India became the third largest phone market
India has overtaken Japan and now occupies the third position on the global smartphone market ranking after China and USA, according to a new report published by Strategy Analytics. The results for the first quarter of the year show that India has moved to the third place, mainly because of Apple , Samsung and the local Indian manufacturer Micromax.
Interestingly, the Indian market is growing rapidly – there is a 163% growth on year’s base, while the worldwide smartphone market has expanded with just 39%. The market in China has expanded by 86%, in Japan by 24% and in the US by 19% on year’s base. While the market in the emerging countries is expanding, the European market has dropped by 4.2%. for the Q1, resulting in 43.6 million units shipped. The European market decline has affected most the Apple’s share. Apple’s shipments dropped by 20% on year’s base.
Despite the steady decline in Europe, Apple established its brand in India – the company jumped to the second place of revenue share with its 15.6% share in Q4. The increased sales were made possible because of the new company’s distribution strategy – Apple lets small local retailers to distribute the iPhones which resulted in boosted sales.
Overall, Samsung and Apple remains the leading brands in the Indian market, but according to the report the competition is increasing and many local Indian brands are starting to gain traction. Companies like Micromax, Spice and others have a growth more than 200% on an annual basis, and because they all use the cheap Android platform, the Google’s OS is so popular in Indian market. Android enjoys a huge popularity with its 89% market share in the first quarter of the year.
Source: Techcrunch
