IDC crowns Samsung as top smartphone maker in India for 2Q15
According to IDC, Samsung has managed to retain the lead in Indian smartphone market. Samsung has shipped 26.5 million smartphones in India in second quarter of 2015 and that gave them a 23% market share. Micromax maintained its position as the best one among local smartphone makers and came in second, with 17% market share. Intex took the final podium spot, with 11% share while Lava (7%) and Lenovo (6%) rounded off the top 5 positions. The bad news though is that Indian mobile phone market shrunk by 6% whcn compared to second quarter of 2014. This could be attributed to buyers waiting for new phones like OnePlus Two, Moto G3 and lack of any holiday shopping season(s).
The growth in the smartphone market was helped by vendors using online retail, or eTail, to penetrate the market. According to Kiran Kumar, Research Manager with IDC’s India Mobile Phone team, “eTailers have opened additional avenues for growth for many vendors in India, who would have otherwise struggled to get a hold in the complex distribution network. The share of smartphone shipments through eTailers increased for most of the key vendors in Q2,” said Kiran Kumar, Research Manager with IDC’s India Mobile Phone team.
Chinese smartphone vendors have tripled their sales YoY and double sales QoQ. The combined market share of Lenovo, Xiaomi, Huawei and Gionee has hit 12%, up from 6% in 2Q 2014. The strong growth registered by these brands resulted in online eTailers expanding their reach in markets.
Though Samsung continued to lead the market, lack of Samsung S6 and S6 Edge sales will hurt them and we do hope that the upcoming Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ will help them register better profits in India. Micromax had an explosive quarter, thanks to sub $150 smartphones and the Indian brand registered strong 60% growth when compared to 1Q2015. The surprising fact is that (according to IDC) the Android One and Yu models registered weak sales. Intex and Lava continue to be strong sub $100 players while Lenovo started to see more penetration in Indian markets and this is only set to grow, thanks to the new Motorola Moto G3, Motorola Moto X 2015 variants.
