India has become the world’s third largest telecom market for 4G LTE smartphones – by overtaking Japan, South Korea and all European countries.

Samsung, Lenovo and Micromax are outperforming, while Apple, Huawei and LG are struggling, said Strategy Analytics recently.

Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone India, BSNL, Telenor and Reliance Jio Infocomm are the key telecom operators in the Indian 4G services market.

Global LTE handset shipments grew 33 percent in Q1 2016 to 280 million units. China surpassed 100 million LTE handset shipment threshold for three quarters in a row, shipping a strong number of LTE shipments during the quarter, said Strategy Analysts.

A recent report on 4G smartphone growth prepared by Analysys Mason indicates strong growth for the global 4G smartphone market.

Strategy Analysts says China remained the world’s biggest 4G handset market for seven quarters in a row, due to strong product promotions from local and foreign vendors. China Mobile and China Telecom are in the process of expanding their 4G coverage, though they have slashed their Capex (capital expenditure) for telecom infrastructure.

The US kept no.2 position in the global 4G smartphone market.

Meanwhile, LTE-Advanced handset sales will grow 64 percent in 2016. The 4.5G handset category is growing significantly faster than average. China, the US and India will be among the world’s largest LTE-A markets in the coming years.

India smartphone shipments grew 16 percent in Q1 2016, though it declined sequentially 14 percent, said Strategy Analytics.

Samsung and Micromax retained the top two positions, while Intex regained the third spot from Lenovo – Motorola. Most of the vendors, apart from the top tier ones, witnessed an annual decline in the smartphone segment, according to Strategy Analytics.

A recent IDC report said Samsung has 26.6 percent share in the Indian smartphone market, while Micromax has 12.6 percent, Intex Technologies 9.2 percent, Lenovo 8.2 percent and Reliance Jio has 7.1 percent.

Strategy Analytics said global smartphone shipments fell 3 percent to reach 335 million units in Q1 2016. It is the first time ever in history the global smartphone market has shrunk on an annualized basis. Huawei, OPPO and Vivo outperformed in the quarter, while Apple and Lenovo-Motorola slumped, said Strategy Analytics.

Vina Krishnan
[email protected]