Samsung retains top slot in Indian smartphone market: IDC

NEW DELHI: India continues to be the fastest growing smartphone market in the Asia Pacific region, with about 82% growth in the July-September quarter of 2014 over the same period last year, research firm IDC said today.
The growth in sales is being driven by increasing preference of consumers to upgrade to smartphones as well as shorter refresh cycles. The shipments grew 82% year-on-year to 23.3 million units in the third quarter of this year, while it was higher by 27% on a quarter-on-quarter basis, IDC said in a statement.
"The Indian smartphone market outshone other emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region in terms of quarter-over-quarter growth. This is the second consecutive quarter of more than 80% y-o-y growth for smartphones, reflecting robust end-user demand," it added.
The share of smartphone market in the overall mobile phone market stood at 32% in the third quarter of 2014, which is a considerable growth over 19% in the same period a year ago, IDC said.
Samsung continued to lead the smartphone market with 24% share, followed by Micromax (20%), Lava and Karbonn (8% each) and Motorola (5%).
"With 6% contribution in the overall smartphone market, phablets (5.5-6.99 inch screen size) are observed to be hitting a plateau," IDC India Research Manager Client Devices Kiran Kumar said. On the other hand, smartphone with screen size between 4.5-5.5 inches are seen as the sweet spot for consumer preference, Kumar added.
"Consumers need higher screen size phone to enjoy media content and with the 4G rollout expected in CY2015, we expect phablets segment to pick up again," Kumar said. The total handset market in India grew 9% to 72.5 million units in the said quarter, while it was higher by 15% quarter-on-quarter.
Feature phone segment, however, declined 9% year-on-year to 49.2 million units, but was higher by 10% when compared to the April-June 2014 quarter.
In the overall market, Samsung led with 16% share, Micromax 14%, Nokia 11%, Lava 10% and Karbonn at 8%.
With positive consumer sentiments and low levels of inflation, consumers will have more money to spend and majority of the smartphone users change their phones within 12 to 24 months, IDC India Senior Market Analyst Karan Thakkar said.
"We have a big chunk of end-user market which is awaiting refresh. To add to this, new initiatives on the 4G front are expected to be rolled out by the vendors would spark up demand in the smartphone market in CY 2015," he added.