Samsung has continued to dominate the Indian smartphone market in the third quarter of 2014, with a 24 percent market share out of 23.3 million smartphone shipped to the country. According to the latest IDC report, the South Korean firm left behind indigenous Micromax in market share by four percent.
Overall, the smartphone market in India grew by 27 percent in the Q3, while it saw an 82 percent year-on-year growth. India’s smartphone market share in overall mobile shipments stood at 32 percent in the third quarter of 2014 in comparison to 19 percent in the same period last year.
“The Indian smartphone market outshone other emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region in terms of quarter-over- quarter growth,†IDC’s statement read. “This is the second consecutive quarter of more than 80 per cent year-on-year growth for smartphones, reflecting robust end-user demand.â€
While Samsung grabbed the top stop and Micromax came to a close second, Karbonn and Lava shared the third spot; with both owning eight percent smartphone market shares each. Motorola stands at the fourth position with five percent market share.
“Smartphone with screen size between 4.5-inch and 5.5-inch are seen as the sweet spot for consumer preference. Consumer 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,†said Kiran Kumar, Research Manager of Client Devices at IDC India.
Samsung lost its market share to new entrants like Motorola, Xiaomi, and Asus, but with the recent launch of the Galaxy Note 4 in the country, the Korean smartphone giant is hoping to increase its foothold in the India smartphone market. Xiaomi is doing very well, thanks to its extremely value-for-money devices like the Mi 3, the Redmi 1S, and the Redmi Note. Motorola’s sales increased, thanks to the Moto G, and the Moto E.
Micromax is expected to launch an online only smartphone brand, dubbed as Yu. These devices will be exclusively online and will run Cyanogen OS.
In overall mobile market shares, Samsung continued to dominate with its 16 percent share followed by Micromax (14 percent), Nokia (11 percent), Lava (10 percent) and Karbonn (eight percent.)
