With the growth in the overall Chinese economy slowing down, its effects are also being felt by the country’s vibrant smartphone industry. The Indian economy meanwhile has been gaining momentum over the past few quarters, and the effect of that growth is now percolating down to the country’s burgeoning smartphone industry, if the latest report from IDC is to be believed. The Massachusetts-based market research, analysis and advisory firm has published its latest report on the health on the Indian smartphone market, which claims that the country’s smartphone industry has seen total shipments of 26.5 million smartphones in Q2, 2015, which is a 44 percent growth over the same period last year and a 19 percent growth over Q1, 2015.
As for the dominant vendors, IDC says that Samsung, in spite of all its well-documented trials and tribulations in recent times, continues to sit at pole position, with local players Micromax and Intex trailing in its wake. According to the report, the South Korean major leads the pack with a 23 percent market share, while Micromax is at 17 percent and Intex, at 11. Lava comes in at number 4 with just 7 percent of the market share, whereas Lenovo rounds out the top five with 6 percent share of the Indian smartphone market. The report goes on to state that Chinese vendors have increased their stake in the Indian market by an order of magnitude by managing to triple their shipments to the country compared to Q2, 2014. Even taking Q1, 2015 as the yardstick, companies from China have still managed to double their shipments, as prominent Chinese brands like Lenovo, Xiaomi and Huawei have together managed to grab 12 percent of the market with their affordably-priced, feature-rich offerings.
IDC also points out one important contributor to the surge in the Indian smartphone sector in the last quarter. Almost half of all phones sold in the country was apparently below the $100 mark, unlike in China, where the ultra low-end segment accounts for only around 20 percent of the overall market. Most local vendors like Micromax, Intex, Karbonn and Lava are present in this segment, and a recent report has suggested that Google also intends to join the fray by launching new Android One devices at the $50 mark. IDC has also predicted that the double digit growth in the Indian smartphone industry is here to stay, as LTE continues to gain more traction in the country. By 2017, India is expected to overtake the US as the second largest smartphone market in the world after China.