In a bid to bolster the Indian mobile insurance industry, Airtel Payments Bank announced its partnership with ICICI General Insurance Company to provide smartphone insurance that offers device financial protection from damages caused by accidents, liquid spillage, or more.
The customers can get insured for a sum equal to the purchase price of their smartphone which can be priced anywhere between the range of Rs 10,000 to Rs 1,00,000. By paying a monthly premium of Rs 1,299, customers also have the facility to get this insurance on their own within 10 days of making the purchase. Post submission of requisite smartphone details, the insurance will be issued without any device health check.
Users will be able to avail this facility through the Airtel Thanks App. Additionally, there is a provision for making two claims up to the sum insured for a policyholder during the insurance period, alongside free pickup & delivery for the phone.
Commenting on the launch, Sanjeev Mantri, Executive Director, ICICI Lombard said, “There are over 750 million smartphone users currently in India and this number is likely to reach 1 billion by 2026, representing a burgeoning opportunity and huge potential for a product like smartphone insurance.
Per a 2020 report published by RedSeer, the Indian smartphone insurance segment could potentially become a $500 million market by 2025, with an expected CAGR of 29 percent per annum. It also noted the presence of multiple unlicensed players currently operating in the space, indicative of an absent regulatory ecosystem in this regard.
A Deloitte report also observed the skyrocketing digital awareness and internet connectivity in the country, with India having almost 1.2 billion mobile subscribers in 2021. Out of these, about 750 million were smartphone users.
As a result of this, the mobile phone insurance market is poised for growth, expected to reach about $76.1 billion by 2030, with the Asia-Pacific region manifesting the fastest CAGR in this sector, per a report by Allied Market Research.
Ganesh Ananthanarayanan, Chief Operating Officer, Airtel Payments Bank, noted, “In today's digital age, a smartphone is our lifeline. From connectivity to photography to banking, smartphones today help us with virtually anything. Its repair cost is typically very high, and thus we need to protect it right from the beginning."
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