Reliance Retail, the parent company of Reliance Jio which rose to the top position in the Indian Data Cards market in less than two years, has witnessed 24% decline in shipments during Q1 2018 when compared to Q4 2017. However, Reliance Retail is still the leading Data Cards brand in the country with a market share of 73%, which is followed by Huawei with 18% share as the Chinese brand witnessed 9% sequential growth in terms of its unit shipments. Alcatel and ZTE are third and fourth on the list with 6% and 3% market share respectively. Research firm CMR stated that the Indian Data Cards marker witnessed 18% decline in the first quarter of 2018, compared to Q4 2017.
“With 1Q 2018 being the end of the financial year vendors were busy clearing the previous stock than focusing on the fresh imports. Also, Reliance Retail imported huge shipments in January which gradually decreased by the month of March for the same reason. This automatically, slowed down the market at the end of 1Q,” observed Shipra Sinha, Lead Analyst, CyberMedia Research.
Reliance Retail's top-selling model JioFi JMR541 captured the top spot with 49% market share, while Huawei's two popular models E3372H-607 and E5573Cs-609 helped it achieve positive growth in the quarter. Huawei and Alcatel collectively contributed 24% to the overall market share. The overall market was confined to just four vendors by the end of 1Q CY2018.
Reliance Retail’s fast-moving JioFi model JMR541 captured the top spot with 49% market share said CMR in a blog post.
Mukesh Ambani's venture Reliance Retail has seen a massive growth in the Indian Data Card market in the last 18 months, thanks to the excellent offers it introduced for the JioFi range of hotspot devices. In every quarter, the company has launched a new JioFi model with a different design but kept the specifications largely the same. Jio is now offering an exchange offer for the JioFi hotspot device, which could see the shipments grow again in the second quarter of 2018.
