Smartphone segment grows 167%

Samsung retains its top position; Indian players Micromax and Karbonn push away MNC players

Indian smartphone mobile segment is finally catching up with global peers. During January-April, 9.4 million smartphones were shipped into the country, a growth of 167.3 per cent on an annual basis, according to a survey. During the period, smartphones accounted for 12.8 per cent of the cell phone market in India.  

The country saw 73.5 million mobile handset shipments for the January-April period, representing a growth of 11 per cent year-on-year, said CyberMedia Research’s India Monthly Mobile Handsets Market Review, April 2013.

While South Korea-based Samsung Electronics retained its top position in the smartphone segment, Indian players Micromax and Karbonn emerged as the number two and three players, displacing other international rivals like Nokia and Sony Corp.

“The India smartphones market saw the entry of two local vendors among the top three positions for the first time, displacing tier 1 international players. This shows that market dynamics have changed in the India smartphones segment. One of the key reasons for this is that a large number of featurephone users are migrating to entry-level smartphones,” said Tarun Pathak, analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice. “A significant proportion of these were already using the devices of local vendors and preferred to continue with a smartphone of the same brand. Thus, local vendors have been able to introduce their new smartphone offerings to this captive customer base.”

Faisal Kawoosa, lead analyst, CMR Telecoms, added the featurephones market in India had matured, whereas the smartphones category was showing promising growth. “This is attracting relatively new entrants such as Micromax and Karbonn to start offering smartphones, particularly for entry level users who would like to migrate to a more sophisticated mobile experience.”  

The survey also stated the Indian players could well continue to maintain their market share during year.

“It is expected to sustain, till such time as one of the tier I international players like Nokia, BlackBerry, HTC or Sony Mobiles launch a sustained marketing and promotion drive to regain share or introduce a new, potentially disruptive mobile device technology,” Pathak added.