobile operators will start pairing it up with ML to improve site automation. A recent report stated that edge computing will drive approximately $7 billion in revenue by 2025. While as much as two-thirds of this revenue will accrue to the cloud players, mobile operators will play important roles in deploying and hosting RAN sites and providing connectivity to end-users and businesses.
In their Predictions 2021 report, Forrester said, “Until now, edge computing was promising but still developing. In 2021, new business models will emerge that facilitate the deployment of an edge in production.”
And this is where CI/CD will come in. CI/CD won’t just be in the telecom data centre anymore — it will be enabled to push software updates to the edge, to enable seamless and remote upgrades of Open RAN sites.
As a result, this CI/CD trend will push along the ML trend in 2021. Forrester predicts that public cloud spending will slow in 2021 in favour of edge computing spending, and this is where we see ML coming in and being explored to take over some of the manual tasks like drive testing, helping not only reduce the labour cost but also to create powerful algorithms to speed up any site adjustments and changes.
In the long term, we predict that automation and artificial intelligence will change the way mobile operators respond to customer and network problems before the end-user even knows there is a problem. In the short-term, gains and developments will start happening in 2021.
Prediction 6: More Open RAN hardware from RUs to Massive MIMOs supporting 7.2 split. In 2021, we will see more hardware availability, especially supporting the 7.2 split. Why? O-RAN interfaces come in where 3GPP interfaces don’t exist.
A requirement of vendors supporting split 7.2 will ensure vendor diversity and interoperability going forward and will allow the mixing and matching of RUs with CU and DU software that will be deployed on an x86.
Considering this, we believe more mobile operators will require their All G Open RAN solutions to support O-RAN 7.2 split. As we know, 2G and 3G will be here for a while, so learning from the past, MNOs will want to deploy a true Open RAN platform when modernizing their legacy systems – which is only possible when RUs and software are able to run over 7.2 radios. And this where our next prediction comes in.
Prediction 7: O-RAN support for 2G, 3G, and 4G. As more and more operators use Open RAN to modernize their networks, hardware and software vendors will be required to make Open RAN solutions available over 7.2 split radios. With steadier ramp-up to 5G consumer adoption, and therefore, slower-to-realise increases in revenue for MNOs, reducing overall network cost will be top of mind for mobile operators – and that includes 2G, 3G and 4G deployments, expansions or modernisation.
The strategy of modernizing or expanding legacy networks with Open RAN will improve economics, but supplier resilience can be only guaranteed with commonly supported interfaces (7.2 in this case).
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) notes that while device penetration has stalled at 4 per cent for 5G enabled devices, it expects the market will hit a tipping point in 2023 (!), where 5G devices will be more accessible.
Before 2023, Open RAN will be used to modernize legacy cellular networks. The value of 5G will become increasingly mainstream in the next few years when Open RAN technology and the supply chain will be more established and matured.
So far, many operators have failed to get any tangible revenue from 5G. In the near term, many operators will continue to evolve their 5G capabilities, but a full-grown standalone 5G Open RAN technology implementation will take longer as we mentioned in our prediction 3.
What do we see as the mobile operator’s “insurance policy” for RAN vendor diversity? Deployment of 7.2 compliant O-RAN architectures for legacy networks. Being able to run ALL G software over 7.2 Open RAN RUs won’t be a choice; it will become a requirement.
A fully O-RAN compliant 2G, 3G, 4G is needed to broaden any 5G Open RAN deployment at scale when the time comes. 3GPP, the global telecommunications standards body, agreed to a new extended timeline for the next 5G specification.
Known as Release 17, the schedule now anticipates completion in 2022, with a freeze in March 2022, followed by coding protocols frozen and stable in June 2022.
That is why we see that OpenRAN deployments in 2021 will be mostly for brownfield 2G 3G and 4G networks.
Prediction 8:Open RAN security. Now more than ever, MENA service providers are focused on their RAN TCO and are relying on Open RAN more and more as their infrastructure of choice. And as the Open RAN market is maturing, security is not just a part of the conversation heading into next year, it is a part of every single deployment or trial by default. Open RAN will enable intelligent and secure path control and traffic-steering based on the application, in rural and urban environments.
Prediction 9:Role of the Cloud and DU/CU deployment. In 2021, as there will be more Open RAN deployments in MENA, the answer to what to distribute and what to centralize will be addressed on a case by case basis.
As DU functionality is real-time, it will be always co-located with RUs on site. There is no real benefit of placing CU functionality, which is near-real-time, in the data centre, and right now many of the Open RAN deployments co-locate DU/CU software functionality on the same x86 server that is shared between multiple RUs on site.
In theory, CU software can be hosted in a public cloud, and that could be an option for urban deployments.
In summary, there are many more operators looking to add Open RAN technology to their production networks in 2021, including AT&T, BT, the three major Chinese operators, Deutsche Telekom, Dish Network, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Reliance Jio, SK Telecom, Telus, TIM, Turkcell, Verizon, Vodafone, MTN, Orange, Etisalat and Tier 2 and 3 operators in the US.
Source: Omdia
That’s likely why industry analysts are becoming much more bullish about the prospects for the Open RAN market globally and in MENA.
Dell’Oro Group had previously expected revenues from Open RAN hardware, baseband and software elements to hit about $200 million this year, but now expects that figure to be about $300 million.
The firm predicts that by 2024, operators will spend somewhere north of $3 billion on Open RAN products, which is a double-digit share of the market in the next five years.
Source: ABI Research
By 2026, ABI Research predicts that for public outdoor networks, sales of Open RAN products will reach $40.7 billion, or 45 per cent share. They also see OpenRAN approaching economics of scale in the next few years.
RAN Research, part of Rethink Research, is expecting Open RAN to “account for 58% of total RAN CAPEX (Open RAN hardware, software and services) spending at $32.3 billion and to be deployed at 65% of all sites by 2026.”
Omdia’s forecast on Open RAN has been raised significantly in the last few months. They now forecast Open RAN to see a year on year growth of 250% in 2020 to become a $3.2 billion market in 2024.
Though numbers vary between analyst firms as we can see, the future of Open RAN looks very hopeful for sure in the next five years, and 2021 will lay a good foundation for that future across the MENA region.
Amrit Heer is the Sales Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Parallel Wireless.
Introduction of low-cost models to satisfy the typical mileage requirements at an acceptable price point.
OEMs will need to develop more innovative approaches to the life cycle management of EVs.
Nissan Leaf, Hyundai IONIQ electric and Tesla Model 3 will be key to making EVs a viable option for the typical consumer.
Automotive industry should not expect a return to the new vehicle sales volumes of recent years in 2021, experts say.
Electric vehicles will transition from a niche to mainstream this year with the introduction of low-cost models that satisfy the typical mileage requirements at an acceptable price point, industry experts said.
As EV owners shift from the legacy of environmentally conscious, James Hodgson, Principal Analyst for Smart Mobility and Automotive at ABI Research, said that enthusiastic technology first adopters to more typical automotive consumers and OEMs will need to develop more innovative approaches to the life cycle management of EVs.
Models slated to be introduced to market include the Skoda Enyaq iV, delivering a 316-mile range with a starting price of $41,139 and the SEAT Cupra el-Born delivering a 310-mile range.
Both models demonstrate the spread of VW’s modular electric drive matrix (MEB) EV-specific platform throughout VW’s brands.
Although EVs still command a cost premium over Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) equivalents, Hodgson said that high-volume models, such as those based on the MEB platform, the Nissan Leaf, Hyundai IONIQ electric, and the Tesla Model 3 will be key to making EVs a viable option for the typical consumer.
“For success in 2021, especially after a very challenging 2020, one must understand fundamental trends early, and take a view on those trends that are buoyed by hyperbole and those that are sure to be uncomfortable realities. Now is the time to double down on the right technology investment,” Stuart Carlaw, Chief Research Officer at ABI Research, said.
Critical elements
However, Hodgson said that smart charging technologies, support for occasional Direct Current (DC) fast charging, and battery management will be critical in supporting mainstream consumers in their transition from ICEs to EV ownership.
Furthermore, he said that the automotive industry should not expect a return to the new vehicle sales volumes of recent years in 2021.
“The market size is expected to remain subdued until 2024 given the prospect of repeated lockdowns, long-term remote working, and a bleak macroeconomic outlook,” he said.
In the first half of last year, he said the market for new vehicles contracted by around 70 per cent due to Covid-19.
“Covid-19 and the measures taken to contain the spread of the virus dealt a double blow to the already faltering automotive market, disrupting supply chains and depriving the industry of the bricks-and-mortar retail environment on which it heavily relies,” Hodgson said.
Market to remain subdued until 2024
Many OEMs reported a return to growth in the third quarter of 2020 as offset demand from the first half of 2020, manifested in a summer period that saw many governments lift restrictions and allow auto dealerships to reopen.
“The market size is expected to remain subdued until 2024 given the prospect of repeated lockdowns, long-term remote working, and a bleak macroeconomic outlook,” he said.
At the same time, he said a boom in used vehicle sales will further cannibalise the precarious new-vehicle market.
As a result, many innovative technology developers are looking to the aftermarket and retrofit space to account for the OEM interest drop, Hodgson said.
Mobile devices and operating systems will be increasingly targeted as business becomes more mobile than ever and remote working persists.
Increased IT and security budgets in the healthcare sector expected to combat the growth in external threats.
Cloud-jacking through public clouds will become the island-hopping strategy of choice for cybercriminals.
Everything is different, and yet the same. As we look ahead to the cybersecurity landscape in the next 12 months, it is from a position no one predicted this time last year.
Business operations have changed beyond recognition with most employees working from home in a transition that happened almost overnight.
Tom Kellermann, Head of Cybersecurity Strategy at VMware Carbon Black.
Stretched security teams have been challenged to rapidly deploy robust remote working facilities to maintain productivity. Most were writing the ‘pandemic playbook’ as they went along.
Ironically, one of the few certainties of the situation was that cybercriminals would take advantage of the disruption to escalate campaigns. In that sense, nothing changed, except that the opportunity was suddenly much greater.
As a result, nine in ten security professionals surveyed by our Threat Analysis Unit said they were facing increased attack volumes, which they attributed to the new distributed working environment.
The effects of Covid-19 will continue to impact the cybersecurity sector for some time, but they are not the only considerations. This year we’ve seen cybercrime and cybercriminal groups continue along a path of technical and industry innovation that will see new strategies and tactics gain traction in 2021.
We have also seen cyber defences tested like never before and, for the most part, they have held firm; there is a reason for cybersecurity professionals to be optimistic.
With this in mind, the following are six trends we expect to see, and key areas cybersecurity professionals should keep their eyes on in 2021.
1. Remote-working focuses attacker attention on mobile compromise
As business becomes more mobile than ever and remote working persists, mobile devices and operating systems will be increasingly targeted. As employees use personal devices to review and share sensitive corporate information, these become an excellent point of ingress for attackers.
If hackers can get into your Android or iPhone, they will then be able to island-hop into the corporate networks you access, whether by deactivating VPNs or breaking down firewalls.
We will also see hackers using malware such as Shlayer to access iOS, ultimately turning Siri into their listening device to eavesdrop on sensitive business communications.
Combating these risks requires a combination of new mobile device policies and infrastructure designed to facilitate continued remote working, as well as raising employee awareness of the persistent risks and the importance of digital distancing.
2. Continuing direct impacts on healthcare
In terms of the direct impact of Covid, the healthcare sector, at the heart of crisis response, will see the adaptations it made to try and maintain patient services become a vulnerability.
With a growing reliance on telemedicine for routine medical appointments lucrative personally identifiable information (PII) is being accessed from remote locations and as a result is more easily intercepted by hackers.
At the same time, vaccine-related data on trials and formulae is some of the most sought-after intellectual property right now and the drive to get hold of it for financial or political gain is putting healthcare and biotech organisations under intense pressure from external threats and insider risk.
That said, the strain on healthcare cybersecurity is not going unheeded; we will see increased IT and security budgets in the sector to combat the growth in external threats.
3.Emerging tactical trends: cloud-jacking and destructive ICS attacks
As the New Year dawns, we will see tried and tested tactics evolving to become more sophisticated and take advantage of changes in network architecture.
Cloud-jacking through public clouds will become the island-hopping strategy of choice for cybercriminals as opportunity proliferates due to the overreliance on public clouds by the newly distributed workforce.
It won’t be only the virtual environment under threat. Increasing cyber-physical integration will tempt nation state-sponsored groups into bolder, more destructive attacks against industrial control system (ICS) environments.
Critical National Infrastructure, energy and manufacturing companies will be in the crosshairs as OT threats ramp up. Our analysts are seeing new ICS-specific malware changing hands on the dark web and we are likely to see it in action in the coming year.
4. The ransomware economy pivots to extortion and collaboration
Another familiar tactic taking on a new twist is ransomware. Ransomware groups have evolved their approach to neutralise the defensive effect of back-ups and disaster recovery by making sure they’ve exfiltrated all the data they need before the victim knows they’re under attack.
Once the systems are locked attackers use the data in their possession to extort victims to pay to prevent the breach from becoming public. And if that fails, they can sell the data anyway, meaning the victim is doubly damaged.
Ransomware is such big business that the leading groups are collaborating, sharing resources and infrastructure to develop more sophisticated and lucrative campaigns. Not all collaborations will be successful, however, and we’ll see groups disagreeing on the ethics of targeting vulnerable sectors such as healthcare.
5. AI utilised for defensive and offensive purposes
Technology innovation is as relevant to attackers as it is to defenders and, while artificial intelligence and machine learning have significant benefits in cybersecurity, we can expect to see adversaries continue to advance in the way AI/ML principles are used for post-exploitation activities.
They’ll leverage collected information to pivot to other systems, move laterally and spread efficiently – all through automation.
The silver lining is that in 2021 defenders will begin to see significant AI/ML advancements and integrations into the security stack. Security automation will be simplified and integrated into the arsenal of more organisations – not just those with mature SOCs.
As awareness of how attackers are using automation increases, we can expect defenders to fix the issue, maximising automation to spot malicious activity faster than ever before.
6. Defender confidence is justifiably on the rise
To finish on a resoundingly positive note, this year we saw cyber defences placed under inconceivable strain and they flexed in response. Yes, there were vulnerabilities due to the rapidity of the switch to fully remote working, but on the whole security tools and processes are working. Defender technology is doing the job is it designed to do and that is no small feat.
The mission-critical nature of cybersecurity has never been more apparent than in 2020 as teams have risen to the challenge of uniquely difficult circumstances.
In recognition of this, we will see board-level support and a much healthier relationship between IT and security teams as they collaborate to simultaneously empower and safeguard users. 2020 has been the catalyst for change for which we were more than ready.
Tom Kellermann is Head of Cybersecurity Strategy at VMware Carbon Black.
DG+ expects double-digit growth as people are not dining and spending on fashion as they are indoors.
Pandemic has changed consumer behaviour a lot and people are upgrading their audio solutions as they stay more time indoors.
Streaming business is going to grow more with 5G and that is going to help the industry.
Having personalised home theatre, music lounge and gaming zone are on top of the UAE consumers’ list as they are spending more time at home, an industry expert said.
Speaking to TechChannel News, Hitesh Ojha, Head of Audio Video Business at DG+, an audio-visual solutions unit of Sharaf DG Business, said that Covid-19 has changed consumer behaviour a lot and they are going to spend more time indoors for a longer period, even after post-pandemic.
“People are investing in good audio and video equipment. Since they are spending more time at home, people are upgrading their audio solutions,” he said.
The home entertainment business has done well for DG+, he said and added that they expect double-digit growth as people are not dining and spending on fashion as they are indoors.
“We expect to close the year with more than10 per cent growth when compared to 2019. With TVs becoming thin and to do justice to it, people are buying amplifiers and speakers to get proper surround sound when watching good movies,” he said.
Even in gaming, he said that people need proper surround speakers to get immersed in it.
“There are certain brands that have a certain type of pull in the home entertainment market such as JBL and Bose. From an audio files perspective, there are other brands such as Kef, Q Acoustics, Definitive Technology and Bowers & Wilkins speaker that offer much more in reproducing audio details,” he said.
Big brands under its belt
DG+ has partnerships with Denon, Marantz, Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, Kef, Bowers & Wilkins, Sonos, Taga, Q Acoustics and more.
DG+ was started in 2007 after witnessing space in the premium audio space.
“We understand what our customers need, and working with global partners, we reverberate premium entertainment experience into the comfort of their homes,” Ojha said.
Market statistics show that revenues from the home entertainment segment are projected to reach AED45 billion this year globally, with an expected annual growth rate of 12.1 per cent between 2020-2025, resulting in a projected market volume of AED79 billion by 2025.
The data from Statista also explains that the home entertainment segment already enjoys a household penetration of 6.3 per cent, which is expected to hit 14.1 per cent by 2025.
On average, Ojha said that people are investing more than AED15,000 for a proper cinematic experience and on the higher end, people are also converting rooms into cinema rooms.
Converting rooms into cinema outfits
“We convert rooms into cinema outfit with turnkey solutions, including recliner chairs. More people are moving in that direction. Even, children are using that space for educational purposes as they become more involved in it. It is not only that people are converting rooms in villas to cinema rooms but also in flats,” he said.
People stick to one brand for amplifiers, he said, but in the speaker space, it depends and if a new brand launches a speaker, people would like to demo it and if they like more than what they have, then they purchase a new brand.
Otherwise, he said that they [consumers] stick to the same brand for speakers.
With 5G already rolled out, Ojha said the streaming business is going to grow more and that is going to “help us to bring that cinematic experience to more homes of more people. Streaming is here to stay and there is no doubt about it.”
