Samsung rules Indian mobile phone market now, with Indian brands edging out long time leader, Nokia

01st July 2013
Samsung rules Indian mobile phone market now, with Indian brands edging out  long time leader, Nokia

Bangalore, July 1, 2013: IDC’s latest quarterly tracker of the Indian mobile phone market, shows Samsung has overtaken long-time leader Nokia to become number one across the broad cellular business and also in the high end smartphone sector. The survey also points at the very rapid growth of ‘desi’ brands like Micromax and Karbonn which grabbed the no. 2 and no. 3 spots after Samsung in the smartphone business. The India mobile phone market grew by 24% year over year (Year-on-Year) in 2013 Q1, says IDC, with vendors shipping 60.7 million units in 2013 Q1 compared to 48.8 million units in 2012 Q1. The India phone market saw a close to 24% increase in shipments Year-on-Year, primarily driven by the surge in the smartphone shipments over the last year; the smartphone market grew 74% Year-on-Year from 2012 Q1 to 2013 Q1.

Samsung rose to the top spot in the Indian mobile phone market and the rise can largely be attributed to its gains in the smartphone market over the past two years. The Indian smartphone market reached a total of 6.1 million units 2013 Q1, a 14% Quarter-on-Quarter growth.
Says Manasi Yadav, Senior Market Analyst with IDC's Client Devices team: “The competition between top international and local vendors remained prominent in the last quarter with Samsung, Micromax and Karbonn controlling almost two-thirds of the Indian Smartphone market, however the market remained driven by low cost devices."

"The likes of Micromax and Karbonn launched several models in the smartphone segment with compelling specifications such as >5 inch HD displays, 8 MP Camera et al. Samsung experienced continued success from its low-mid range dual SIM phones and the higher-end Galaxy Note II and S III”, she added.
Android’s dominance continued in 2013 Q1 as well, driven by the low-end smartphone segment which is largely focused on Android as of now. However, with the entry of other budget Operating Systems (OSes) such as Firefox OS and Windows Phone penetration in the low-end segment – things might spice up moving forward. Last quarter did witness the launch of the much hyped and awaited BlackBerry 10 OS from BlackBerry with Z10 entering the Indian market at a premium price point.

Samsung maintained the smartphone leadership position and did excellent shipment volume for the first quarter of 2013. The expansion of the Galaxy portfolio with the launch of Galaxy Grand coupled with compelling offers such as zero per cent interest on EMIs, cash back schemes for new and old smartphones propelled the sales higher for them in 2013 Q1.
Micromax retained its No. 2 spot with a 67% Quarter-on-Quarter growth and a deliberate shift in favour of smartphones. The Canvas range of smartphones by them has been well received in the market owing to the value for money proposition it offers with the huge display and impressive imaging capabilities.

Karbonn also saw its smartphone shipments double up Quarter-on-Quarter with a dedicated marketing and advertising push. The first model in the Titanium Series – S1, was launched last Quarter at a price point of approximately 200 USD, the smartphone is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM.
Nokia's Symbian phone shipments declined precipitously last quarter, with the company making a speedy transition to its range of Lumia devices on Windows Phone OS. The youth-oriented advertising campaign and TV Commercials have helped Lumia create a dedicated niche for itself in the overly crowded Indian market with devices such as 510 and 920 doing pretty well in the last quarter.
Sony came in at the fifth spot, with its devices in the mid-tier price segment such as Xperia Tipo and Xperia E Dual and the newly launched high-end smartphone - Xperia Z, doing well in the market.