24 Nov 2015

One Out Of 3 Smartphones Shipped In India In Q3 2015 Are 4G Enabled As The Country Prepares For Next Generation Mobile Technology: Says IDC

New Delhi, 23rd November, 2015 – According to International Data Corporation’s (IDC ) Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, 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.

According to Karthik J , Senior Market Analyst , Client devices ****

"The growth in the smartphone market was helped by rising demand for affordable 4G smartphones."

In the third quarter, the 4G enabled devices have witnessed almost a three-fold increase in unit shipments over Q2 2015. Samsung emerged as the biggest 4G player in India with its popular sub $150 LTE models such as Galaxy Grand Prime and Galaxy J2.

"e-tailers such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon continue to drive shipments of the Chinese vendors, who have been aggressively trying to capture the 4G smartphone market in India,” adds Karthik. 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.

In addition, growth was also driven by phones with larger screens at low cost.

“Almost one out of every two smartphones sold, had 5” plus displays,” says Jaipal Singh , Market Analyst, Client Devices . Most of the popular models in the market today support 4G and have a large screen, and attractively priced at less than $200.

“This highlights the shift in consumer preference from a device mostly used for voice calling to an advanced multimedia experience.” Adds Singh.

Smartphone Vendor Highlights:

Samsung continues to lead the Indian smartphone market with 13.1% sequential growth (quarter-on-quarter) in Q3 2015 over Q2 2015, and also overtook Lenovo as the top 4G vendor. The volume growth 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 Q3 2015 with a 6.4% sequential growth (quarter-on-quarter). 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 in Q3 2015 with 9.4% growth. The vendor has witnessed sharp rise in shipments in sub US$50 segment and also entry level 3G enabled devices.

Lenovo , as a group (Lenovo & Motorola), moved up to 4th place in Q3 2015 owing to a strong 58.6% sequential growth (quarter-on-quarter). Lenovo group captured 9.5% of the smartphone market driven mainly by Lenovo’s K3 note, A6000 plus and Moto G 3rd Gen. The group also started local manufacturing of its smartphones in India to further strengthen their position in the Indian market.

Lava slipped to 5th place with a sequential drop of 2% in their vendor share over Q2 2015. Lava shipments dropped 24.9% sequentially (quarter-on-quarter), coming off from a healthy Q2 2015. 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.

Figure 1

IDC India Forecast

IDC expects the share of smartphone to outstrip the share of feature phone market in CY 2016 for India. Low prices and better value would continue to drive migration in the coming years. Also we expect smartphones to maintain a healthy double-digit growth over the next few years. According to Kiran Kumar, Research Manager ,

“4G enabled devices are expected to be at the forefront, with the entire ecosystem preparing for this shift in the near future.”