India has become the second largest smartphone market in the world, according to Counterpoint’s Market Monitor service. The country surpassed US in terms of active unique smartphone user base with over 220 million users.
During CY 2015, Indian smartphone shipments grew 23% YoY to cross 100 Million units milestone. The report said that more than 40% of the mobile phones shipped were smartphones. Owing to the growing investment in India from national and international smartphone makers, almost half of mobile phones sold during the quarter were “Made in India”. Over 20 mobile phone brands are now assembling their phones in India and giving further boost to the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
Moving on, the report said that domestic brands such as Intex and Lava have considerably closed in the gap with Micromax. Buoyed by the increasing online shopping phenomenon, almost one in three smartphones were sold through online channels during the year in the country. The smartphone shipments in India also grew 15% annually in the October-December quarter. Samsung led the smartphone segment during the quarter with 28.6% market share. The company also retained top slot for entire calendar year with a market share of 19.8% and 25.7% in overall mobile phone market and smartphone market respectively. On the other hand Micromax maintained the second position in smartphone segment with a market share of 14.3%. It also retained second position for entire calendar year with a market share of 13.5% and 16.1% in overall mobile phone market and smartphone market respectively.
Lenovo including Motorola raced to third position in smartphone segment for the first time ever in India surpassing Intex with a market share of 11% during the quarter. Apple hit 2 Million units sale in a calendar year, first time ever in India led by a strong fourth quarter. The report said that 2016 is going to be a highly competitive year as brands such as Huawei (with Honor), LeTV and Vivo expand with aggressive offerings to compete head-on with other Indian and Chinese players