Indian cellphone market shrinks by 15 percent

Unit sales of mobile handsets in the Indian market declined by 15 percent during January-March 2015 even as Samsung continued to dominate the market, a study from a market researcher said on Wednesday.

According to a report from market researcher CyberMedia Research (CMR), of the total 53 million mobile handsets shipped during the first three months of this year, 37 percent -- accounting for 19.5 million units -- were smartphones.

The smartphone shipments declined quarter-on-quarter, by 7 percent, as compared to the over 18 percent decline in the feature-phones segment, a statement from the market researcher said.

"With major announcements of new handsets and entry of some new brands happening in a big way during October-December 2014, there wasn't really something very exciting in the market for customers that could push up sales in January-March 2015. At the same time, change in duty structure and the impact on the supply chain due to the Chinese New Year festivities contributed to the market contraction," Faisal Kawoosa lead analyst of telecom research at CMR said.

The finding stated that Samsung continued to rule the smartphone market, with it's market share in the feature-phone segment improving this year compared to the last three months of 2014.

Micromax, at second spot, registered a decline of 12.1 percent in terms of overall mobile handset shipments, while in the smartphones segment its market share was 16.2 percent as compared to 14 percent and 17.8 percent in October-December 2014.

"What is worrisome for the brand (Micromax) is its widening gap with Samsung, the market leader. While in October-December 2014, Micromax was just behind by 1.2 percent compared to Samsung in the overall mobile handsets market and in the smartphones segment the gap was 5.9 percent, in January-March of 2015, these gaps have increased to 6.4 percent and 11.7 percent respectively," the researcher said.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has been able to consolidate its position with 9.6 percent share during the period January-March 2015 compared to 10.8 percent in the previous fiscal quarter for the overall mobile handsets market.