By Telecom
Lead Team: The Indian mobile handset market closed 2011 with an annual growth
rate of 14.1 percent, achieving a total volume of 182 million handsets.
The Indian
handset market is likely to grow at a CAGR of 10.7 percent during 2011-2017,
with total handset volume expected to reach 335 million units by 2017.
The market
is currently led by Nokia with 37.2 percent market share. The other players
include Samsung 14.9 percent, G’Five 7.5 percent, and Micromax 5.8 percent.
Domestic and
Chinese handset makers, such as Micromax, G’Five, Karbonn, Spice, Maxx and
Lava, have a strong presence in the Indian market and have kept themselves
ahead of many of the big players due to their feature-rich, localized products
at much lower price points.
However,
with incumbent handset vendors (Nokia, Samsung) responding to the competitive
threat from these companies, the battle intensifies. Huawei and ZTE, the two
major Chinese players, have a presence in the Indian handset market through
white label handsets, but have yet to make their mark under their own brand
names,” said Aishwarya Singh, research analyst, ABI Research.
The
smartphone segment will be the fastest-growing segment and will continue to
outpace the overall handset market for the foreseeable future. With a CAGR of
40 percent, the smartphone segment is expected to reach 97.2 million units by
2017, accounting for 29 percent of the total handset volume.
Nearly every
major handset vendor has entered the smartphone segment, including domestic
players, who after remarkable success in the feature phone segment are now
eyeing the lucrative smartphone segment as well.
Competition
is going to intensify as more and more domestic vendors hit the market with
their range of smartphones; consequently the average selling price (ASP) for
smartphones is going to decline in coming years. The growth in the smartphone
segment will be largely driven by the penetration of 3G in India and further
catalyzed by falling ASPs,” said Jake Saunders, vice president of forecasting,
ABI Research.
