Chinese smartphone OEMs are on the rise, it has been that way for quite some time now. There are quite a few China-based smartphone manufacturers that have been doing great lately, like Xiaomi, Meizu and Huawei, for example. These three companies managed to increase their sales significantly in 2014, and analysts expect that trend to continue this year as well. That being said, many of them are looking for a way to enter other markets as well, considering the competition in the Chinese market is insane. To the majority of Chinese OEMs, India seems like a perfect place to expand, and they’re not he only ones.
Many smartphone manufacturers all over the world are bringing their devices to India, the second biggest smartphone market in the world. Now, let us share some India statistics with you, courtesy of India Express. The best selling devices in India are still budget handsets which usually don’t have 4G LTE connectivity on board, but it seems like 4G LTE handsets have been selling better than expected. In the first financial quarter of 2015, 2.2 million 4G LTE smartphones have been shipped in that Asian country. Samsung has shipped most 4G LTE devices, while Xiaomi is trailing behind this Korean tech giant. Samsung managed to grab 27% market share as far as 4G LTE smartphone shipments go, Xiaomi is at 17%, and Apple at 15%. According to analysts, Samsung managed to grab the first place thanks to their new Galaxy S6 flagship, and Galaxy A5 and A6 mid-range devices.
“Other than the need to appear distinctive in the market as well as move with worldwide industry trends, device vendors are also trying to create a ‘cult’ follower-ship in the emerging Broadband Wireless Access technology space,” said Faisal Kawoosa, Lead Analyst at CyberMedia Research. Another analyst, Vikrant Singh, added the following: “New brands entering this segment during the quarter were Huawei, Blackberry and ZTE. The total number of players shipping 4G/LTE devices in the quarter were 19, up from 12 in the previous quarter.”
55 different 4G LTE handset models shipped during the first quarter of the year, and Lenovo managed to take the first place with their A6000 mid-range handset which was apparently the hottest device around. The number of 4G LTE devices increased from 1.06 million in Q4 2014 to 2.2 million in Q1 2015 in India, which is a significant increase. This information is coming from CyberMedia’s report, and it seems like India will keep on growing, so we can expect even more 4G LTE handset to ship out in the second quarter this year.