Every month we get the latest figures from the IDC on who is rising, falling and going nowhere in the smartphone market. These are reports on OEM’s, how they have fared and more importantly how many units they have shipped. Typically speaking, our coverage normally centers around the worldwide and US markets. However, India is quickly becoming a significant market in the smartphone industry. Back in August we reported on how the Indian smartphone market had grown 84% and it does not seem to be slowing down at all.
The latest report from the IDC shows that in Q3 India emerged as the fastest growing smartphone market in the Asia-Pacific area. In total 23 million smartphones were shipping in India in Q3 and this represents a 27% increase quarter-on-quarter. Similarly, this also represents an 82% increase year-on-year. As a result, India certainly seems to be one of the markets OEM’s should be focusing on, and they are. The reports also note of the OEMs who operate in the Indian market, Samsung and Micromaxx are doing very well. Samsung (consistent with their status as biggest android smartphone manufacturer) was at the top of the tree, owning 24% of the smartphone market. Interestingly though, not far behind was Micromaxx (who are a homegrown smartphone manufacturer) who managed to claim 20% of the market. Also interestingly, the results showed that the ‘Others’ category accounted for the majority of sales with 36% overall. If you are interested in who else is making an impact then Lava, Karbonn and Motorola all secured 8%, 8% and 5% of the market respectively.
As explained in the IDC report, one reason for the quarter-on-quarter (as well as year-on-year) increase in India is the continual consumer migration from ‘feature phones’ (aka dumbphones) to smartphones. This leads to what is possible an unnatural setting for comparisons to other markets like the US. That said though, there can be little arguing with the growth in smartphone sales that is occurring in India. Another reason provided for specific Q3 increases was the festive season which helped to bolster smartphones sales. What do you think of the breakdown of OEM’s in the Indian market? Do you think Micromaxx will soon overtake Samsung? Let us know.
