Handset vendors shipped 88 million mobile phones in Q4 2017 and 287 million in 2017 in India, according to CMR.

The Indian smartphone market fell 19 percent to 30 million units in Q4 2017.

The feature phone market achieved 36 percent sequential growth 62 percent year on year growth in Q4 2017.

Xiaomi is leading the Indian smartphone market ahead of Samsung.

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India 4G handset market — including smartphone and feature phones — grew 19 percent. 4G smartphones fell 17 percent, while 4G feature phones grew 546 percent.

The decline in 4G smartphone market is a surprise for 4G market because most of the 4G operators have enhanced their 4G presence across the country. Reliance Jio introduced the Rs 1,500 feature phone to attract first time users to its 4G network.

2G feature phones grew 5 percent thanks to growth of new customers in both rural and urban areas. 3G smartphones declined 71 percent. Most of the leading telecom operators are looking at exiting from 3G networks and focus on 4G mobile data in order to improve user experience.

“2017 was remarkable with certain pioneering mobile handset brands like HTC, Asus and Gionee, among others, seeing worrisome warning signals, while a new breed of exciting handset brands, like Comio and NUU Mobile, among others, came to the fore,” Prabhu Ram, Head – Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CMR, said.

“LYF’s JioPhone was major growth driver for Q4 2017. Its shipments grew more than five-fold in 4Q,” Narinder Kumar, analyst, CMR-IIG, said.

Narinder Kumar said pre-paid 4G entry level plans launched by telcos in Q1 2018 will further accelerate the adoption of 4G.