We know the smartphone markets in US and China are huge. In fact, they’re the top two markets in the world, but that was to be expected really. Who do you think is in third? If you had to guess, what market would you bet on?
Would it be Canada? What about the UK? Japan?
Nope, it’s not any one of those markets. India actually just took third place for the largest smartphone market in the world in Q1 2013, breezing past Japan. That certainly explains why all of the tech companies seem to be shifting focus over there lately. It’s also why Blackberry claims to have a strong foothold still, besides their growing user base in Africa.
This information comes from a report by Neil Mawston at Strategy Analytics.
Guess what? Our beloved Android is taking most of the market share in India, as well. A majority of Indian smartphones, 90% to be more exact, are running Android. It seems silly, but Apple is using heavily subsidized pricing to catch up, while Nokia is just placing all bets on cheaper handsets like the Lumia 520. It will be interesting to see how Apple fares against those looming numbers.
Of course, the number one and number two spots still belong to China and the US respectively. It looks like the US is losing steam, and might be taken over by another market real soon as year-on-year stats have dropped to 19% in the States. When compared to China (with 63%) and India (at 163%), it looks like US will be in the running real soon for third place if things don’t change.
These stats essentially just point out the obvious. Smartphone companies can no longer ignore India or the middle-east, otherwise they’ll be in for a world of hurt. Especially if India grows to be the top smartphone market in the world, the companies that can get in there the fastest will benefit the most. The market is clearly still growing, so there are plenty of hungry consumers over there ready to gobble up smartphones.
What do you think of this news? Are you surprised that the US will probably drop out of place soon?