Smartphone shipments in India grew 15% in Q2

Smartphone shipments in India grew a healthy 15 per cent in the second quarter this year compared to the global smartphone market which grew a mere three per cent, market research firm Counterpoint Research reported on Friday.

"LTE smartphones which grew 264 per cent, Chinese brands 80 per cent and devices in the $100-$150 price band 48 per cent year-on-year were the key major growth drivers for the smartphone market," said Karn Chauhan, Research Analyst, Counterpoint Research.

Chinese brands' capture almost 27 per cent combined share of the total smartphone market driven by brands such Lenovo, Vivo, Oppo, Xiaomi and LeEco in the country, added Chauhan.

This was a great quarter for "Make in India" initiative as number of brands manufacturing/assembling domestically jumped from 10 brands to 35 brands — contributing to almost 70 per cent of the total smartphones production volume in the second quarter.

But lack of component ecosystem is still a barrier to increase local value addition, the report noted.

Samsung headed the smartphone market during the quarter. Micromax maintained the second position while Intex stood third.

Lava, Lenovo and Motorola maintained the fourth spot.