In less than a year, JioPhone has become the leading feature phone brand in India. As per various research firms, the JioPhone is the top-selling feature phone in India. But what about globally? Well, Reliance JioPhone is dominating the global feature phone market too. The JioPhone became the best-selling feature phone model in Q1 2018, which also awarded Reliance Jio, the best-selling feature phone brand in Q1 2018. On the whole, the Global Feature Phone Market grew 38% YoY in Q1 2018, driven by the strong shipments of JioPhone in India and of course, how can we forget HMD Global, which is now the second best-selling feature phone brand. As always, India alone contributed to almost 43% of the total feature phone shipments in Q1 2018, a report of Counterpoint stated.
Reliance Jio was followed by Nokia HMD, iTel, Samsung and Tecno. These brands together form the list of top five feature phone brands. HMD Global is already the leading feature phone brand in Europe, while Jio has a significant market share in India. Notably, Jio is selling the JioPhone only in India, while HMD Global is selling its smartphones across the globe.
Speaking about the individually performing devices, Reliance JioPhone secured 15% share, which is followed by HMD's Nokia 105 with 7% share. The last three models belong to itel: itel IT2180, itel IT2130 and itel IT5231. itel Mobiles has a strong retail footprint in India and other countries it operates.
While smartphones are becoming extremely popular these days, there's a huge opportunity in the feature phone market, and the numbers speak it all. Counterpoint Research firm states that the launch of 4G feature phones is helping OEMs drive feature phone upgrades and at the same time, it also drives 4G adoption for telecom operators.
Nokia has launched its own version of 4G feature phone in the form of Nokia 8110, but the device is yet to go on sale. If HMD Global brings the device onto sale at the earliest, we might see the Finnish company giving some competition to Reliance Jio. The top five feature phone list is still dominated by the incumbent 2G feature phones. This might change in the coming quarters, as more 4G feature phones become available in the market, with Nokia HMD launching a 4G version of its 3310 model and the newly launched 8110 models. Other feature phone OEMs are also expected to follow the trend by launching such devices, predicts Counterpoint.
