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Smartphone market in India has maintained its growth impetus with smartphone shipments touching year-on-year growth of 84 per cent in Q2 2014 and a quarterly growth of 11 per cent.
According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the overall India mobile phone market stood at 63.21 million units in Q2 2014 i.e. a 5 per cent quarter on quarter growth against Q1 2014. The growth can be attributed to both the product categories i.e. smartphones and feature phones from Q1 2014 to Q2 2014. Back to back volume growth in the smartphone market are being noted due to the re-defined low price models in smartphones and continuous migration from feature phones to smartphones.The Indian smartphone market grew by 84 per cent year-on-year in Q2 2014.
According to IDC Asia Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker (excluding Japan), vendors shipped a total of 18.42 million Smartphones in Q2 2014 compared to 10.02 million in the same period of 2013. The sub $200 category of the smartphone market is increasing in terms of the shipment share as the contribution from this category stood at 81 per cent in Q2 2014.
With the influx of Chinese vendors and Mozilla’s plans to enter the smartphone category at $50 level, the low end segment of the smartphone market will become crucial in the coming quarters.The Shipment contribution of “Phablets” (5.5 inch - 6.99 inch screen size Smartphone) in Q2 2014 was noted to be 5.4 per cent of the overall Smartphone segment.
Phablet category grew by 20 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) in terms of sheer volume. More than half of the Phablets shipped are under $250 price band and Indian vendors are dominant in the noted price segment. Jaideep Mehta, Vice President and General Manager - South Asia, IDC says, “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. Given the current growth rates, there is a real possibility of seeing vendor positions change in the remaining quarters this year.”
“IDC observes that a new entry level price point is being breached by the Indian home grown vendors every quarter. These devices are not equipped with high end specifications and RAM is typically 256 MB. This ultra low cost segment may not sound a viable option to the repeat buyers, but it works well on the targeted segment”, says Karan Thakkar Senior Market Analyst at IDC India.Q2 2014 has been an exciting quarter for the players in the mobile phone market. Among the top five vendors, Micromax and Lava were the only ones to have outstripped the market growth. The former grew by 18 per cent and the latter by 54 per cent in the overall phone business. Micromax not only toppled Nokia to clinch the 2nd spot but also created a gap between the 2nd and the 3rd spot.
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