India: Mobile phone sales cross 50 mn mark in Jan-Mar

The overall India mobile handsets market registered sales of 50.2 million units during January-March 2012, up 9.1 per cent year-on-year, said a market study released today by CyberMedia Research.

In the overall India mobile handsets market, Nokia retained leadership position with 23 per cent share, followed by Samsung at second position with 14.1 per cent and Micromax at third position with 5.8 per cent, in terms of sales (unit shipments) during January-March 2012, the CyberMedia Research India Monthly Mobile Handsets Market Review for Q1 2012 said.

. . .

Total India smartphone sales touched 2.7 million units during January-March 2012.

Samsung emerged as the leader in the smartphone segment with a 40.4 per cent share, followed at number two and number three by Nokia with 25.5 per cent and RIM with 12.3 per cent share, respectively, it said.

In Q1 2012, Samsung launched seven new smartphone models in India, further tightening its grip on sales in different price bands between Rs 7,500 to Rs 27,000, the range in which the company currently sells its portfolio of smartphones.

. . .

It excludes products like the Samsung Galaxy Note, which, with a 5 inch screen, is categorised under the category of media tablets/tablet PCs.

Indian mobile handset vendors have also started aggressively widening their Android-based smartphones portfolio, the study said.

Shipments of multi-SIM handset category continued its rise, accounting for as much as 67.7 per cent of total shipments in Q1 2012.

. . .

However, even more significantly, total shipments of 3G-enabled mobile handsets in the country touched 4.7 million units during Q1, 2012 (January-March 2012).

While this was a decline of (-)7.8 per cent over the Q4, 2011 (October-December 2011) 'festival quarter', it was a growth of 34.3 per cent over Q1, 2011 (January-March 2011).