India registers highest mobile phone sales growth in AsiaPac in 3Q2014
Thanks to the festival sales drive, India is now the fastest growing mobile/smartphone market in Asia/Pacific. Indian market registered 27% QoQ growth for Q3 2014 (July to September), according to IDC. It will be interesting to see if India will maintain the momentum and it may not be a difficult task as more and more global and Asian smartphone brands are setting up shop in India.
Out of 72.5 million units sold in Q3 2015, 32% (23.3 million) were smartphone devices, up from 19% in same quarter last year. This is more than 80% YoY growth for smartphones and the second quarter in a row, the figure was maintained. In Q3 2013, 12.8 million units of smartphones were sold in India.
“With 6% of the overall smartphone market, Phablets (which IDC defines as smartphones with a screen size of 5.5 inches – 6.99 inches) are observed to be hitting a plateau. Smartphones with screen sizes between 4.5 inches and 5.5 inches are seen as the sweet spot for consumer preference. However, consumers need larger screen sizes to enjoy media content and with the 4G rollout expected in CY2015, we expect the Phablets segment to pick up again,” said Kiran Kumar, Research Manager, Client Devices IDC India.
The top five smartphone vendors are:
- Samsung at 24%
- Micromax at 20%
- Lava at 8%
- Karbonn at 8%
- Motorola at 5%
Though Samsung maintained the lead at the top for smartphones, their growth was lower than the industry average, with a decrease in market share and it is only a matter of time for Micromax (up from 18% to 20%) to take the lead for good. Lava and Karbonn too registered healthy growth but both these brands are more into selling budget/low-end devices.
A year and a half ago, no one would’ve thought that Motorola will get into the top five list in India as they had shut shop in India and their devices bombed at the market. Thanks to the Moto X/G/E and streamlined sales structure, Motorola regained top five position and they did consolidate the place by releaseing new variants of X and G which are indeed selling well in India.
“With positive consumer sentiments and low levels of inflation, consumers will have more money to spend. The majority of the smartphone users change their phones within 12 to 24 months. With 44 million units shipped in CY2013 and the current market scenario hinting at 80 million plus shipments in CY2014, we have a big chunk of end-user market which is awaiting refresh. To add to this, new initiatives on the 4G front are expected to be rolled out by the vendors, which should spark up demand in the smartphone market in CY2015,” said Karan Thakkar Senior Market Analyst at IDC India.
Coming to Feature phones, here is the top five list:
- Samsung at 16%
- Micromax at 14%
- Nokia at 11%
- Lava at 10%
- Karbonn at 8%
Samsung barely managed to stay at the top while Micromax is all set to take the crown from Samsung in feature phones market share. Nokia, thanks to strong Asha device lineup stayed in third place while Lava and Karbonn took remaining two spots. Its interesting to see that ‘others’ category grabbed 41% of market share. Given that there was a 9% decline in smartphone sales YoY, few years down the line, we should see negligible sales figures for feature phones in India.
