Smartphone shipments are soaring in India every quarter and so is the 3G acceptance in the country. With telecom operators entering price wars for 3G services, more and more people are moving towards adoption of 3G but still 2G rules the roost in the country. As per the latest report published by Cyber Media Research, 68.3 percent of the total smartphones shipped in the country in the Q1 2014 were 3G enabled devices.
With smartphones touching lower price points and companies trying to venture into feature phone territory with entry-level smartphones loaded with features, the share of 3G enabled devices is expected to be on the rise in future. In the first quarter of 2014, a total of 14.5 million smartphones were shipped in the country which is a big 219.4 percent increase over the similar period last year.
The Quarter on Quarter increase was 1.9 percent which is good enough seeing the fact the last quarter of 2013 played host a slew of important festivals in India which witness huge spendings by the Indians. The Q4 usually is the strongest in the country in terms of electronic sales and surpassing that is surely a good thing. Talking about the shares of various manufacturers in the country, Samsung emerged as the number 1 smartphone brand in India for Q1 2014 with a 43.2 percent share of the market. It was followed by Micromax which was a far second with a 17.5 percent share and Karbonn's share was 5.2 percent.
Samsung has emerged as the number 1 mobile manufacturer in India (including feature phones) ahead of Nokia with a 20.3 percent share against the 16.16 percent share in the previous quarter. Karbonn's market share has dwindled by almost half (5.2%) when compared to the previous quarter (11.1%).
Talking about the feature phones, their sales dipped to 44.4 million in the Q1 2014 which is a decrease of 6.5 percent year on year and 21.1 percent over the last quarter. The total phone shipments in the country stood at 58.9 million units which is down by 16.4 percent over the last quarter but they increased by 8.9 percent over the last year. Smartphones are touching lower price points with passage of time and the trend is expected to continue in the Indian market dominated by feature phones.
