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The Indian handset market witnessed a 14.1 per cent growth in 2011 to touch a total volume of 182 million handsets. Nokia continues its domination in the market, which is seeing increased penetration of handsets manufactured by Chinese and domestic companies.
Looking forward, the Indian handset market is estimated to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 10.7 per cent during the period of 2011-17, with total handset volume expected to reach 335 million units by 2017, according to ABI Research, a US-based market intelligence company specialising in global connectivity and emerging technology.
Nokia leads
The market is currently led by Nokia (37.2 per cent market share), with Samsung (14.9 per cent), G'Five (7.5 per cent), and Micromax (5.8 per cent) trailing behind.
Domestic and Chinese handset makers such as Micromax, G'Five, Karbonn, Spice, Maxx and Lava, have a strong presence in the Indian market and have kept themselves ahead of many of the big players due to their feature-rich, localised products at much lower price points.
“However, with incumbent handset vendors (Nokia, Samsung) responding to the competitive threat from these companies, the battle is intensifying,” says Ms Aishwarya Singh, research analyst.
Smartphone
“The smartphone segment will be the fastest-growing segment and will continue to outpace the overall handset market for the foreseeable future,” says Mr Kevin Burden, Vice-President and practice director, mobile devices.
With a CAGR of 40 per cent, the smartphone segment is expected to touch 97.2 million units by 2017, accounting for 29 per cent of the total handset volume.
Nearly every major handset vendor has entered the smartphone segment, including domestic players, who after remarkable success in the feature phone segment, are now eyeing the lucrative smartphone segment.
“Competition is going to intensify as more and more domestic vendors hit the market with their range of smartphones; consequently the average selling price for smartphones is going to decline in the coming years,” said Mr M.R. Jake Saunders, Vice-President of Forecasting. “The growth in the smartphone segment will be largely driven by the penetration of 3G in India and further catalysed by falling ASPs.”
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