Smartphone shipments rise 21.4% to 28.3 million
23 Nov 2015
Shipments of smartphones to India rose 21.4 per cent to 28.3 million in the third quarter of 2015, aided by a rising demand for affordable 4G smartphones.
The shipment to India stood at 23.3 million units during the same period a year ago.
In the third quarter, 4G-enabled devices have witnessed almost a three-fold increase in unit shipments over the second quarter of 2015, with Samsung emerging as the biggest 4G player in India, according to International Data Corporation's (IDC) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
"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,'' said Karthik J, senior market analyst, client devices, IDC.
The closing weeks of the quarter witnessed incremental supplies as many vendors were preparing their channels in lieu of the festive season and online mega sale programs.
In addition, growth was also driven by phones with larger screens at low cost.
''Almost one out of every two smartphones sold, had 5-inch plus displays,'' said Jaipal Singh, market analyst, client devices.
Most of the popular models in the market today support 4G and have a large screen, and attractively priced at less than $200.
''This highlights the shift in consumer preference from a device mostly used for voice calling to an advanced multimedia experience,'' he added.
Samsung continues to lead the Indian smartphone market with 13.1 per cent sequential growth (quarter-on-quarter) in Q3 2015 over Q2 2015, and also overtook Lenovo as the top 4G vendor.
The volume growth was primarily contributed by the LTE-based smartphones such as Galaxy Grand Prime 4G, Galaxy J and Galaxy A series.
Micromax retained the second position in Q3 2015 with a 6.4 per cent sequential growth (quarter-on-quarter).
YU Phones has been performing well and is a leading contributor to Micromax's 4G portfolio.
However, YU faces strong competition from Chinese players in the online segment.
Intex has secured the third position in Q3 2015 with 9.4 per cent growth, with the company recording a sharp rise in shipments in sub-$50 segment and also entry level 3G-enabled devices.
Lenovo, as a group (Lenovoa and Motorola), moved up to fourth place in on a strong 58.6 per cent sequential growth (quarter-on-quarter).
Lenovo group captured 9.5 per cent of the smartphone market driven mainly by Lenovo's K3 note, A6000 plus and Moto G 3rd Gen. The group also started local manufacturing of its smartphones in India to further strengthen their position in the Indian market.
Lava slipped to fifth place with a sequential drop of 2 per cent in its vendor share over Q2 2015.
Lava shipments dropped 24.9 per cent sequentially (quarter-on-quarter), coming off from a healthy Q2 2015.
While its Xolo series continues to slide down, Lava has also not moved fast enough to capitalize on the fast growing 4G market or diversified their channel strategy in favour of online channels.
