There’s
some relief for Samsung, which has been having a rough time in the
smartphone market, as far as sales and revenue are concerned.
IDC’s
report for India’s mobile market in Q2 is out and according to the
numbers, it is Samsung who is leading in the mobile market, not
Micromax. Previously, a report by Counterpoint Research had said that
Samsung was number two in the overall mobile market in India and that
Micromax had taken the lead.
IDC
numbers showed that in the overall mobile market, Samsung had a 17
percent share, while Micromax had a 14 percent share, ahead of Nokia
which was the previous number two and now has a 10 percent share.
Karbonn and Lava are at number four and five respectively and
interestingly ‘Others’ occupy 42 percent of the market.
It
should be noted that Counterpoint Research had completely different
numbers for Samsung and Micromax in the overall mobile market. The
research had said Samsung was in second place with a 14 percent share,
while Micromax was leading with 16.6 percent.
Samsung
had spoken out against the Counterpoint Research and maintained that
they were still the leaders in the Indian market. Samsung’s BD Park,
President & chief executive for south-west Asia, had said “there’s a
‘business motive behind release of such kind of data”, and said that,
“In India, it might be 1-2 percent up or down. Samsung’s market share
has doubled over the second place, so what is the meaning of comparing
or saying that the gap is narrowing.”
Now
it would seem that IDC report should come as a relief for Samsung, but
not entirely. It must be noted that each research firm tracks the market
using different parameters, looking at channels they have established
good contacts in, so numbers tend to vary from company to company, as we
have pointed out earlier.
According
to Jaideep Mehta, Vice President and General Manager – South Asia,
IDC, “While Samsung has held on to its leadership position in the
market, it is noteworthy that Micromax is growing faster…Given the
current growth rates, there is a real possibility of seeing vendor
positions change in the remaining quarters this year.” The report also
notes that among the top five vendors, Micromax (18 percent growth) and
Lava (54 percent growth) were the only ones to have outstripped the
market growth in the overall mobile business.
According
to IDC’s Q2 2014 numbers, India’s smartphone market saw an 84 percent
year-on-year growth. The report also notes that 71 percent of the market
continues to be on feature phones. The overall India mobile phone
market stood at 63.21 million units in Q2 2014, which was a 5 percent
increase over Q1 2014, out of which vendors shipped a total of 18.42
million smartphones.
The
report notes that the sub-$200 category is gaining in the market and
has a total contribution of 81 percent to the smartphone numbers. What
this means is that cheaper smartphones are outselling the premium
devices. The report added that Phablets (5.5 inch – 6.99 inch screen
size) had an overall 5.4 percent of the smartphone segment and more than
half of the phablets shipped were in the under-$250 price band and
Indian vendors are dominant in this segment.
Where the top five smartphone players are concerned, the list is as follows: Samsung, Micromax, Karbonn, Lava and then Motorola.
Samsung
has a 29 percent market share, and according to IDC high volume support
came in from the sub $150 products such as Galaxy Star pro and Galaxy S
Duos. Micromax had 18 percent of the market share and occupied the
second spot, while Karbonn had an 8 percent smartphone market share.
Lava was at fourth position with 6 percent smartphone market share and
according to the IDC report, it could soon topple Karbonn. Motorola is
number five on the list with a five percent market share and according
to the report, the company crossed 1 million mark within 5 months of its
launch.
Overall
it’s evident from the report that what is going to drive the Indian
smartphone market is the sub-$200 category. The report also notes
Samsung needs to work aggressively on its pricing since Micromax could
topple it in the coming quarters. We have already discussed how the
company can turn things around by fine-tuning some of its long-held
principles, and it’s important that the company does it as quickly as
the next quarter to not lose any more of its market share, but it’s
going to be a tough few months for the Korean smartphone giant.
It
will however be more interesting to see how Q3 and Q4 play out in the
Indian mobile and smartphone market with the entry of players like
Xiaomi, Oppo, in India. Xiaomi in particularly has managed to set off a
new craze around itself. We’ll have to wait and watch on how it reflects
in the next couple of quarters.
Posted by : Gizmeon
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