Korean handset major Samsung has emerged as the biggest 4G player in India with its popular sub Korean handset major Samsung emerging as the biggest 4G player in India with its popular sub USD150 LTE models. The brand has pipped Chinese brand Lenovo, even as 4G-enabled devices witnessed almost a three-fold sequential increase in unit shipments in the third quarter of 2015, according to market research firm IDC.
During the quarter, Samsung consolidated its lead in the smartphone segment, clocking a 13.1% sequential growth, taking its smartphone share to 24%, IDC said.
The volume growth for Smasung was primarily contributed by the LTE based smartphones such as Galaxy Grand Prime 4G, Galaxy J and Galaxy A series which mostly moved through the retail channels, although Samsung also had some e-tailer focused phones such as Galaxy J5 and Galaxy J7.
Micromax retained the second position in the quarter with a 6.4% sequential growth, taking its share to 16.7%. IDC said that Micromax’s YU Phones have been performing well and are leading contributors to Micromax’s 4G portfolio. However, YU faces strong competition from Chinese players in the online segment.
Intex has secured the third position with 9.4% growth, taking the share to 10.8% in the quarter. The vendor has witnessed sharp rise in shipments in sub USD50 segment and also entry level 3G enabled devices.
Lenovo, as a group (Lenovo & Motorola), moved up to fourth place in the quarter owing to a strong 58.6% sequential growth. Lenovo group captured 9.5% of the smartphone market driven mainly by Lenovo’s K3 note, A6000 plus and Moto G 3rd Gen.
Lava slipped to fifth place with a sequential drop of 2% in their vendor share over Q2 2015. Lava shipments dropped 24.9% sequentially, coming off from a healthy second quarter.
While its Xolo series continues to slide down, Lava has also not moved fast enough to capitalize on the fast growing 4G market or diversified their channel strategy in favor of online channels, the report said.
During the quarter, 28.3 million smartphones were shipped to India in the third quarter of 2015 – up 21.4% from 23.3 million units for the same period last year.
“The growth in the smartphone market was helped by rising demand for affordable 4G smartphones. e-tailers continue to drive shipments of the Chinese vendors, who have been aggressively trying to capture the 4G smartphone market in India,” Karthik J, Senior Market Analyst, Client devices at IDC said.
“The closing weeks of the quarter witnessed incremental supplies as many vendors were preparing their channels in lieu of the festive season and online mega sale programs,” he added.
According to him, 4G-enabled devices are expected to be at the forefront, with the entire ecosystem preparing for this shift in the near future.
IDC expects the share of smartphone to outstrip the share of feature phone market in CY 2016 for India. It also expects smartphones to maintain a healthy double-digit growth over the next few years.
Industry watchers estimate the tech behemoth would rake in some $3.31 billion in operating profit solely from its chip business division.
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