Smartphone shipments in India rise 219% to 14.5 mn units in January March period

Smartphone shipments in India registered an increase of 219 per cent to 14.5 million units in January-March this year, with over half of the handsets shipped being 3G-enabled, according to research firm CyberMedia Research (CMR).

The year ago period had seen smartphone shipments at 6.6 million units according to a statement by the research company.

The study, however, added that on a quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) basis, smartphone shipments were up a mere 1.9 per cent from 14.2 million units in October-December 2013.

The Q1 2014 period overall saw 58.9 million mobile handsets shipped, a year-on-year growth of 8.9 per cent, but witnessed a q-o-q decline of 16.4 per cent (70.4 million mobile phones were shipped in Q4 2013), according to CMR.

Feature phone shipments were down by 6.5 per cent to 44.4 million units in the first quarter this year from 47.5 million in the year-ago period. The past quarter, saw a more pronounced fall at 21.1 per cent from 56.2 million units in October-December 2013.

"Indian smartphone market during Q1 2014 saw a marginal growth in shipments of 1.9 per cent over Q4 2013, taking the contribution of smartphones to overall shipments to 24.6 per cent. Further, as many as 68.3 per cent of the smartphones shipped in the country during Q1 CY 2014 were 3G-enabled smartphones," the market research firm said.

The Indian smartphone market was growing at a significant pace and consumer buying patterns and preferences were evolving continuously, according to analysts. The next wave of demand would be driven by data-hungry consumers who intended to use their device for a wide range of activities, according to CMR Telecoms practice analyst devices Tarun Pathak.

Hence in a scenario of the type, vendors focused on providing  great device experience to users, rather than simply marketing their offerings on the basis of certain set of specifications would be successful, he added.

In smartphones, Samsung with a 43.2 per cent market share was leading the race followed by local handset players Micromax, 17.5 per cent, and Karbonn, 5.2 per cent, at the second and third spots, respectively.

The Korean electronics giant was the overall leader in mobile phones at (20.3 per cent) once again followed by Nokia (17.6 per cent) and Micromax (11.2 per cent).