A new Counterpoint research now states, that Indians bought in over 20 Million new smartphones in the first quarter of 2015 (January – March), accounting for a massive 21% jump on a Y-o-Y basis. Samsung continued to dominate, and in fact further strengthened the lead, the report stated.
India, which is the world’s third largest smartphone market, is probably the lone bright spot left for Samsung, considering its poor show in China and the U.S. Samsung strengthened its top position, while Micromax continued to cling on to its second spot even though its share decreased. Samsung’s market share stood at about 27.8% market share, which was 27.4% an year ago.
While Samsung increased its market share marginally, the market share of Microamx sharply fell to 15.3 percent as compared to 19.5 percent in the last quarter, i.e. Q4 of 2014.
Intex, Lava and Lenovo have grabbed the number three, four and five positions respectively. Intex’s market share grew by 3.1% to 9.5% while the market share of Lava hovered around that same 5% mark, 5.4% to be precise. Lenovo’s market share in India increased to 5.2% percent, and that obviously is because of Motorola’s bumper sale this season.
Event though the market share of few companies increased, the overall demand for mobiles phones has declined in India by 3% on an yearly basis and 20% sequentially while worldwide shipments grew by 15.5% year-on-year.
In overall market share of mobile phones, which also consists of feature phones, Samsung again led the market with a 18.2% market share, while Micromax stood second with 12.2%, yet again seeing a decline by 2.2% compared to previous quarter.
Microsoft Devices’ market share in overall mobile segment is 9.8%, making it the third largest in the mobile segment. Intex and Lava are fourth and fifth in the segment.
The report further states that more than 18% of the total smartphone shipments during the quarter were through the e-commerce channel. What was interesting though, is that “online-only” brands like Xiaomi and Motorola contributed about 12% of the total smartphone market during the quarter. That is a big plus for both the e-commerce brands, and smartphone companies. Xiaomi however, is now selling phones through exclusive airtel stores too.
In the global market, Apple recorded the highest growth of 40% during the quarter, thanks to its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Xiaomi, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer emerged as the second fastest growing company.
As of global smartphone shipments, Samsung tops the list with 24.40% share while Apple comes second with 17.90% share. Lenovo, Huawei and LG follow the list with 6.5%, 5.1% and 4.5% respectively.
