According to IDC, Samsung is Still No.1 in India
India being a fast growing smartphone market has become the centre of smartphone wars. Apple and Samsung have been trying hard to keep up with players such as Micromax, Lava, Karbon and the new entrant Xiaomi.
The Indian handset market is currently led by Samsung with Micromax at No. 2, according to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report for India’s mobile market in Q2. The market could experience a shuffle in the rankings amongst the top five vendors in coming quarters, as Chinese and local device makers aggressively tap the entry level segment of smartphones.
The digits in the IDC report showed that in the overall mobile market, Samsung had a 17 per cent share, while Micromax had a 14 per cent share, ahead of Nokia which was the previous number two and which now has a mere 10 percent share. Karbon and Lava are at number four and five respectively and rest is acquired by other phone makers.
In smartphones, Samsung ha held a 29% share, which however was a sharp fall from the 35% it held in the January-March period, as aggressive competitors such as Micromax, Lava and Motorola ate into its share. Micromax remained in second place with 18% share, up from 15% in the previous quarter.
“While Samsung has held on to its leadership position in the market, it is noteworthy that Micromax is growing faster. Samsung needs to continue to address the low-end of the market aggressively, and also needs a blockbuster product at the high end to regain momentum,” said Jaideep Mehta, vice president and general manager, South Asia, IDC.
At the start of the month, another research by Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Technology Market Research showed that, in the April-June period, Micromax’s share of the overall handset market stood at 16.6 per cent, while Samsung’s was 14.4 per cent. The mismatch in numbers may be the result of use different methodology. IDC said it collects data from various sources, including vendors and channels.
The report also pointed out that with the entrance of Chinese vendors and Mozilla in the smartphone category at $50 level, the low-end segment of the smartphone market will become crucial in the coming quarters. It will be really interesting to see what news Q3 and Q4 will bring out in the Indian mobile and smartphone market with the entry of players like Xiaomi, Oppo. Xiaomi in particular has created a stir in market with the launch of a sole device, the samsung Xiaomi Mi3 .
