India fastest growing smartphone market in Asia Pacific

India continues to be the fastest growing smartphone market in the Asia Pacific region, with about 82 per cent growth in the July-September quarter of 2014 over the same period last year, research firm IDC said on Wednesday

The growth in sales is being driven by increasing preference of consumers to upgrade to smartphones as well as shorter refresh cycles.

The shipments grew 82 per cent year-on-year to 23.3 million units in the third quarter of this year, while it was higher by 27 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis, IDC said in a statement.

"The Indian smartphone market outshone other emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region in terms of quarter-over- quarter growth. This is the second consecutive quarter of more than 80 per cent y-o-y growth for smartphones, reflecting robust end-user demand," it added.

The share of smartphone market in the overall mobile phone market stood at 32 per cent in the third quarter of 2014, which is a considerable growth over 19 per cent in the same period a year ago, IDC said.

Samsung continued to lead the smartphone market with 24 per cent share, followed by Micromax (20 per cent), Lava and Karbonn (8 per cent each) and Motorola (5 five per cent). "With six per cent contribution in the overall smartphone market, phablets (5.5-6.99 inch screen size) are observed to be hitting a plateau," IDC India Research Manager Client Devices Kiran Kumar said.

On the other hand, smartphone with screen size between 4.5-5.5 inches are seen as the sweet spot for consumer preference, Kumar added.

"Consumer need higher screen size phone to enjoy media content and with the 4G rollout expected in CY2015, we expect phablets segment to pick up again," Kumar said.

The total handset market in India grew nine per cent to 72.5 million units in the said quarter, while it was higher by 15 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

Feature phone segment, however, declined nine per cent year-on-year to 49.2 million units, but was higher by 10 per cent when compared to the April-June 2014 quarter.

In the overall market, Samsung led with 16 per cent share, Micromax 14 per cent, Nokia 11 per cent, Lava 10 per cent and Karbonn at 8 per cent.

With positive consumer sentiments and low levels of inflation, consumers will have more money to spend and majority of the smartphone users change their phones within 12 to 24 months, IDC India Senior Market Analyst Karan Thakkar said.

"We have a big chunk of end-user market which is awaiting refresh. To add to this, new initiatives on the 4G front are expected to be rolled out by the vendors would spark up demand in the smartphone market in CY 2015," he added.

Image: Nokia Lumia 635

Photograph: Courtesy, Nokia