Samsung leads Indian smartphone market in April-June

Samsung retained its premier position in the Indian smartphone market at the end of the second quarter (April-June) of the current calendar year with a market share of 24.5 percent, data released by Hong-Kong based Counterpoint Research shows.

However, Samsung, which had 27.8 percent of the market share in the first quarter (January-March), lost 3.3 percent in the quarter under review while domestic handset-maker Micromax, which had a market share of 15.3 percent in the first quarter, gained 1.4 percent in the second quarter to rise to 16.7 percent.

Micromax regained market share during the June-ending quarter mostly due to increase in sales from online sales channel and its Bolt series, the analytics firm said.

According to the report, Micromax's new brand Yu, which launched its second model Yuphoria during the quarter, also boosted sales volumes.

The vendor has also scaled up its domestic manufacturing operations in its local facility in Rudrapur with a production output of now 2 million units per quarter which also pushed the firm towards the top spot, it added.

"Samsung remained aggressive in terms of promotion during the quarter with its flagship models S6 and S6 edge launch. As a result, Samsung's S6 series shipments sell-in remained healthy and out-shipped iPhone 6 series by 2:1," the report said.

Intex took the third position, capturing slightly under 10 percent of the smartphone market, riding on the demand of sub-$100 smartphones. Lenovo and Lava grabbed the fourth and fifth spots, respectively.

Lenovo was also the second largest LTE smartphone vendor during the quarter. While Xiaomi smartphone shipments increased sequentially during the quarter, Apple's iPhone shipments remained strong during the quarter as vendor expanded its distribution reach through both -- online and offline channel -- by adding more partners.

"The Cupertino-based vendor also crossed 1 million unit shipments in the seven months of its fiscal since October 2014. An achievement that it took almost 12 months to manage in its last financial year," the analytics firm said.

"Microsoft also found its place among top five overall mobile phone brands during the quarter but Lumia shipments declined sequentially," it added.

Among other trends mapped by Counterpoint, almost 30 percent of the total smartphones sold during the quarter were through the online channels and 'exclusive' online only smartphone sales contributed to more than 20 percent of the total smartphone sales.

Also, one in four smartphones sold during the quarter was LTE (long-term evolution) capable and one in five phones shipped during the quarter were "Made in India".

As per the report, the overall India mobile phone market registered a year-on-year decline of two percent and a quarter-on-quarter increase of four percent.

However, the smartphone segment registered a year-on-year increase of 34 percent and quarter-on-quarter increase of 25 percent. Feature phones saw a sharp decline with shipment volumes down to 19 percent year-on-year and 9 percent quarter-on-quarter.