Driven by lower-priced models from domestic handset makers, smartphone sales in India has grown over three—fold to touch 12.8 million units in third quarter of 2013 cannibalising the feature phone market, research firm IDC says.
According to IDC, the Indian smartphone market grew by 229 per cent year—on—year to 12.8 million smartphones in third quarter of 2013 compared to 3.8 million units in Q3 of 2012.
Smartphone sales grew 28 per cent in Q3 of 2013 compared to April—June 2013 (10.02 million), it added.
A smartphone is a mobile device built on a mobile operating system, with more advanced capabilities and connectivity than a feature phone.
IDC said 53.9 million feature phones were sold in Q3 of 2013 compared to 55.7 million in Q3 of 2012.
“The changes for this rapid shift of consumer preference towards Smartphones have been the narrowing price gap between feature phones and smartphones,” IDC India Research Manager Kiran Kumar said.
The smartphone market is expected to maintain these elevated levels of growth in the near future, Kumar added.
The overall mobile phone market (feature phones and smartphones) registered 12 per cent year—on—year growth and 7 per cent sequential growth.
The share of feature phones slipped to 81 per cent of the total market in Q3 2013, even as the segment grew 3 per cent quarter—on—quarter in the July—September 2013.
South Korean firm Samsung led the handset market with 15.3 per cent share, followed by Nokia (14.7 per cent), Micromax (10.1 per cent) and Karbonn (9.1 per cent). Other smaller players accounted for a cumulative share of 50.8 per cent.
“The growth in the smartphone market continues to drive the overall growth numbers for the phone market — given that there’s still a huge potential for smartphone penetration in India, this trend is expected to continue in the coming quarters,” IDC India Senior Market Analyst Manasi Yadav said.
In the smartphone segment, Samsung held the leadership spot with 32.9 per cent share, while Micromax secured the second spot with 17.1 per cent market share in Q3 of 2013.
Karbonn had 11.2 per cent share, followed by Nokia 5 per cent and Lava at 4.7 per cent.