Forget smartphones, Indians prefer multi-SIM handsets

While smartphones make up only 5.3 per cent of the Indian mobile handset market, multi-SIM handsets account for two-thirds of all handset sales in India.  3G phones are still below 10 per centof total sales.

According to CyberMedia Research India's Monthly Mobile Handsets Market Review for 1Q 2012 released today, the overall Indian mobile handsets market registered sales of 50.2 million units during January-March 2012. with Nokia retaining leadership position with 23 per cent marlket share, followed by Samsung at with 14.1 per cent and Micromax at third position with 5.8 per cent, in terms of unit shipments during January-March 2012. (See Table 1)

Smartphones Market: The Shape of Things to Come

Total smartphone sales touched 2.7 million units during January-March 2012. Samsung emerged as the leader in the smartphone segment with a 40.4-per cent share, followed by Nokia with 25.5 per cent and RIM with 12.3 per cent share.

Table 1. Monthly mobile handset  shipments (millions of units), January-March 2012*

*Source: CyberMedia Research India Monthly Mobile Handsets Market Review for 1Q 2012, June 2012 release

Source: CyberMedia Research, 2012

Table 3.IndiaMobileHandsets Market: Shares of leading Vendors in Smartphones*

In Q1 2012, Samsung launched seven new smartphone models in India, further tightening its grip on sales in different price bands between Rs7,500 to Rs27,000.

This is the range in which the company sells its portfolio of smartphones currently. It excludes products like the Samsung Galaxy Note, which, with a 5" screen is categorised under the category of media tablets / tablet PCs. Indian mobile handset vendors have also started aggressively widening their Android-based smartphones portfolio.

"As the India mobile handsets market grows in maturity, the needs of users are clearly seen to be converging around two major form factors – high-power, high-speed smartphones vis-à-vis value-plus, content-enabled featurephones. While most players are strong in a particular category, Samsung and others have been able to maintain a strong presence across the spectrum, driven mainly by innovation, quick time-to-market and a segmented approach", stated Anirban Banerjee, associate vice president, research and advisory services, CyberMedia Research.

"Players like Motorola and Sony have clearly chosen to stay in the 'high value' smartphones segment, which accounts for just 5.3 per cent of shipments but added up to as much as 23.4 per cent of the market value in 1Q 2012. Currently, large, international players like Nokia and RIM, as well as relatively new entrants like Micromax, Karbonn, Lava and Spice are faced with the challenge to enhance their portfolio of products, models and services, to stay relevant and profitable in the long run", added Naveen Mishra, Lead Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.

3G handsets market: decline in data tariffs to trigger increase in shipments?
Shipments of multi-SIM handset category continued its rise, accounting for as much as 67.7 per cent of total shipments in 1Q 2012. However, even more significantly, total shipments of 3G-enabled mobile handsets in the country touched 4.7 million units during 1Q 2012 (January-March 2012). While this was a decline of (-)7.8 per cent over the 4Q 2011 (October-December 2011) 'festival quarter', it was a growth of 34.3 per cent over 1Q 2011 (January-March 2011).

"With the recently announced reduction in tariffs of 3G services by as much as 70 per cent by leading India telecom service providers, the market for both 3G-enabled devices and mobile broadband-driven content is likely to see an upward trend in adoption in the forthcoming quarters", stated Tarun Pathak, Analyst, CMR Telecoms Practice.