India beats US to become the second largest smartphone market

According to Counterpoint Research, India has surpassed the U.S to become the second largets smartphone market in the world. The country's active unique smartphone user base has increased to more than 220 million by the end of 2015.

Smartphone shipments in India saw year-on-year increase of 15 percent during Q4 2014, with and overall growth for the year at 23 percent crossing 100 million units milestone.

The report said that more than 40% of the mobile phones shipped were smartphones, with LTE-enabled handsets in the majority for the first time. Nearly half of the mobile phones sold in the country were assembled in India driving the governments "Make in India" initiative.  

More than twenty international and local brands are now assembling their phones in India, giving a further boost to the Make in India' initiative. The strong growth of smartphone sales in India came from online retail,  with almost one in three smartphone that were sold was online.

Samsung was the number on manufacture in the country with a market share of 28.6 percent in the smartphone segment for Q4 2015. Micromax was second with market share of 14.2 percent. Micromax's sub-brand YU, registered sales of 2 million units in 2015. Lenovo (including Motorola's sales figures) was the third largest smartphone brand, with market share of 11 percent in Q4 2015. Intex and Lave made it to the top five capturing 9.6 percent and 6.8 percent of the market.

In terms of the total market (smartphones and feature phones), Samsung again with a market share of 23.6 percent, followed by Micromax (13.7 percent), Intex (13 percent), Lava (12.6 percent) and Lenovo (4.8 percent).

The report said that the year 2016 is going to be highly competitive, as well established brands in the country will face stiff competition from the likes of LeECO, vivo, Coolpad and meizu.

Via | Source