Micromax overtakes Samsung to lead Indian phone market

Indian devices vendor Micromax today said it has overtaken Samsung to become the number one phone vendor — based on shipments in the second quarter of 2014 — in India.

Micromax has quoted analyst report from CounterPoint Research.

In the Indian smartphone market, however, Micromax continues to be the second largest player.

Indian mobile phone market grew 2 percent annually. Smartphone segment rose 68 percent annually as demand for feature phones fell 16 percent annually in Q2 2014.

The report said majority of growth in smartphone segment during the quarter was driven by long tail of local and other Asian brands operating in this huge market.

Indian brands together captured more than two-thirds of the total mobile phone shipments and more than half of the smartphone shipments.

Overall phone market

In the overall phone market in Q2 – feature and smartphones — Micromax has 16.6 percent, Samsung 14.4 percent, Nokia 10.9 percent, Karbonn 9.5 percent and Lava International 5.6 percent market share.

Smartphone market

In the smartphone market in Q2, Samsung has 25.3 percent, Micromax 19.1 percent, Karbonn 5.9 percent, Motorola 4.3 percent and Nokia 4 percent share.

Feature phone market

In the Indian feature phone market, the market leader is Micromax with 15.2 percent, Nokia 14.7 percent, Karbonn 11.4 percent, Samsung 8.5 percent and Lava 7.3 percent.

 

This is for the first time that Micromax became the leading mobile phone supplier brand in India in Q2 2014 surpassing Samsung capturing 16.6 percent market share against 13 percent in Q1 2014.

Micromax has widened the gap with the third largest smartphone player as the race for the third place is up for grabs with fierce competition between Karbonn, Motorola, Celkon, Nokia, Apple and Sony.

Micromax became the leading feature phone supplier overtaking Nokia for the first time.

Globally, Micromax become the tenth largest handset brand.

Motorola, which could be part of Lenovo, has built a strong base in the high volume India smartphone market, entering the top five rankings surpassing Nokia, Apple, Sony and others.

The report said the phone market will see competition in the Indian smartphone space as Asian OEMs such as Xiaomi, Gionee, Huawei and Asus enter with premium-like hardware at an aggressive price-point attracting young tech-savvy but price-conscious urban buyers.