The top 30 cities of the country made up for 51 per cent of the entire smartphone market in the fourth quarter last year with New Delhi generating the maximum demand, closely followed by Mumbai, research firm IDC said today.

However, with the increasing appeal and penetration of smartphones in smaller cities and towns, tier-II and III cities and beyond are expected to constitute a significant portion of the market in the near future, IDC said in a statement.

Twenty-five major tier-II and III cities of India make up around 21.3 per cent of the Indian smartphone market.

“With increasing data penetration and the enhanced reach of e-commerce, smartphone consumers in Tier-II and III cities are becoming more aware and demanding,” IDC South Asia Managing Director Jaideep Mehta said.

He added that the 4G revolution promises to trigger the next wave of smartphone growth with 4G-enabled devices already overtaking 3G devices as the largest smartphone category.

The top five cities of India made up about 60 per cent of online smartphone sales in India. 4G devices made up around 45 per cent of the market in these cities.

In the top 30 cities, Samsung led the market with 29.4 per cent share, followed by Micromax (14.7 per cent), Lenovo (and Motorola) (10.1 per cent), Intex (8.2 per cent), Lava (7.1 per cent), Apple (4.6 per cent) and Xiaomi (3.5 per cent).

Global vendors such as Apple, Samsung and others held more than 40.7 per cent of the market in these cities.

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