According to the latest report released by the International Data Corporation, the Indian smartphone market has seen a sharp 21.4 percent increase in shipments during the third quarter of this year, from 23.3 million devices in Q3, 2014 to 28.3 million units during the same three-month period, this time around. The report, titled “Asia Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker” claims that a third of the handsets sold in the country during the three months from July to September this year were LTE-enabled, and almost half the devices sold had at least a 5-inch display panel. According to Mr. Karthik J, Senior Market Analyst, Client Devices, at IDC, “The growth in the smartphone market was helped by rising demand for affordable 4G smartphones”. Samsung replaced Lenovo as the largest seller of 4G devices in the country, a position earlier occupied by the Chinese technology giant, thanks to the uptake of its affordable 4G handsets like the Lenovo A6000, A6000 Plus and the K3 Note, all of which are still fairly popular.
Samsung has only recently started selling LTE-enabled handsets at the entry-level, but is already reaping rich rewards with models such as the Galaxy Grand Prime and the Galaxy J2, both of which cost below $150. According to Mr. Karthick J, “E-tailers such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon continue to drive shipments of the Chinese vendors, who have been aggressively trying to capture the 4G smartphone market in India.” As mentioned earlier already, the Indian market, much like the rest of the world, is clearly partial to devices with large screen real estates. According to Mr. Jaipal Singh, IDC’s Market Analyst, Client Devices, “Almost one out of every two smartphones sold, had 5-inch plus displays. This highlights the shift in consumer preference from a device mostly used for voice calling to an advanced multimedia experience.”
As far as market share goes in the world’s third largest smartphone market, Samsung continues to remain at the top of the heap with 24.0 percent share of a highly fragmented smartphone market in the country. Home-grown vendors Micromax and Intex retain their numbers two and three positions in Q3, 2015, with 16.7 and 10.8 percent market shares respectively. As for Lenovo, in spite of losing its ‘number one LTE-handset vendor’ status to Samsung, the company has managed to climb up to number four on the overall list, with 9.5 percent of the smartphone market in India.
